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Reviews
Cohen and Tate (1988)
Fantastic Acting
The fact that Adam Baldwin was in this movie was by itself enough of a reason for me to have ordered it from Amazon. But even better is that he is just one of several great actors in this film. Baldwin does an outstanding job as Mr. Tate, who at first just seems young and reckless, as Mr. Cohen implies, but gradually goes into full-on psycho mode, a transition that is very subtle and believable. Roy Scheider also does an excellent job, portraying Mr. Cohen's insecurities, and eventual despair.
I very, very much enjoyed the back-and-forth dynamic between the title characters, and what fascinated me is how the situation into which they were forced shaped their relationship and attitudes toward each other. Mr. Cohen is an experienced hit-man for the mob, all business, and resents the fact that the much younger Mr. Tate has been sent to help him with a job. Mr. Cohen sees this as the first nail in his coffin: his days as a hit-man are numbered, and the mob doesn't have a very good retirement plan.
The job the two are sent to do is to kill two witnesses & the FBI agents who guard them, and to kidnap the son and take him to Texas for questioning. At first, the job seems to have gone off rather well, and Cohen & Tate are on their way to Texas with the kid, Travis, stowed in the backseat of their car. However, Mr. Cohen criticizes Mr. Tate as being overzealous, and using too many bullets where just one would do. Then Mr. Tate turns on the radio, and we discover that Travis' dad, whom Mr. Cohen shot, was not actually murdered, and is able to give a statement about what happened. This bad news sets off a whole chain of misfortunes for Cohen & Tate, and their ideologies clash as they try to figure out how to best finish their original job of taking the boy back to Texas.
At one point in the movie, Cohen & Tate are laughing at some joke like two old buddies, and I really wonder what their relationship could have been in different circumstances. The pair really could have made a great team, but what separates them is Mr. Cohen's initial view of Mr. Tate as a rival, and the fact that Travis pits them against one another, in an attempt to escape from the hit men. And that's where the movie gets sticky for me. The kid who plays Travis is an excellent actor, but I find the character himself rather annoying, not to mention the plot line that a kid could manipulate two adult hit men in such a way that they would actually fight each other to the death is just completely incredible. I would have enjoyed this movie much more had the story not revolved around Travis.
Cruel Doubt (1992)
Good, but not Great
Seeing that Dungeons & Dragons was involved with this case, I was really curious about how they were going to portray it in the film. Frankly, I thought they did a very good job of representing its role in the case. They made it very clear that by the time of the murder, the boys were no longer playing Dungeons & Dragons -- they had their own game with their own set of rules. Chris even states at his sentencing that drugs, alcohol, and D&D were not to blame for his participation in the scheme; that ultimately he himself was responsible for what he did (a surprisingly healthy attitude from a suicidal man who has tried to kill his parents).
The acting in the movie was decent; it's kinda cool to see as-of-then unknowns when they were younger (Adam Baldwin was why I watched the miniseries, Neal McDonough was really good, & I was happy to see David Arquette show up). I think what should be emphasized in this movie is not that it featured D&D (it also depicted drugs & alcohol as factors in the murder), but that it really shows the relationship between the mother & her son, and how the victim of a crime would actually feel. When Bonnie Von Stein feels frustrated at not being able to know what's going on in the case, it was frustrating for me, as the viewer, as well. If that sort of thing interests you, then you should see this movie. If not, then you might be bored.