Cohen And Tate (1988)......came from writer-director Eric Red, who caught everyone's attention with simple, primal and brutal thrillers like "Near Dark", "The Hitcher" and "Body Parts"....
What you got with Red was a stripped down, fast, furious and nasty little rollercoaster ride.....
But don't get your hopes up for any snappy, pop culture-infused dialogue, a la Tarantino. Red had no talent in that area, but he could sure spin a yarn that kept you glued to your seat.
Taking his cue from the template set down by O'Henry in the short story, "The Ransom Of Red Chief" it's that well worn tale of kidnappers undone by their wily hostage.
Cohen (Roy Scheider), a world weary hitman takes on the task of wiping out a family under witness protection and spiriting away their young son (Harley Cross) for questioning by the gang bosses.
(Why the kingpins in charge would have the slightest interest in keeping this kid alive is something we're not supposed to think about..)
Unfortunately for Cohen, he's been forced to take along Tate (Adam Baldwin) as a partner-in-massacre, a young, psychotic hothead with a short fuse and the attention span of the bugs that splatter on their car windshield. Cohen deeply loathes him, which will energize the remainder of the film.
After shotgunning the witness protected parents (a grisly, horrific scene), our squabbling assassins hit the highway for a long night's road trip with their terrified 10 year old hostage in the back seat.
As scared as he is, the wily tyke, in ways both obvious and sly, takes full advantage of the toxic dynamic between the two killers, playing them off against each other. Does more violence erupt? Need you ask?
And that's the whole movie for you right there, coming in at a lean mean 86 minutes with not a wasted moment or line of dialogue in it.
Our only real quibble here is the use of Harley Cross, a not especially talented generic kind of child actor, with little or no range. The film forces you take it on faith that he's as clever as the plot twists make him out to be.......there's nothing in Cross's performance that would lead you to believe it for real.
No matter. The pleasures here come from watching Scheider, with this thousand-mile face and smooth voice play the exhausted, impatient gunman. Baldwin, who specialized in hulking, threatening characters does the bundle-of-nerve-endings bit so well, his final scene in the film seems......uh.... inevitable and well in keeping with the proceedings.
For anyone who likes their thrillers swift, raw and blood soaked, a spin down the down the road with 'Cohen And Tate' should rev your engine. 3 stars (***)
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