tango & cash was said to be a movie written almost entirely in one-liners. released in 1989, it came at the end of the greatest decade for action movies and one-liners. the early 90s continued to see some of the best action movies of all time and some of the greatest one-liners of all time (T2 Judgement Day, Total Recall, Die Hard 2, Speed, Heat, Bad Boys, etc). However, IMO, it was Bad Boys that signaled the beginning of the end of the great action adventure movie. The late 90s ushered in the days of "Bayhem" and the commodification of the action movie, ironically beginning with Bad Boys 2, a good action adventure movie, but the beginning of reboots, retools, and worst of all remakes. Hollywood seemed to lose all originality, even if we get the occasional glimmer of hope with movies like Sicario, the Dark Knight, Mad Max: Fury Road. I'm not sure what it was about the 80s and early 90s that led to such a boom of intriguing action adventure movies and if it could happen again. I've lost pretty much all faith in Hollywood, but that could be my nostalgia.
anyway, Tango & Cash opening scene trying too hard: