This is one cool thriller that takes place in the course of one night, Roy Scheider & Adam Baldwin are two hit-man who are to bring back a kid who may have witnessed something he shouldn't have, it is clear from the start that the two men don't like each other & the kid plays on this to his advantage in the hopes of escaping, Baldwin is the younger of the two & is a hothead with a short temper, Scheider is a veteran who is all business & knows that being careful is better than being over the top. Adam Baldwin gives a vicious performance as the hot-headed Tate, though a lot of his dialogue is badly dubbed over for content (despite the movie's R rating). Roy Scheider is ice-cold as Cohen, conceivable as a veteran killer suffering from hearing loss.The story is very interesting and makes you listen as to what is going on. Some twist and turns with the hit men making a run after they shoot the witness and the guards not having a chance. Taking a hostage who causes more pain than they expected. The movie as a whole isn't the greatest, but it's not so much the plot that drives this movie. The characters of Cohen and Tate, their conflicting natures and constitutions is what makes this movie worth your time. As the tension mounts, you can sense the characters' hatred for one another. When the movie reaches it's climax, you don't really care who gets killed but you really want someone to get it. Now it's not boring as it has a bit off a pace but not too fast as to spoil a fantastic show.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

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 & Tate is directed by Eric Red who also adapts the screenplay from the short story "The Ransom of Red Chief" written by O. Henry. It stars Roy Scheider, Adam Baldwin, Harley cross, Suzanne Savoy and Marco Perella. Music is by Bill Conti and cinematography by Victor J. Kemper.Two professional hit men known as Cohen (Scheider) and Tate (Baldwin) kidnap 9 year old Travis Knight (Cross) from the Witness Protection Program and set off to deliver him to mob bosses in Houston. But with the wise old Cohen the polar opposite of the younger and psychotic Tate, young Travis senses an opportunity to turn the pair of them against each other to maybe manufacture his escape?After a quite brutal opening, Cohen and Tate settles into a road movie where 90% of the action is based in a car populated by only three characters. The premise is simple, an increasingly psychotic Tate (Baldwin overacting to within an inch of his life) wants to kill the annoying kid in the back seat. Cohen (a graceful and film saving Scheider) is not having that, he may be a hit-man but he still has codes and orders to adhere to. Travis the kid (Cross is whiny and poor) chips away at each man's psyche, causing a fractured atmosphere that ensures we are never quite sure how it will end up. In fact the finale is actually a doozy.That Cohen & Tate is no forgotten masterpiece is down to uneven direction, poor acting away from Scheider and an all round preposterous feeling to it all. Credibility and logic is stretched to breaking point, often, while the dialogue doesn't sit right with the characters on show. Frustrating really because in spite of its problems it's a very watchable picture that has a strong premise at its core, and Scheider is definitely a reason to take a punt on a viewing. Even if he, and us, deserve a better movie as a whole. 7/10

Just seen it tonight on TV and wanted to highly recommend it to any fan of gritty, tense road-movies and Thrillers. I won't say anything about the plot, you've already read it, I guess. The director, Eric Red (writer of "Hitcher" and "Near Dark", comes up with a really dark and nihilistic atmosphere and tone that fits perfect to the minimalistic approach. There are very few characters in this one, but they are awesomely written. The dialog is short and kept to a minimum but totally fits to the mood and the characters. The movie isn't stylishly cut or edited, there are a lot of closeups to the characters but so you can really approach the great acting of Baldwin and Scheider. There is not that much action in this one but when something happens, it's gritty, violent and culminates in very tense moments. So, it's not you're everyday, loud and fast Blockbuster but if you like the early works of John Carpenter or Walter Hill, you will surely love this one.