The Comeback Trail

New on Sky Cinema.

Directed by George Gallo is this remake of Harry Hurwitz 1982 film. Set in 1974 Hollywood, Robert De Niro is Max Barber a small time movie producer whose latest classic “Killer Nuns”, made with his nephew Walter (Zach Braff), is tanking at the box office, in no small part due to picketing by the Catholic Church. The problem is Max borrowed the money for it from Morgan Freeman’s gangster Reggie Fontaine and now finds he has no way to pay it back. That’s until he sees a way out, which includes a scam to make a film and kill off its leading man, Duke Montana (Tommy Lee Jones) and old time star pulled out of retirement for the job, and claim the insurance money.

Right at the start of this film, Max and Walter are reading a review of Killer Nuns, which ends with the line, “the best thing about it, is at 90 minutes it ends” that should have been a warning, apart from at 104 minutes this doesn’t even have that going for it. You’d think with the acting chops of De Niro, Jones and Freeman this has to be worth a watch hasn’t it? Well sadly no, not in any way.

This a comedy based on one joke that never really works. The film seems to throw together a series of unfunny set piece attempts to kill off Duke, which fail as miserably as the gags fail to land. The three leads phone in their performances and while I’m sure they had a lovely time together, we don’t get to share that.

In reality, they are let down by the dreadfully unfunny, poorly structured script, which bounces around aimlessly, occasionally introducing characters who are quickly forgotten or offer nothing to the story. It attempts to do some kind of Blazing Saddles, behind the scenes making of a western that just makes you think, I wish I was watching Blazing Saddles. And It tells you all you need to know when the best performance is from a horse.

The original “The Comeback Trail” was only 75 minutes and that is probably the staying power of its one gag, extending it another 30 minutes breaks it completely. The reality though is its not the length of it that’s the problem, it just isn’t funny enough or good enough and its three leads really should know better. To quote the film back to itself “The best thing about it, is at 104 minutes, it ends.”