Hawks (1988)

The movie opens with Deckermensky (Anthony Edwards) taking a test drive in a SAAB in England.  His aggressive driving is soon a cause for concern to the salesman (Geoffrey Palmer), especially when Decker detours into a quarry.  Decker orders the salesman out of the car and then races toward a cliff edge.  He hits the brakes and skids to a stop only feet from his doom.

Bancroft (Timothy Dalton) is a cancer patient in a UK hospital.  He sees that his new roommate, Decker, is asleep.  Bancroft is both charming and obnoxious, leaning more toward the obnoxious.  When Decker is awake, Bancroft is a source of both the worst of the news and also a voice to fight against the inevitable.  He is particularly harsh when Decker talks suicide.  Bancroft tells a tale of his youth when he and a band of friends called themselves the Hawks.  They were merry pranksters who sought to find humor in everything.  He recruits Decker and the pair are soon inseparable.  Bancroft decides it is time to pursue a dream that Decker mention: go to a high-end brothel in Amsterdam!  To do so, they steal an ambulance.

Elsewhere, Hazel (Janet McTeer) is having a breakdown.  She is pregnant thanks to an affair with a Dutch tourist.  Her friend, Maureen (Camille Coduri), convinces her to let the father know.  The pair set out for the Netherlands.  Sadly, Maureen's car breaks down, but an ambulance stops to assist.

The movie swings from humor to tragedy.  Cancer patients are a strange choice for the main characters of a comedy.  The strangest part was that Decker is an American Football player who happened to be in Europe for a tour.  Why has he remained in England for treatment rather than return to the US?  His parents visit but he declines to return with them.  Why?  Then there is the oddity that Bancroft is obsessed with the wife who left him in his hour of need.

Made between Dalton's two appearances as James Bond, this is huge departure from that role.  That he dons a clown nose and has rainbow hair adds to the craziness.  It has its moments, but the downs outweigh the ups.  Just okay.