STUDIOCANAL
To celebrate the release of the upcoming Universal Soldier and ’80s classic actioner Red Heat, we take a look at five of the very best wise-cracking duos in film.
MEL GIBSON and DANNY GLOVER in LETHAL WEAPON (Richard Donner, 1987)
One of the quintessential buddy cop action films, Lethal Weapon starred Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as mismatched police detectives tracking down LA drug dealers. Veteran officer and settled family man Roger Murtaugh (Glover) is the stubborn old-timer who has just turned 50 when he is partnered with Martin Riggs (Gibson), a former Special Forces soldier and a bit of a loose cannon. Rigg’s wife was killed in a car accident three years prior and he has been taking his aggression out on suspects, leading to his superiors requesting his transfer. They both despise the idea of having to work together and quickly find themselves facing off with each other, however as the film progresses their friendship develops and they acquire a special bond. According to Richard Donner, from the very first script read-through the chemistry was there, “It took about two hours and by the time we were done, I was in seventh heaven. They found innuendos; they found laughter where I never saw it; they found tears where they didn’t exist before; and, most importantly, they found a relationship — all in just one reading. So, if you ask about casting… it was magical, just total dynamite.”
Lethal Weapon grossed over $120 million on its release (against a production budget of $15 million) and spawned three sequels, a television series and the buddy cop movie is still going strong today.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER and JIM BELUSHI in RED HEAT (Walter Hill, 1988)
Following in 1988, the two stars of Red Heat experienced a clash of cultures as well as personalities when they were paired in this buddy cop movie with a twist. The Terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, starred as Russian policeman Ivan Danko who is sent after a Georgian drug dealer who has escaped to the United States and is awaiting extradition in Chicago. Once there, he is forced to partner up with a cocky Chicago police detective played by Jim Belushi. A mutually uneasy alliance is formed between the stern Moscow Police Captain and his American equivalent. Despite their opposite traits, Schwarzenegger and Belushi are the perfect on-screen action duo and this clash of cultures, muscles, sharp one-liners produced an explosion of classic 80s action.
SYLVESTER STALLONE and KURT RUSSELL in TANGO & CASH (Andrei Konchalovsky & Albert Magnoli, 1989)
One of the most bizarrely entertaining and eccentric action movies of the late-80s was Tango & Cash which teamed Sylvester Stallone with Kurt Russell and soared straight to the top of the ‘best buddy cop movie’ charts. Stallone and Russell star as Raymond Tango and Gabriel Cash respectively, two rival LAPD narcotics detectives, who are forced to work together after the criminal mastermind Yves Perret (Jack Palance) frames both for murder.
Initially conceived as a glowing Lethal Weapon parody, this action duo placed Tango & Cash in a league of its own and, according to Empire magazine earlier this year, Stallone, “never having met a sequel he didn’t like, has yet another idea for revisiting a former glory”, and is keen for Tango and Cash to embark on another adventure so watch this space.
JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME and DOLPH LUNDGREN in UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (Roland Emmerich, 1992)
No list of action duos would be complete without the “Muscles from Brussels” Jean-Claude van Damme and Swedish one-man army Dolph Lundgren. Pitted against each other in Universal Soldier, this fun, action-packed adventure features bad ass super soldiers, epic fight scenes and iconic one-liners. Universal Soldier was directed by Academy Award-winning director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) who delivers a futuristic, gladiatorial epic, with non-stop large-scale action.
During the Vietnam War, soldier Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) finds that his superior officer, Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren), has become violently deranged, and the two fight to the death. After their bodies are retrieved, they are placed in a secret US government program in which they are reanimated, using genetic engineering, and trained to become unquestioning killing machines. Their success is overwhelming, but the experiment gets out of hand when the two soldiers start to regain their memories. Glimpses of their pasts start to return, rekindling their intense conflict and need for an ultimate reckoning, with no regard for the collateral damage that ensues.
DWAYNE JOHNSON and JASON STATHAM in FAST & FURIOUS: HOBBS & SHAW (David Leitch, 2019)
In 2019, after eight films that amassed over £120m at the UK Box Office, the Fast & Furious team produced its first stand-alone vehicle with action duo Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham as Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw. Ever since hulking lawman Hobbs (Johnson), a loyal agent of America’s Diplomatic Security Service, and lawless outcast Shaw (Statham), a former British military elite operative, first faced off in 2015’s Furious 7, the duo have swapped smack talk and body blows as they’ve tried to take each other down. But when cyber-genetically enhanced anarchist Brixton (Idris Elba) gains control of an insidious bio-threat that could alter humanity forever these two sworn enemies partner up to bring down the only guy who might be badder than themselves revving up the high-stakes action and sharp-edged humour like never before.
RED HEAT and UNIVERSAL SOLDIER ARE OUT NOW ON ULTRA HD BLU-RAY, BLU-RAY, DVD AND DIGITAL
