Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Jack Palance, Teri Hatcher
Running Time: 104 minutes
Synopsis: In Los Angeles, Lieutenants Ray Tango (Sylvester Stallone) and Gabe Cash (Kurt Russell) are two highly effective cops working in different precincts. The sophisticated Tango makes his money on the stock market and wears three-piece suits, while Cash is more the scruffy cowboy type. Crime boss Perret (Jack Palance) decides that the two officers are causing too much damage to his business and frames them for murder. Tango and Cash end up in prison and have to plot an escape in order to clear their names, while Cash also finds time for a romance with Tango's sister Kiki (Teri Hatcher).
What Works Well: Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell establish a quick rapport and easily bounce off each other in an enjoyable display of never-too-serious but still muscular buddy camaraderie. Stallone is happy to mock his screen persona, and a constant stream of jibes and zingers generates chuckles. The prison scenes carry the added sweaty threat of cops placed in the company of convicts.
What Does Not Work As Well: A non-existent plot attempts to survive by hibernating between action set-pieces. The villains are shortchanged, with Jack Palance wasted into delivering a few cartoonish monologues while coddling mice, leaving the bulk of the antagonist work to his chief henchman Requin (Brion James). Kiki is (of course) an exotic dancer, thereby justifying bump-and-grind scenery as a backdrop to an already unnecessary romantic side-quest. The climax is a mess of colliding hardware straight from the imagination of a five year old child playing with toy trucks, leading to limp final confrontations with the bad guys.
Key Quote:
First police officer (shouting at Tango): I want your badge, I want your weapon, I want your ass, who the fuck do you think you are?
Second police officer: He thinks he's Rambo.
Tango: Rambo...is a pussy.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We welcome reader comments about this post.