The Comeback Trail (2020)

[Winston T. Boogie]

Title: The Comeback Trail (2020)

Genre: Action, Comedy

Director: George Gallo

Cast: Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones, Emile Hirsch, Zach Braff, Patrick Muldoon, Malcolm Barrett, Eddie Griffin, Vincent Spano, Natalie Burn, Leslie Stratton, Nick Vallelonga, Michelle Maylene, Julie Lott, Josefine Lindegaard

Release: 2020-11-13

Plot: Two debt-ridden movie producers attempt an insurance scam involving an aging actor.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

A twist on Mel Brooks' picture The Producers?

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

So, not sure what happened with this picture. It appears to have had no release in the United States but has had releases in other countries either to streaming services or on Blu-ray. It seems to have been given a release date of November 2022 for the US but I am not sure where or in what format.

I've seen it and can say that I actually enjoyed it. De Niro goes all out in it and I thought was pretty funny. Tommy Lee Jones and Morgan Freeman rounding out the trio of geezer stars were both perfect in their parts.

Here's the thing about it though, this is a throwback picture in every way. First, nobody casts three old actors as your leads anymore, this was however something you could do in the 1970s. The film is about a producer, De Niro, making a Western in the early 1970s, with an old John Wayne like star playing his lead in the film he is making. It is old fashioned in the way it is written, acted, and shot. It is one of these movies about the business of making movies.

De Niro plays a producer of low budget genre pictures, basically bad B films. He's long held a script that he feels is a masterpiece that he has dreamed of getting made because he feels it is a sure thing to win Academy Awards but has never been able to get it off the ground. A young hotshot producer played by Emile Hirsch has long wanted to buy the script from him and make the film but because he wants to cast a big action movie star in the lead, that De Niro's character feels is all wrong for the part, De Niro's Max won't sell him the script.

When the action movie star accidently falls to his death Max is delighted because now if he does sell Hirsch's Jimmy the script he now can't cast him in the lead of this supposed masterpiece.

However, Max learns that Jimmy has collected a cool $5 million in insurance money due to the death of his star on the picture they were making and this births the idea for Max to attempt to do the same...because he owes one of his investors $350,000 on a naughty nun movie that tanked. This investor is dangerous and wants to kill Max if he does not get his money. The investor, Reggie, is played by Morgan Freeman, a guy who seems to love basically two things, violence and movies.

No spoilers in any of that as that is just the set-up that takes place in about the first ten minutes.

The script here seems to have been written in the 1970s as the characters reference all kinds of movies probably today's audience would have no idea about. Of course, as this is a modern film there are gags about a variety of "politically correct" subjects as well. A woman director, how the native Americans are treated in the picture they are making, and an interracial relationship that Tommy Lee Jones' washed up John Wayne style star had/is pining about.

This kind of feels like a cross between a Peter Bogdanovich comedy and Get Shorty. Essentially, a picture that might have been made a long time ago and probably has no business being made now as there is probably no audience for a film like this now and many of the jokes would go right by people. It's a satire of the movie business and some of the jokes seem pretty old.

The company De Niro runs is called Miracle Pictures and their slogan is "If it's good, it's a Miracle!" which quite honestly is the kind of comedy that goes back to the Marx Brothers.

I had a good time watching it. De Niro, Jones, and Freeman seem to have a good time acting in it. I can only think the audience for this is going to be people over 50 because it seems made for people that would get jokes about old movies, making Westerns, and grasp where these characters are coming from.

De Niro shouts a lot of his lines, has enough trouble with a horse named Butterscotch that he tells the horse to go fuck himself, and generally gnaws on the scenery and has a bunch of Wile E. Coyote type accidents occur. Let's just say the humor is broad and fairly old but it worked for me. Pretty much because nobody would write stuff like this anymore.

I also enjoyed the 1970s setting and that the movie they are making is a Western. So, this one had a bunch of stuff that appealed to me and that I am fairly certain would have nearly zero appeal to people...well...under 45.

I recommend it for De Niro fans and those that like movies about the movie business, and that have a funny bone as old as mine. Everybody else probably need not apply.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

OK, some strange but true on this picture...

1. This film, about sleazy movie producers, has 50 producers listed in the credits. I guess producers must love pictures about how sleazy they are because the list of producers is bigger than the cast.

2. Probably the reason why this film seems like something that would not get written now is because it wasn't. This is a remake of a film from 1982 also called The Comeback Trail about a couple of producers making a film in hopes of killing their star so they can collect the insurance money.

3. The 1982 version of this film featured Buster Crabbe in his final film appearance playing the role of the old cowboy star Duke Montana, played in this film by Tommy Lee Jones.

 

[Jeffrey D]

Sounds like fun to me. Hopefully a BluRay will be released.

I knew I recognized the director’s name- he wrote one of my favorite films- Midnight Run, also starring DeNiro.

 

[RBailey]

I'd love to see this and the original version released as a double feature .

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Sounds like fun to me. Hopefully a BluRay will be released.

I knew I recognized the director’s name- he wrote one of my favorite films- Midnight Run, also starring DeNiro.

Yes, George Gallo has been around for some time and has relationships with both De Niro and Morgan Freeman (who he has worked with quite often and is in his upcoming Muti). He did write Midnight Run and also Wise Guys (a flop) for De Palma. He directed a picture called 29th Street a long while back. He seems to have several projects cooking at the moment.

I also am a fan of Midnight Run. As I read things about Gallo around the internet he gets a bunch of mixed reviews on his projects. Which personally I would take as a good thing because you can't please all of the people all of the time...particularly if you are not just regurgitating a formula. Most of his work I have not seen.

There is a North American Blu-ray available, it was released in Canada on Blu last year. That disc is available for less than $12.00 I think at deepdiscount.com if you are interested.

I enjoyed the film and De Niro's manic performance. He seems to have a blast in it but I am guessing that there are several things about the film that will cause it to mostly go unnoticed. Not sure the gags they do about sort of "politically correct" things would be seen as funny nor appropriate, as they may be seen as making fun of those things more than trying to present the "correct way of thinking."

 

[Jeffrey D]

Yes, George Gallo has been around for some time and has relationships with both De Niro and Morgan Freeman (who he has worked with quite often and is in his upcoming Muti). He did write Midnight Run and also Wise Guys (a flop) for De Palma. He directed a picture called 29th Street a long while back. He seems to have several projects cooking at the moment.

I also am a fan of Midnight Run. As I read things about Gallo around the internet he gets a bunch of mixed reviews on his projects. Which personally I would take as a good thing because you can't please all of the people all of the time...particularly if you are not just regurgitating a formula. Most of his work I have not seen.

There is a North American Blu-ray available, it was released in Canada on Blu last year. That disc is available for less than $12.00 I think at deepdiscount.com if you are interested.

I enjoyed the film and De Niro's manic performance. He seems to have a blast in it but I am guessing that there are several things about the film that will cause it to mostly go unnoticed. Not sure the gags they do about sort of "politically correct" things would be seen as funny nor appropriate, as they may be seen as making fun of those things more than trying to present the "correct way of thinking."

29th Street is a good film. Perfect set up in the film to get the ball rolling- a guy wins the lottery, and he’s furious about it.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

29th Street is a good film. Perfect set up in the film to get the ball rolling- a guy wins the lottery, and he’s furious about it.

I have not seen it in ages but I recall liking it.