- Title: Tango & Cash
- IMDb: link
Throwback Thursday takes us back to the last film of the 1980s. Tango & Cash is the ridiculous, balls-to-wall, over-the-top pairing of Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell as rival super cops forced to work together after they are framed for murder. Stallone stars as the upscale Ray Tango while Russell’s Gabe Cash is more working man. Without realizing it, both men have been cutting into the business of Los Angeles’ hidden kingpin Yves Perret (Jack Palance in full scene-chewing mode) who frames the super-cops for murder, gets them relocated to a different prison than they were sentenced, and attempts to have them killed behind bars.
The film was plagued by production issues including multiple script revisions and the firing of director Andrey Konchalovskiy. The last film to be released in 1989, Tango & Cash is a glorious homage to the action movies of the decade. Dumb as rocks, with a script full of plot holes, it nevertheless entertains. Teri Hatcher, who makes use of her dance background as Tango’s younger sister, Brion James, James Hong, Marc Alaimo, and Michael J. Pollard, as Cash’s goofy weaponsmith, round out the cast.
After breaking out of prison to clear their names, the movie climaxes in an attack on Perret’s compound making use of an armored RV and construction equipment. Like much of the film, the sequence is one big action set showing of the skills of the odd couple pairing of Tango and Cash. The film earns it’s R-rating more for language and brief nudity than to the mostly bloodless violence as much of the movie’s action is tongue-in-cheek (at least until the finale). Tango & Cash is, at best, a guilty pleasure, but for those of a certain age and/or temperament the pairing of Stallone and Russell creates some B-movie magic that helps hide many of the movie’s other flaws. The movie has been released several times on Blu-ray and DVD and is available for streaming on multiple services.
