Roy Scheider is perfect casting as the hardened pro Cohen, who tells his partner he's been doing this job for 30 years; you just have to look at that Mount Rushmore profile to know what he's been through.

Given the restrictions of being a first-time director on a limited budget, Red didn't conceive Cohen & Tate to be different than other films of its ilk. He just opted to do it better.

A tightly wound, consistently intense and refreshingly uncompromising thriller that's the kind of superior B movie Hollywood used to make all the time.

"Cohen & Tate" frequently runs the very real risk of allowing its unconventionally small scale to become a damaging cul-de-sac with no possible chance of successfully making a u-turn. The fact this unfortunate development is never allowed to happen is due in no small part to the incident packed story and the skillful way the film has been made with an interesting use of the characters, the evolving and complex dynamics between them, the constantly developing story that never runs out of intriguing new things to say, and the extremely good use of the car interior almost as if it is a fourth character. This film also has an attention grabbing opening full of potential and fortunately it always has something interesting and substantial to build to until the very end.