Review of Tango & Cash (1989) by Corey B — 08 Aug 2010

As the 80s turned into the 90s, the action hero was slowly beginning to die on his ass. But Lethal Weapon was still churning out sequels so someone thought they'd try and repeat the formula with the slightly less charismatic combo on Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell.

Tango & Cash are hardly the loveable duo that Riggs and Murtaugh are, but if you are able to check your brain at the door then their action romp isn't devoid of entertainment. Both Sly and Kurt are old hands at this sort of thing. They know what their audience wants and the don't really let you down.

The plot could be culled from any number of Van Damme movies, bad guy sets up cops to get them out of the way, cops reek explosive revenge, throw in Teri Hatcher, roll credits.

The script is typically dumb but the action takes in the requisite number of explosions and martial arts scenes. Jack Palance is on his usual fine form as the big bad. The film almost slips into James Bond territory with a highly implausible and out of scene moment in a genius inventors workshop and the big finale looks a little cheap, a bit like you're watching a bigger version of Robot Wars.

But Kurt and Sly do have a decent amount of chemistry together as the mismatched cops which makes the whole thing mind numbingly entertaining if not the franchise starter it was clearly intended to be.