Mad Max
12-29-2008, 04:08 PM
1989 brought us a lot of good movies. Batman, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Licence to Kill, Ghostbusters 2 and the movie I want to talk about, Tango and Cash.
This was one of the more absurd buddy cop/action movies of the 80s. We had Stallone as an invincible yuppie cop teamed with Kurt Russel as a Riggs(That's Mel Gibson's character in lethal Weapon if you didn't already know) ripp-off taking on Jack Palance as an evil drug lord.
The dialogue is nuts. Stallone and Russel never take anything seriously and come up with some of the best lines imaginable. They come off as if they couldn't be having more fun while making this movie. Stallone manages to play the ultimate dork and it fits oh so well. The movie also seems to transcend genres. Starting as a frame-up cop movies, moving into a jail then jail escape movie, then to a bizarre comedy, back into a buddy cop movie before finally becoming an all out action movie.
If that sounds nuts to you that's because it is and it's all the better because of it. Plot holes, cliches, poor continuity, inhuman feats...this has it all and it seemingly revels in it thus making the movie even better. Sure, some people will try to tell you this is a Lethal Weapon ripp-off, or a brainless mess and they'd be right but that's actually part of the appeal and it cannot be beat when it comes to pure entertainment.
Top it off with a soundtrack by Harold Faltermeyer(Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, The Running Man) and you've got a winning movie.
This was one of the more absurd buddy cop/action movies of the 80s. We had Stallone as an invincible yuppie cop teamed with Kurt Russel as a Riggs(That's Mel Gibson's character in lethal Weapon if you didn't already know) ripp-off taking on Jack Palance as an evil drug lord.
The dialogue is nuts. Stallone and Russel never take anything seriously and come up with some of the best lines imaginable. They come off as if they couldn't be having more fun while making this movie. Stallone manages to play the ultimate dork and it fits oh so well. The movie also seems to transcend genres. Starting as a frame-up cop movies, moving into a jail then jail escape movie, then to a bizarre comedy, back into a buddy cop movie before finally becoming an all out action movie.
If that sounds nuts to you that's because it is and it's all the better because of it. Plot holes, cliches, poor continuity, inhuman feats...this has it all and it seemingly revels in it thus making the movie even better. Sure, some people will try to tell you this is a Lethal Weapon ripp-off, or a brainless mess and they'd be right but that's actually part of the appeal and it cannot be beat when it comes to pure entertainment.
Top it off with a soundtrack by Harold Faltermeyer(Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, The Running Man) and you've got a winning movie.