Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991)

"It's better to be dead and cool, than alive and uncool."
When the infamous duo that is Harley Davidson (Mickey Rourke) and his old pal the Marlboro Man (Don Johnson) finally decides to join forces together again for one last gig, it is not something which goes completely unnoticed in the criminal underworld. And before they even know what hit them, the two are about to find themselves in a world of pain when a routine heist suddenly goes very wrong and as an result everyone involved is now hunted down like a pack of rabid dogs by the sleazy Las Vegas crime boss Chance Wilder (Tom Sizemore) and his personal army of ruthless hitmen.

Often mentioned (very badly) as not only yet another poorly made "dumb" action adventure but also one that many likes to think of as the beginning of the end for Mickey Rourke as a movie star or Hollywood leading man. However I still do believe that this overblown and lighthearted yet very entertaining action film is much better than its reputation. Sure, it became a box office flop at the time and I think even the two main leads Rourke and Don Johnson spoke very unfriendly of the film and did maybe not do much to try and promote it but it seems like it have grown over the years as somewhat almost that of a "cult" movie which should offer plenty of pure entertainment value for those who (according to Johnson) "If your a fan of mindless action. If you don’t have a single brain cell in your head, this is the film for you.".

Maybe the last bit was a little harsh coming from Johnson.
Hell, considering all the "mediocre at best" stuff both guys would be soon doing not that long after, they should be well, not proud but at least somewhat glad they did got the chance of doing such a fun (at least for the viewers) movie at the time but I guess back then Don was trying very hard to become a movie star/leading man himself and to be taken more seriously, but from what I have heard or read he was not always the easiest fella to work with and maybe he had gotten a little too big for his own self during the 6 years run as one of TVs biggest names when headlining Miami Vice for several years as Sonny Crockett.
However, Don actually did some solid or kind of underrated releases back in the early 90s, such as the very hot and steamy erotic film noir thriller The Hot Spot (1990) by Dennis Hopper, which was not all that bad, of course it did help out much (for me that is) by including a sultry and cool jazz score which included greats such as Miles Davis and Johnny Lee Hooker but more importantly it added the two stunning ladies, Jennifer Connelly and Virginia Madsen .

Anyway, I guess things just did not work out the way Johnson had hoped for and soon he was back to being a TV star with Nash Bridges and Mickey Rourke were maybe little to self destructive or unpredictable to be seen as a leading man in Hollywood, or at least for a good while.
Nowdays it is Johnson I think who have done the much better job of having himself a "silent" but very impressive comeback, starring in a whole bunch of tough and very well made films where sadly Rourke at least for a short while seemed to be back just as good if not better than in almost a decade only to end up doing shitty DTVs and VODs but I still try to be updated on what the guy is doing and hope he might get another chance, and hopefully he can get back to his better days once more.

Oh man, I kind of ended up talking about everything but the movie itself, sorry about that.
After watching Stone Cold (1991) the other day, I thought it did somehow have a little bit of the same tone or atmosphere or at least very much of the over-the-top action and characters. Beside the obvious two big names in the lead, we meet up with Tom Sizemore, Daniel Baldwin, Vanessa Williams, Robert Ginty, Tia Carrere and where favorite disposable henchmen such as Sven-Ole Thorsen and Branscombe Richmond also make a small apperance.
I quite enjoyed the reckless and wild crew of old familiar faces to that of Harley and Marlboro, and thought it was a little downer to see such great and fun charachters as Jack Daniels played by Big John Studd along with his partner in crime Jimmy Jiles (Giancarlo Esposito) go out far too soon in the movie, but still it did not take away the entertainment as there is very little time that is wasted here and it is always on the move.

Also to be mentioned, the soundtrack is not the bad either and they got Basil Poledouris to do the score.
All in all, I think of it as a fine late night "summer" buddy action movie which should be enjoyed for what it is and that is a whole lot of dumb and mindless fun, but I have never had no problem with that, whatsoever.