Post by Fireflyfanuk on Jan 6, 2005 14:00:08 GMT -5
TITLE: Cohen and Tate
YEAR: 1989
CHARACTER:Tate
REVIEWD BY: Holly Q
BRIEF PLOT OUTLINE:
A boy kidnapped by two mismatched hitmen puts them at each other's throats while being driven to their employers, possibly to be killed. Cohen, an older professional becomes increasingly irritated with his partner Tate, a brutish killer, when their prisoner uses unnatural guile and resourcefulness to play them off against each other.
Review
"Cohen & Tate" is one of those underrated films that rarely gets the respect it deserves - except, perhaps, on sites like imdb.com, where fans of the movie defend it from those who blast it for being pointless and boring, "all talk and no action."
The film does spend far more time on talk than action; it's a dialogue and character driven story that takes place almost entirely in a car, watching the characters through the front windshield. It's not set in real time (the drive lasts an entire night), but it sometimes feels as if it is - and that's not a bad thing.
The film, for all intents and purposes, has only three characters: the title characters, played by Roy Schieder and Adam Baldwin, respectively, and a ten-year-old boy named Travis, played by Harley Cross. It's "good-hitman bad-hitman," to be very basic, with Cohen on the tired, aging, and increasingly sypathetic side, and Tate on the younger, thoroughly psychotic side.
After a violent opening scene, Travis (an unwitting witness to an undescribed mob crime) is taken by car to... well, exactly where he's being taken to isn't the story. The story is the journey, and one that Cohen and Tate wrongly assume will be an easy one. Travis (and the viewer) spends time watching them and getting a sense of who these men are, and the kid starts figuring out how to survive (they won't kill
him outright, since they have strict orders not to, but his fate once he's delivered doesn't look at all promising). He attempts to drive his captors from mere contempt for each other to paranoia and outright hatred.
There are tiny glimpses of life outside of that car, mostly pertaining to Cohen, but for the most part, all you see and all you know about these characters is contained, dictated by Travis's point-of-view.
I won't give away how the story pans out, but don't go into it
expecting it to take a heartwarming turn, or expecting that the whole film (while overall really very violent) will be as guns blazing as the first five minutes.
I would, and do, recommend "Cohen and Tate" to anyone. For fans of Adam Baldwin who are looking to add to their video collection with some of his more obscure titles but don't know where to start, this is a very good place.
ADAM'S PERFORMANCE: The character of Tate is truly irredeemable, and is played that way, flawlessly. Great performance, and lots and lots of screen time.
RATEING:
/5
YEAR: 1989
CHARACTER:Tate
REVIEWD BY: Holly Q
BRIEF PLOT OUTLINE:
A boy kidnapped by two mismatched hitmen puts them at each other's throats while being driven to their employers, possibly to be killed. Cohen, an older professional becomes increasingly irritated with his partner Tate, a brutish killer, when their prisoner uses unnatural guile and resourcefulness to play them off against each other.
Review
"Cohen & Tate" is one of those underrated films that rarely gets the respect it deserves - except, perhaps, on sites like imdb.com, where fans of the movie defend it from those who blast it for being pointless and boring, "all talk and no action."
The film does spend far more time on talk than action; it's a dialogue and character driven story that takes place almost entirely in a car, watching the characters through the front windshield. It's not set in real time (the drive lasts an entire night), but it sometimes feels as if it is - and that's not a bad thing.
The film, for all intents and purposes, has only three characters: the title characters, played by Roy Schieder and Adam Baldwin, respectively, and a ten-year-old boy named Travis, played by Harley Cross. It's "good-hitman bad-hitman," to be very basic, with Cohen on the tired, aging, and increasingly sypathetic side, and Tate on the younger, thoroughly psychotic side.
After a violent opening scene, Travis (an unwitting witness to an undescribed mob crime) is taken by car to... well, exactly where he's being taken to isn't the story. The story is the journey, and one that Cohen and Tate wrongly assume will be an easy one. Travis (and the viewer) spends time watching them and getting a sense of who these men are, and the kid starts figuring out how to survive (they won't kill
him outright, since they have strict orders not to, but his fate once he's delivered doesn't look at all promising). He attempts to drive his captors from mere contempt for each other to paranoia and outright hatred.
There are tiny glimpses of life outside of that car, mostly pertaining to Cohen, but for the most part, all you see and all you know about these characters is contained, dictated by Travis's point-of-view.
I won't give away how the story pans out, but don't go into it
expecting it to take a heartwarming turn, or expecting that the whole film (while overall really very violent) will be as guns blazing as the first five minutes.
I would, and do, recommend "Cohen and Tate" to anyone. For fans of Adam Baldwin who are looking to add to their video collection with some of his more obscure titles but don't know where to start, this is a very good place.
ADAM'S PERFORMANCE: The character of Tate is truly irredeemable, and is played that way, flawlessly. Great performance, and lots and lots of screen time.
RATEING:
/5