Get the latest gossip
‘The Comeback Trail’ Review: Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones and Morgan Freeman Have the Time of Their Lives in a Showbiz Sabotage Comedy
Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones and Morgan Freeman have the time of their lives in 'The Comeback Trail,' a new comedy about an aging cowboy star.
In the new “Comeback Trail,” set in 1974 Hollywood, De Niro plays Max Barber, a disreputable producer of schlock cinema who’s driven by glaringly misplaced self-confidence, cranking out low-budgeters with such titles as “Cows From Beyond” and “Bigfoot Was My Lover” for his Miracle Pictures studio. Perhaps worried that he might also get nibbled upon while those three guys chew up the scenery, Braff plays it relatively straight — which only enhances the satisfaction provided by a deus ex machina ending that involves the potency of star power, and the convenient location of an abandoned drive-in. And Kate Katzman deserves a few kudos of her own for deftly balancing comedy and sincerity as Megan Albert, the eager newbie who’s hired as director of “The Oldest Gun in the West” with Duke’s approval and defies ’70s-era sexist assumptions about her unsuitability for the job.
Or read this on Variety
