Good idea lost in the noise

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

this movie has relatively well thought of action and thrill ...acting is performed reasonably good too ...all characters are more or less correctly rendered ...the script is also rightly done but for one thing that kills all the required logic in order to make it flawless: if the mob in Houston is so cruel to send two hit men to kill the little boy's parents only because they know some important secret the mob doesn't want to be revealed, then why not kill the kid right there along with his parents just as well, instead of taking him all the way to Houston to see if he knows their secret too, and if so, then kill him in Houston?OK, we know some mobs are so family-oriented they do care for certain emotional values but they do so for their own kids only and not those of other people's!

"Cohen and Tate" is a reasonably entertaining road movie of the dramatic kind: mismatched mafia hit men Cohen (Roy Scheider) and Tate (Adam Baldwin) carry out an assignment to kidnap young Travis (Harley Cross of "The Believers"), gunning down his parents and the FBI agents watching over them. Travis had witnessed a mob rubout and now the employers of Cohen and Tate want to know everything that the kid knows before taking *him* out. The problem is, nothing goes smooth because of the two opposing personalities in play here. Cohen is the Older and Wiser type, very weary at having to put up with a hothead punk such as Tate, the kind of guy who enjoys violence way too much. Travis soon notices this and realizes that his best chances for survival lie in attempting to pit them against one another.Eric Red, screenwriter of "The Hitcher" and "Near Dark", made his feature length directing debut with this moderately interesting, very well paced little film, his version of the O. Henry story "The Ransom at Red Chief". Most of the film takes place inside a car, so he proves up to the challenge of shooting in a claustrophobic environment and keeping the audience involved in what is happening. As Cohen and Tate spend more and more time with each other, things just get more and more grim and uneasy. Tate has shown his capacity for savagery, and his quick temper, and the increasingly more frustrated Cohen finds it harder and harder to maintain his self control. What is often truly disturbing is seeing guns repeatedly leveled at young Cross' head. You really fear for this kids' life.Right from the start, Red is ratcheting up the suspense, diving head first into the action. In an odd touch, he gets his back story out of the way *very* quickly with a brief expository text. Then things soon get ugly. Red does an excellent job of keeping his tone grim throughout. Much of the effectiveness, however, can be attributed to the acting. Baldwin is a live wire in his part, and young Cross delivers a sympathetic, mature performance, holding his own opposite his more experienced co-stars. Scheider is of course superb; he's as commanding as ever as the professional killer saddled with a loose cannon partner. Cooper Huckabee ("The Funhouse") is good in his brief screen time as Travis' father. Talents behind the camera include composer Bill Conti and cinematographer Victor J. Kemper."Cohen and Tate" is good stuff and is worth seeking out or rediscovering for the cult movie aficionado.Seven out of 10.

"Cohen and Tate" feels implausible. However, strong iconography and classic film styles employed by cinematographer Victor Temper impart a formal beauty. Tight editing creates relentless tension. A terrific cast makes good use of a script. They play the script well. Eric Reid has a strong talent for creating a sense of terror without playing too many clichés.Watching the film created anxiety for me, not in the opening sequence as much as in the night road trip. Watching the movie also reminded me how much I miss the fine actor Roy Scheider. Adam Baldwin almost seem a bit too much as the psychotic hit man Tate but who am I to complain? I find the film excessive in many ways—but I respect and recommend it.

The old, wise and weary veteran Cohen (a chillingly reserved turn by the always excellent Roy Scheider) and his much younger hot-tempered thick-as-a-brick Neandertal partner Tate (a frighteningly volatile and volcanic Adam Baldwin) are a couple of radically contrasting contract killers who abduct Travis Knight (a remarkably mature and uncutesy performance by exceptional child actor Harley Cross; Martin Sheen's son in "The Believers"), a nine-year-old tyke who witnessed a mob hit. They make a desperate 24 hour cross country drive to Houston, Texas. When they reach their destination the boy will be killed. The smart, perceptive and resourceful Travis quickly realizes that the only possible way he might survive this ordeal is by cunningly setting both assassins against each other.Writer/director Eric Red, who previously penned the superior scripts for both "The Hitcher" and "Near Dark," delivers a resolutely grim, gritty and gripping road thriller variant on O. Henry's classic short story "The Kidnapping of Red Chief." Red's tight, confidant direction hits all the essential bases with A+ results: the headlong pace remains brisk and unceasing throughout, the violent shoot-outs and rousing vehicular carnage are staged with considerable brio and skill, the constantly rough, edgy and ugly mood never lapses into gooey sentimentality, the acting is uniformly fine, and the gut-tearingly harsh and uneasy suspense steadily mounts to an electrifying climax. Bill Conti's jumpy score and Victor Kemper's agile cinematography add immensely to the sweat-inducing tension. Undeservedly vilified by a majority of film critics during its sadly short-lived theatrical release, this brutally effective and absorbing overlooked knock-out is hugely worthy of rediscovery.