Waste of time

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

*** This review may contain spoilers *** *Plot and ending analyzed*Cohen and Tate (1988) is about two totally inept hit men, but it's not a comedy, no, it's played with dark zeal, or at least, the actors attempt that. In fact, they aren't very good, even reliable Roy Scheider is overshadowed by the dismal overacting of Adam Baldwin. It all wears thin and the overabundance of driving will further put you in a claustrophobic mood. The driving scene has the same studio "lights" used repetitiously, also, look for the same car behind the hit men's car, with its lights on.The ineptness of the hit men is so outstanding that I don't think anyone with a brain will believe the scenario. Some kid routinely badgers and harasses them until they all drive each other nuts, and then we get a ridiculous ending that made it all pointless.

Why hasn't Cohen And Tate come out on DVD? This film was made in 1988 and not only hasn't it been released on DVD, it's only been on British TV twice and twice in the same night only on ITV2 about four years ago. It took a British TV channel long enough to finally show it and Sky TV have never shown it on any movie channels out of all people. At least we can buy it on DVD and it's not even coming out on DVD.If we ask the distributors they will say it might not sell because hardly anyone has asked about it. That's because most people twenty-one years old and under haven't had the chance to see it to make an opinion.I bet if Cohen And Tate was made as a re-make that would be quick enough to come out on DVD when a lot of us are more interested in the original. I hope Cohen And Tate doesn't have a re-make because how many more re-makes are we getting? Damn, The Taking Of Pelham One, Two, Three has just been re-made and I suspected that a couple of years ago.

This film is not bad, it has excellent camera-work, many good ideas and creates an atmosphere. The editing is at times sloppy and the action is a little repetitious. Two professional criminals have to deliver a boy witness to the mob. And they fail. The movie shows the reasons.What lifts Cohen and Tate above the average is the top performance of Roy Scheider, an extremely talented thespian who unfortunately can show his wide range and his brilliance only too rarely. In Cohen he really creates a very memorable character, a truly tragicomic toughguy. Cohen and Tate resembles at times Reservoir Dogs, at times Fargo, and it is only fair to mention that both these hugely successful (and on the whole superior) movies were made years after this one. It makes one regret that Scheider never worked with either Quentin Tarantino or the Coen Brothers.For everyone who finds interest in Cohen and Tate I can recommend, as far as Scheider is concerned, John Frankenheimer's excellent 52 Pick-Up. For a somewhat „sublimated" version of Cohen and Tate see Stephen Frears' The Hit, with John Hurt in the Cohen part, Reservoir Dog Tim Roth in the Tate part and Terence Stamp and Laura del Sol jointly in the Travis Knight part.

This is one of the best films of it kind. It's gritty and suspenseful, with one unexpected twist after another. The low budget adds to the gritty feel. Most of the movie takes place in a moving car--very claustrophobic feel. Harley Cross holds his own acting-wise against Scheider and Baldwin, despite being saddled with a heavy Texas accent. And does anyone know if he did his own stunts? The traffic dodging scenes looks like him rather than a stand-in. Movie wasn't released in NYC to my knowledge--I found it at a rental place a few years ago. Hoping this gets a DVD release soon. I'd love to hear the background stories about how scenes were filmed.