Ray Tango (Sylvester Stallone) and Gabriel Cash (Kurt Russell) are L.A’s finest cops who are determined to compete and get as much glory and ‘old fashioned action’ as Tango points out to his boss. However, gang lord Yves Perret (Jack Palance, CITY SLICKERS) is determined to put them behind bars so that he can continue to run his mega-crime business, so he devises an elaborate framing to get them into the worst prison ever.
However, Tango & Cash didn’t become so for being pacifist – and the two team up to get themselves out of it. However, things get a little more conflicted when Cash takes a shine to Tango’s younger sister Katherine (Teri Hatcher, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, in one of her early roles) amidst the action….
Described once by Kurt Russell in a tribute to Stallone as a ‘leave your brains at the door’ yarn, TANGO & CASH is a beer-and-curry-on-a-Saturday-night special, brainless at times but compensates for the spectacular action (although the opening scene is a direct homage to Jackie Chan’s POLICE STORY). Brion (BLADE RUNNER, 48 HRS) James’ faux-Cockney henchman (it has to rank as one of the worst English accents ever attempted by an American actor in history, look we forgive Costner as Robin Hood as he is good as the bow-man hero of Sherwood) is suitably villainous nonetheless.
Hatcher isn’t given much to do, but comes across as the token female in the film, but does have a couple of good lines here and there.