Tango & Cash (1989) Review

 

Tango & Cash (1989)

Tango & Cash follows two cops who are framed for murder, only to escape prison and seek the ones responsible for their incarceration. 

Another Stallone movie!? Of course! Before I (sarcastically but truthfully) get into why I love this movie, I should get just how mediocre it is out of the way first. This is, plain and simple, your stereotypical, run of the mill, bang-bang, shoot-em-up, buddy cop thriller. It checks every box from overdone explosions, two guys that dislike each other but overcome the odds in an oddly homoerotic way, and don’t even get me started on the nameless drug kingpin who seems ripped right out of an ‘Idiots Guide to being a Villain’. Genuinely, there’s nothing we haven’t seen before (except for maybe Kurt Russel in drag). 

The reason it succeeds, and succeeds it does, is solely on the backs Tango (Stallone) and Cash (Russell). These two big ego, polar opposites (in real life and on the screen) have so much undeniable chemistry that they are able to turn a rather dull story and give it life with shitloads of hilarious energy. Konchalovsky knew exactly what he was doing with this film because his two boxes to check were get these two on camera and just start filming because it truly feels like two veteran action stars going off the cuff and improvising their way to thrilling excellence. 

This buddy-cop pairing boasts a solid cast starring Robert Z’Dar (check out the chin on that guy!), Brion James, Jack Palace, Teri Hatcher, and of course, Kurt Russell and Sly Stallone. The pairing of two of the biggest action stars of the 80s & 90s in Stallone and Russell is cheesy, action movie gold. The way they sarcastically rib and bounce off one another is dynamite and it elevates a rather cookie cutter type of buddy cop film, to an almost legendary status (though I can’t tell if it’s in a good or bad way). 

Tango & Cash, directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, is genuinely as cliche as it gets but like so many before it and so many to follow it, just turn off that critical thinking part of your brain because this is endless fun on the backs of Russell and Stallone, who create the ultimate buddy cop pairing. 

7.7/10