| Tango & Cash | |
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Promotional poster |
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| Directed by | Andrei Konchalovsky Albert Magnoli |
| Produced by | Peter Guber Jon Peters Peter MacDonald |
| Written by | Randy Feldman |
| Starring | Sylvester Stallone Kurt Russell Jack Palance Teri Hatcher Brion James |
| Music by | Harold Faltermeyer |
| Cinematography | Donald E. Thorin |
| Editing by | Hubert C. de la Bouillerie Robert A. Ferretti |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | December 22, 1989 |
| Running time | 104 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $55 million [1] |
| Box office | $63,408,614 (US) [1] |
Tango & Cash is a 1989 American buddy cop film starring Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Jack Palance and Teri Hatcher. It was directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, although Albert Magnoli took over in the later stages of filming.[2]
The film describes the struggle of two rival LAPD Narcotics Detectives Ray Tango and Gabriel Cash, who are forced to work together after criminal mastermind, Yves Perret, frames them for murder.
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The film begins as Ray Tango drives a late-model Cadillac convertible in pursuit of a tanker truck. His hair is neatly styled and he is dressed in a three-piece suit. He cleverly stops the truck but the LA County authorities find only gasoline in the tank. Tango shoots the tank and cocaine pours out of the bullet hole. Meanwhile, Gabriel Cash arrives at his apartment driving an old Corvette. His hair is long and shaggy and he is dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and a waist-length jacket. He is shot by an intruder, but is protected by a bullet-proof vest and captures the shooter in a parking garage after a car chase. At the Police Station, Cash forces the shooter to tell him about a deal scheduled to take place that night.
However, the "deal" is really a plan by Yves Perret to frame Tango and Cash for murder. Tango and Cash separately go to an empty building, preceded by a man named Requin, Perret's lead henchman. After surprising each other, the two Detectives find a dead man with audio equipment hidden under his clothing and a team of FBI Agents swarms in. Agent Wyler finds Cash's pistol on the floor and arrests both Cash and Tango.
At their murder trial, the Detectives are incriminated by an audio tape, secretly given to Wyler by Requin and verified in court by an audio expert, which appears to reveal them shooting the FBI Agent after discussing a drug purchase. They plead no contest to a lesser charge in exchange for reduced sentences in a minimum-security prison, but are transported to a maximum-security prison to be housed with many of the criminals they arrested in the past.
Once in prison, Tango and Cash are rousted from their bunks and tortured by Requin and a gang of prisoners until Matt Sokowski, the assistant warden, rescues them. Sokowski recommends that they escape and provides them with a plan, but Tango refuses to go along with it. When Cash tries to escape, he finds Sokowski murdered and is attacked by prisoners. Tango rescues him and the two of them escape. Once outside the prison walls, Tango tells Cash if he needs to contact him, to go to a dance club called Cleopatra's and ask for a woman named Katherine. They then go separate ways.
The Detectives then visit the witnesses who framed them in court. Wyler admits to Tango that Requin was in charge of the setup, and Cash discovers that the audio expert made the incriminating tape himself. Cash finds Katherine at Cleopatra's. Kathrine helps Cash escape the night club as Police move in on him. Later that night, Cash learns that Katherine is Tango's sister. As Tango arrives and finds them in a compromising position (Katherine was massaging Cash, but from Tango's point of view it looked like they were having sex). Tango and Cash are met at Katherine's house by Tango's Commanding Officer, Schroeder, who gives them Requin's address and tells them they have 24 hours to find out who Requin works for. Tango and Cash apprehend Requin and trick him into telling them Perret's name. Armed with a high-tech assault vehicle, loaned to them by Cash's weapons expert friend Owen, they drive to Perret's headquarters, crash through the outer fence, destroy a fleet of armed trucks, hijack two heavy vehicles, crash into the main building and kill several guards.
At this point, Perret, who has kidnapped Katherine, starts a timer that will trigger the building's automatic self-destruct procedure. After killing Perret's core security personnel, Tango and Cash are confronted by Requin, who is holding Katherine at knifepoint but throws her aside to fight the Detectives hand-to-hand with the help of another henchman. The Detectives defeat the two henchmen and when Perret appears, holding a gun to Katherine's head, they kill him and leave with Katherine just before the building explodes. Afterward, they joke half-seriously about Cash's desire to date Katherine. The film ends with a newspaper headline celebrating their vindication.
The soundtrack was never released, as the songs were already released on the artists' albums.
The film score, which was composed by Harold Faltermeyer, was released for the first time on January 30, 2007 by La-La Land Records (LLLCD 1052) in 3000 Limited Sets.
The film received a negative review in The New York Times, that criticized the plot, the screenplay, and the acting.[3] [4] [5] It maintains a 39% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Tango & Cash was also given three 1989 Golden Raspberry Awards nominations for Worst Actor (Sylvester Stallone), Worst Supporting Actress (Kurt Russell in drag) and Worst Screenplay, but did not win. It has since become a cult classic amongst action movie fans.
Tango & Cash was a box office and VHS success.[6] [7]
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