Tango & Cash

Tango & Cash (1989)

Runtime: 104 minutes

Directed by: Andrey Konchalovskiy

Starring: Sly Stallone, Kurt Russell (no relation, I swear), Jack Palance, Teri Hatcher

From: Warner Brothers

First off, I have to mention that my November movie plans have changed already. The movie that I was going to review next… I’ll wait for that to either hit the dollar theatre joints or I’ll just wait for it to come on DVD. I won’t get into why; it’s just better that way. The next movie I’ll review will be in a genre I haven’t really talked about on here before: the western. This movie, though, is an action/comedy buddy movie, but with an emphasis on the humor.

Tango & Cash is a movie I’ve known about for years but I didn’t feel like watching until a few minutes ago when I bought the DVD used. I watched it and was amused by it, even though it was in widescreen and not anamorphic. Basically, on one of those old TV’s it just looks bad and the black bars dominate things. Then it was released on Blu-Ray and as of course that is anamorphic, things are greatly improved. However, I didn’t rush out and buy it, as I wanted to save my money and there were more important things to purchase. One day, though, at Target it was on sale for real cheap so I finally got the Blu-Ray and last month I watched it.

This is a movie that had a troubled history (the director listed here did most of it, but due to the usual “creative differences”, was replaced) and there were squabbling about how it should turn out… while it is evident while watching it that there are times where things are rushed or just doesn’t seem quite right, somehow the movie works with its goofiness, charm, and near-constant one-liners, something that I usually would detest but for some reason it happens to work with this film.

The plot is that Stallone is Ray Tango, a prim and proper cop who dresses in suits and often checks his stocks. Russell is Gabe Cash, a gruff cop who enjoys wearing blue jeans. They both on their own go after drug dealers. Yves Perret (Palance, overacting in a delicious manner) is a major drug dealer and he’s upset at both cops for ruining his business. So he comes up with quite the plan. Instead of killing them and making them martyrs, they get set up to look like dirty cops that killed an FBI agent, necessitating them going to jail. That’s exactly what happens and it takes some help, but they escape and despite their many differences they have to work together to try and bring him down. Sly’s lady friend Kiki (Hatcher) gets involved too.

As I mentioned, the movie is more comedy than action, although the action you do see is entertaining and not poorly done. Some familiar faces from 80 genre movies appear, such as James Hong, Brion James, and the unique-looking Robert Z’Dar, possessor of a one of a kind face. The plot moves along pretty quickly. There’s a great-looking proto-SUV assault vehicle that gets used by the heroes, to great effect. And, the one-liners come often. If you don’t like that sort of thing, the movie may not be for you. Then again, that sort of thing isn’t always for me either and yet whether it be due to the stars or because the majority of them are actually amusing, it worked for me. So, if you can see it in Blu-Ray and you enjoy action comedies with the emphasis on the latter, check this out.

I'll be back Monday night with a new review.