All of TVGuide.com Videos Only

Tough Guys

1986, Movie, PG, 102 mins

Tough Guys: Review

Teaming Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster for their sixth film together must have seemed like a good idea to the folks at Disney Studio's Touchstone division. Sadly, this inane vehicle was not worthy of the talents of the two great vets. Archie Long (Douglas) and Harry Doyle (Lancaster) are a pair of old-time criminals, jailed for 30 years after committing the last train robbery in the US. Once paroled, the two meet their youthful parole officer (Dana Carvey), who explains the terms of their release. Harry, the older of the two, must go to a nursing home, while Archie is offered a chance at menial employment. Neither will be allowed to contact the other for three years, a jarring proposition that doesn't sit well with either man. Meanwhile, Deke Yablonski (Charles Durning), the lawman who arrested them three decades before, keeps an eye on Harry and Archie, convinced that they will return to a life of crime, a hunch that inevitably comes true. TOUGH GUYS tries to be a crime comedy that makes an important statement about the dignity of senior citizens. It's not an unlikely mixture, but it doesn't work here, largely because the script is filled with so many contrivances and anemic attempts at humor. Veterans Douglas and Lancaster make a good screen team, and it's a pleasure to see them up on the big screen together, but it would have been a lot more fun if they'd have been given something intelligent to work with. leave a comment