A Good Sidekick

Like I said, the improbably-named main villain of "Tango & Cash" is Yves Perret, who is portrayed by Jack Palance. He has the two lieutenants I've described, and even though one of them is played by James Hong, they are not too interesting. Perret's other prominent underling however, is way better. He's the chief muscle, and is played by Brion James. You've probably seen him in movies like "Blade Runner" and "The Fifth Element", and he's great.

In Tango & Cash, he wasn't meant to have a big part, but it was further developed when Sylvester Stallone liked the Cockney accent he decided to use. In a gang that includes Asians, Latinos and white guys, why not throw in an inexplicable Brit? He's a British thug in a multiracial LA gang, and his name is Requin. In truth, it is not a very good accent, but the character is still a fun one, and like everyone in the movie, he gets some awfully fun lines. It just wouldn't be the same without him.

His character arc is not incredible. He starts as a colorful thug, and finishes as a dead colorful thug, but he's still remarkable enough. While Perret and the entire population of the prison where Tango and Cash have been sent are menacing them, it's Requin who implores onlookers to place bets. I'm not sure what exactly they're to place bets on. The plan, I'm fairly sure, was to kill them, and I don't think they had any recourse to change that.

Later, Requin tries to recapture them after they escape the prison, leading to one of the movies best scenes as the titular cops try to scare information out of him. For some reason, they neither kill him nor turn him in to the police, and so he winds up playing a part in the movie's climax, which I'm not sorry for. He's definitely one of the best characters in the movie, and I wish they had inserted even more of him.