Wed 30 Aug 2017
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: TOUGH GUYS (1986).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Films: Comedy/Musicals , Reviews[10] Comments
TOUGH GUYS. Touchstone/Buena Vista Pictures, 1986. Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Charles Durning, Alexis Smith, Dana Carvey, Darlanne Fluegel, Eli Wallach. Director: Jeff Kanew.
A buddy movie. A message movie about how American society treats senior citizens. A comedy-crime film. Those are all perfectly adequate ways of describing Tough Guys. But at the end of the day, the movie was really one thing: a golden opportunity to bring Hollywood legends Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas together on the big screen for one last time.
The two actors who appeared in a total of seven movies together, but who are perhaps best known for their work together in John Sturges’s Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (reviewed here ), portray best friends in Tough Guys. Best friends who happen to be finishing up a 30-year stint in prison for robbing the Gold Coast Flyer. These two men, the last two to rob a train in the United States, are truly the last of a dying breed.
But if prison is tough, getting out is even tougher. Both men are fish out of water. Not only have times change, but they’re old men now. But they still love women.
Through a series of romantic mishaps and comedic adventures, they learn the hard way that very few people want to treat senior citizens with much respect or dignity. There’s definitely a message here, one that Lancaster, in an interview with the New York Times, suggested takes the movie out of the real of action-comedy into something more meaningful.
Despite this being a lightweight, perfectly innocent affair that doesn’t stay with you long after you’ve finished watching, Tough Guys works. The pairing of Lancaster and Douglas as two aging criminals trying to regain one last moment of glory is pure entertainment. It’s not a great movie, but it’s a good one.
One last thing: without Lancaster and Douglas, this movie never would have worked. It’s their vehicle from start to finish.
August 30th, 2017 at 4:16 am
Their characters reflect their screen personae – Burt aging gracefully, Kirk holding onto his youth, dating chicks a third his age. The whole thing seems an updated western.
August 30th, 2017 at 12:14 pm
I found the first half of the movie a lot more enjoyable, as in a series of scenes we watch Harry and Archie together and separately try to adjust to this new world they find themselves.
It’s when the movie starts to realize that it needs an actual story to end with that we the viewers discover that the story is awfully weak.
Nonetheless, as Jon says, a good movie, just not a great one.
August 30th, 2017 at 2:54 pm
To me, the high point of the film was Eli Wallach yelling “Top of the world, Ma!”
August 30th, 2017 at 4:05 pm
Good train action sequences too.
August 30th, 2017 at 6:34 pm
This is an interesting review, of a film I’ve never seen. Thank you!
Have never been sure of what to think about director Jeff Kanew. His films are likable, without being great or outstanding. The one I liked best, V.I. Warshawski, was trashed by nearly all critics in its era.
“Gotcha!” starts out fun, but is uneven. “Revenge of the Nerds” is sympathetic to outsiders: a big plus. But much of its comedy seems so-so.
Kanew has talent and a social conscience. But the unevenness of his work makes me unable to rave about and recommend them.
August 30th, 2017 at 10:09 pm
A star vehicle and better or it. It never adds up to much, but I walked out of the theater happy with it, even if the potnjoes were already fading.
August 31st, 2017 at 6:07 pm
Autocorrect at work again. The word “potnjoes” has got me stumped.
August 31st, 2017 at 4:37 pm
Side Note:
Eli Wallach, as the superannuated hit man, was a last minute replacement for Adolph Caesar, who died unexpectedly early in the production.
August 31st, 2017 at 5:35 pm
After the two leading characters, Eli Wallach was the comedic star of the film.
September 2nd, 2017 at 12:42 am
Steve,
It has me stumped too. I thought I typed something about “gags” but where it came up with potnjoes is a mystery. Still, that really ought to be a word.
“Honey, I forget the potnjoes.”
“That’s all right, we’ll have green beans instead.”
Or:
“It’s sad when the potnjoes bloom too early and are killed by the frost.”
Or simply THE POTNJOE MURDERS.