Fifty/Fifty (1992) Peter Weller, Robert Hays, Charles Martin Smith, Ramona Rahman, Kay Tong Lim Movie Review

Fifty/Fifty (1992)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Robert Hays and Peter Weller in Fifty/Fifty (1992)

Mercenaries Like Them

Sam French (Robert Hays) and Jake Wyer (Peter Weller) both once worked for the CIA but these days they are mercenaries willing to work for anyone who can come up with the money for their services. Usually they work alone but they find themselves working together, despite their constant bickering, as CIA man Martin Sprue (Charles Martin Smith) offers them a quarter of a million dollars each if they bring down the repressive Tangara government with the help of some local guerrillas. Trouble is that one of those guerrillas happens to be the beautiful Suleta (Ramona Rahman) and both men find themselves fighting over her rather than focusing on the job at hand.

For me "Fifty/Fifty" comes across like a bit of "Spy Hard" mixed in with some "Spies Like Us" and just a touch of "Stripes", basically whilst we have a story of a couple of mercenaries trying to bring down a government the entertainment is in the bickering, the snippy delivery and comical responses as well as some simply daft jokes such as using a rocket launcher to clear a group of sharks. But as such the best of "Fifty/Fifty" comes from the buddy act which Robert Hays and Peter Weller have going on as it is their timing and responses to each other which is where the best laughs come especially with Robert Hays delivering plenty of facial humour with looks of shock.

The thing is that "Fifty/Fifty" isn't just about the comedy and of course you have the storyline from flirting with the guerrilla to bringing down the government but it isn't enough to make the movie entertain when we don't have the bickering and one-up-manship going on. In fact there comes a point where even the double act of Weller and Hays stops being funny and at that point you start to drift.

What this all boils down to is that "Fifty/Fifty" starts off as being a bit of a pleasant surprise with humour which is actually funny rather than just groan worthy. But it is a movie which reaches a point where the jokes start run thin and there isn't enough to make up for it when they do.


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