Welcome back to my blog. Here’s my recommendation of a movie to check out today and hope you punch your “Ticket to the Movies!” OK, let’s take another look at the Burt Lancaster-Kirk Douglas vehicle called “Tough Guys,” which also stars Dana Carvey, Charles During and Eli Wallach.
I had fond memories of “Tough Guys” when I first re-watched it about a decade ago. “Tough Guys” was released in 1986 and I recalled nice efforts by Lancaster and Douglas. However, the film didn’t age well and I considered that “Tough Guys” was one that I should have left in time’s vault. It was the same from re-watching “Bobby Deerfield” from 1977 with Al Pacino.
With “Tough Guys,” you get Lancaster and Douglas, who are old guy who are just released from prison after a long stretch in the graybar hotel for robbery. They’re called once-great bank robbers, but the circumstance of facing an assisted living facility (Lancaster) or menial, minimum-wage work (Lancaster, who is the younger of the two) propels them back to a life of crime they never really left.
“Tough Guys” isn’t what my memory served up not because of any specific, but because it just feels a bit off today. That’s not to say it doesn’t have some interesting scenes or that the work by any actor isn’t up to snuff, but I just didn’t get the nice vibe from it as I watched it again as from its premiere in 1986 (yes, back-in-the-day, I actually saw most films at their premieres).
One really creative scene is where Lancaster goes shopping to buy modern clothes for a date with a much younger woman he met at a gym. The salesperson is “Derek,” who appears on a tee-vee monitor. The exchange between Steven Memel (“Derek”) and Lancaster has Memel doing more and better expressions while you only see his face on the monitor than much of the rest of the cast in the rest of the film.
Also, there is an interesting scene when Lancaster goes into a bar and, while having a drink, begings chatting about music with another man. After a few moments, the man asks Douglas to dance – Kirk didn’t realize it was a gay bar! The scene is well formulated, especially for being in a movie from 1986.
Of course, the guys go on one final caper and along the way find out that a hitman (Wallach), who was supposed to kill them decades ago, had been dogging them since their release. You also get Carvey as their parole officer, who is a bit in awe of the two “Tough Guys.”
So, I say punch your “Ticket to the Movies!” and watch “Tough Guys.” It is available to rent via several streaming services. Don’t worry, you’ll thank me later if you watch “Tough Guys.”
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