Off Topic: High spirits: the most precarious of cinematic genres

I don't know if you've seen Hudson Hawk. Not many people have. And those that have are probably drawn to it because they've heard that it's terrible. Not so. Or at least, that's not the whole story. The truth is that Hudson Hawk belongs to the most cursed of cinematic genres, albeit one you never saw getting its own aisle in Blockbusters and one you never see as a heading on Netflix. It's a genre I have come to call: high spirits.

Hudson Hawk is a Bruce Willis action-comedy from the early 1990s. Now, there are three warning signs in that sentence. In escalating order of seriousness here we go: Bruce Willis. Early 1990s. Action-comedy.

Bruce Willis is a warning because he's either brilliant or terrible. You either get Die Hard or that movie where he's part of the yacht police. Early 1990s? A warning because anything could happen back then. Anything! Warren Beatty bringing a 1930s cartoon strip back to life? No problem. (Actually I rather liked it.) A movie in which Brad Pitt falls in love with a drawing? Absolutely! (Never saw it; may have the plot wrong.) John Travolta and a baby that talks to the audience? (Willis again! See what I mean?)