Sylvester Stallone still looks like a one-punch performer in this feeble dud about two New York cops (Sly and Billy Dee Williams) assigned to track down an international terrorist (Rutger Hauer) in Manhattan. Stallone has whittled his thug shtick down to one vacant expression with moronic diction to match. "Dat," Stallone triumphantly tells his partner, "is dem standing over dere." Not that David Shaber's script provides many lines better dan dat. "Goddammit," Stallone mumbles after seeing Hauer murder a woman hostage in cold blood, "he killed her." Lindsay Wagner, as Stallone's ex-wife, and Persis Khambatta, as Hauer's sultry accomplice, are both wasted in throwaway roles. Worse, Shaber and director Bruce Malmuth have made Hauer the screen's first designer terrorist, a gorgeous, finely tailored Teutonic hunk whose passion for bombing crowded urban areas is matched only by his taste for discos. Not even a desperation dip in the East River to escape his pursuers can dampen Hauer's Gentlemen's Quarterly flash. He emerges for a final showdown with his white crewneck sweater totally dry. The film, however, remains thoroughly wet. (R)
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