Nighthawks

At the height of his box office power in 1981, Sylvester Stallone starred in a gritty, action packed terrorist thriller, NIGHTHAWKS.

Stallone is NYC cop DaSilva, by the book, tough and principled. He and his beat partner Matthew Fox (Billy Dee Williams) are selected to join an elite anti-terrorist squad led by tough Englishman Peter Hartman (Nigel Davenport in a strong performance).

The squad is on high alert as international warnings show that one of the worlds most diabolical terrorists, Wulfgar, is planning an attack on the United Nations and/or NYC.

Rutger Hauer is terrific as Wulfgar, bringing plenty of menace and believable bad-assery (if that's not a word, it should be) to the role.

Hot off the first Star Trek film in 1979, Persis Khambatta plays Wulfgar's right hand evil doer Shakka Holland.

Stallone is very good throughout, battling the line between personal freedoms and fighting terrorism. He and WIlliams play very well off each other and there are plenty of great action sequences to keep the film moving along at a quick pace.

Poor Lindsey Wagner (The Bionic Woman) is wasted in a small role that seems to serve only as foreshadowing for the final act and the music score by Keith Emerson has NOT aged well, but overall, NIGHTHAWKS holds up pretty well, delivers plenty of action and suspense and gets a B.