Ladyhawke (1985)

A pseudo-historical fantasy film set in that strangely nonspecific period of European medieval history so beloved by American filmmakers - other movies of this type include The Court Jester (1956), The Princess Bride (1987) and The 13th Warrior (1999).

At the beginning of the film it appears that Matthew "Ferris Bueller" Broderick is the star, playing thief-on-the-run Phillipe Gaston, but after he meets up with Rutger "tears in the rain" Hauer's former-captain-of-the-guard-now-on-the-run Etienne Navarre it becomes clear that Hauer is the hero and Broderick merely the sidekick. A bit like when Blake meets Avon in Space Fall.

At two hours long the film is annoyingly paced - when there's action it is good, but it could hardly be described as being tightly edited since it felt to me like nearly every scene goes on for just a bit longer than it needed to, with the result that the middle hour drags.

Leo McKern (taking time off from being Rumpole in between seasons three and four) turns up partway through as a disgraced priest/monk who knows Navarre's backstory, and McKern has hefty chunks of the purest exposition to deliver to Gaston, and via him to us viewers.

The film has by this point cleverly shown Gaston (and us) enough of what is going on to get partially ahead of the explanation - that Navarre is cursed to be a manny by day and a wolf by night, while his lover Isabeau is a hawk by day and Michelle Pfeiffer by night - so the exposition is just filling in any blank spaces (or allowing anyone having missed bits due to important cat sleeps to catch up), as well as giving the backstory of how they got cursed.

The rest of the film is just Navarre getting his revenge and lifting the curse, and the final half hour is some genuinely good '80s action. The ending sees the blonde, blue-eyed couple reunited - a proper Hollywood happy ending of the old school.

The soundtrack is a mix of vaguely period-appropriate musical cues and properly mid-80s synthesizer prog rock cheese. Somehow it succeeds in spite of that combination.

Verdict: It's better than Hawk the Slayer, but not as good as Krull.