Movie review: ‘Tough Guys’

FloridaGator80
A promotional “still” photograph from the movie “Tough Guys.”

I enjoyed “Tough Guys” when it came out in 1986 and I should have left it in the memory vault. Having enjoyed the careers of Oscar winner and three-time nominee Burt Lancaster and especially three-time nominee Kirk Douglas (who doesn’t remember “Spartacus”?), it was a silly romp with a nice underlying message about age, aging and the passage of time. Both guys did a good job, but if you watch it today, you’ll most likely wish you kept a good memory about it and not what you’ll get watching it again in the new millennium.

‘Tough Guys’
(1986; 104 minutes; rated PG; directed by Jeff Kanew and starring Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Charles Durning and Dana Carvey)

THIS LANCASTER-DOUGLAS VEHICLE DIDN’T AGE WELL

(NOTE: I expanded this review with some additional opinion – none of the original changed – and updated some links and corrected a few typos. I again expanded the review on Sept. 8, 2019. I again updated the review in 2020 to reflect the death of Kirk Douglas. I again expanded the review on July 19, 2025.)

I lucked out when “Tough Guys,” the Burt Lancaster-Kirk Douglas vehicle from 1986, was on one of the cable movie channels. I snagged on the DVR and was looking forward to enjoying it again since I hadn’t seen it since it was in theaters nearly 40 years ago. Well, it remains OK, but wasn’t as great as I remembered and doesn’t hold up all that well. Some things are best left to a nice memory and you should forget revisiting this one.

“Tough Guys” is the then-becomes-now story of a couple of criminals with Lancaster playing “Harry Doyle” and Douglas playing “Archie Long.” They’ve been in jail for 30 years for the last train robbery in U.S. history (although they’re called the best bank robbers ever) and are now getting out and finding a completely different world – at least the world as it was in 1986, which makes it almost a period piece today.

Lancaster is smooth and sophisticated one, while Douglas shows off his older physique while lifting weights, and the duo has to adjust to a modern world and it isn’t going to be easy. With the exception of a couple of scenes (and these are really good), the film generally comes off today as too dated and has lost much of its punch. I guess the best way to describe “Tough Guys” is that there is a ton of potential, but very little of it realized.

Lancaster and Douglas take different paths coming out of prison: Lancaster, who is the older of the two, is shunted off to a retirement home while Douglas gets shoved into the wonderful world of minimum wage jobs. Neither can handle either one well, especially as they are continually pursued by a myopic would-be killer who holds a grudge for a reason that neither Lancaster or Douglas can remember or figure out.

Here’s my look at some of the cast …

  • A promotional “still” photograph from the movie “Tough Guys.”

    Lancaster is the better of the two here as he is the calm side of the duo. He leads a neat revolt at the retirement home and, like Paul Newman in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” is the brains and voice of reason over Douglas’ congenital aggression. Still, Lancaster has done much better (say in a smaller part in “Local Hero” – click here for my review – or as a headliner in his Oscar-nominated work in “From Here to Eternity”). Lancaster’s talent is obvious, but also his age here – he was 73 when the film came out. He was also in “Twilight’s Last Gleaming” and “Airport.” Lancaster won his Oscar for “Elmer Gantry” and was nominated for “Atlantic City, USA,” “Birdman of Alcatraz.” He died at 80 in 1994 of a heart attack. And, yes, “Atlantic City, USA,” is the original title you know better as just “Atlantic City.”

  • Douglas, who of course was “Spartacus,” plays the aggressive side of the pair. He works out (although a modern gym has female distractions in Spandex) and enjoys a good fight. He’s also good-hearted and works hard to convey a range of emotions. However, just as with Lancaster, he has done much better. Douglas was also in “The Fury” (not one of his best), a TV movie called “Victory at Entebbe” and “The Final Countdown” (click here to read my review). I simply can’t believe he wasn’t nominated for “Spartacus,” but he was for “Champion,” “Lust for Life” with Anthony Quinn and “The Bad and the Beautiful” with Lana Turner. In 1996, he was awarded an honorary Oscar for his career as a “creative and moral force” in cinema. Douglas passed at 103 in February 2020.

The best scene in the film is when Douglas goes into a bar for a quick beer and strikes up a conversation another man. They talk about music, begin to bond and finally the man offers to dance with Douglas. It’s a gay bar! The scene is handled well, especially since in 1986 it was one scene that could be embarrassing when watched today (it isn’t).

  • Coming in as the best performance by a supporting actor: Steven Memel as “Derek.” You only see him on a TV screen (he’s the sales person in a clothing store where Douglas is buying new clothes for a date with a younger woman). Memel is delightfully droll as the new wave punk salesman and manages to convey more emotion in a few brief moments where you only see his face than pretty much all the rest of the cast does throughout the rest of the film. Memel was in “Savage Justice” in a brief career of 12 acting credits, including one for a soap opera and the last in 2014.
  • A promotional “still” photograph from the movie “Tough Guys.”

    A Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Eli Wallach plays “Leon B. Little,” who shows up when the guys get out of prison … except he wants to kill them. However, Wallach is both unlucky and blind as a bat without his bottle-thick lenses. It takes until late in the film for everyone to figure out why he wants to kill the duo. Wallach eases through the role and it is the second-best supporting character. He does the best work of establishing is motivated, agitated character and keeping it up right through his last scene. Wallach, who has great one-liners in this film, was also in “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” “The Godfather: Part III” and “The Deep.” He was also in the awful effort from Steve McQueen called “The Hunter” (click here to read my review). He was nominated for “Baby Doll” from 1956 an received an honorary Oscar for a lifetime of onscreen characters in 2011. He died at 98 in 2014.

  • A youthful “Saturday Night Live” veteran and Primetime Emmy winner, Dana Carvey plays “Richie Evans,” who is a fan of the two criminals and also their parole officer. It’s a bland role, but Carvey brings some energy to it and nearly manages to make it noteworthy. Carvey has also been in “Wayne’s World” and its sequel playing “Garth Algar” as well as being in “Little Nicky” and “This is Spinal Tap.” He won his Emmy and was nominated five times for “SNL.”
A promotional “still” photograph from the movie “Tough Guys.”

Finally, you find veteran character actor and two-time Oscar nominee Charles Durning as “Deke Yablonsky.” He’s the cop who put them away 30 years ago and now finds himself at the end of a career being treated with contempt by much younger cops and looks to regain his fame by arresting the guys again.

Durning dispatches the role as necessary and with his usual professionalism. He has also been in TV’s “Evening Shade” and movies including “The Sting” and “Tootsie.” He died in 2012 at the age of 89. He was nominated in back-to-back years for “To Be or Not to Be” and “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” with Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton. He also won a Golden Globe and was nominated three times and was a nine-time Primetime Emmy nominee.

At the end the duo decides to rob the train again on its retirement run and make their way to Mexico. Wallach joins sides with them and they hijack the train to make their getaway. “The Fabulous Thunderbirds’” “Tough Enough” plays as the credits roll. “Tough Guys” has some heart but not the strength of longevity.

“Tough Guys” was the 43rd ranked film at the U.S. box office in 1986 with $21.4 million in receipts, according to Box Office Mojo. It was only marginally acceptable to investors since it cost $18 million to produce, according to Wiki. It was tough competition that year with the top two films (in order): “Top Gun” and “Crocodile Dundee” with $176.8 million and $174.8 million respectively. The other films from 1986 that I have reviewed are:

Assorted cast notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Douglas’ birth name was Issur Herschelevitch Danielovitch.
  • Adolph Caesar, who was nominated for an Oscar the year before “Tough Guys” for his exceptional work in “A Soldier’s Story,” was set to play “Leon B. Little” but he died of a heart attack at the age of 52 and was replaced by Wallach.
  • It is the seventh film to pair Lancaster and Douglas and began with “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” in 1957.
  • Members of the musical group “Red Hot Chili Peppers” play themselves in the film.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “After the police fire at the train, Sgt. Deke Yablonski (Charles Durning) says, ‘What is this, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral?’. Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas both starred in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957); Lancaster played Wyatt Earp, and Douglas played Doc Holliday in the classic western.”

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