It is 1970’s Hollywood and Miracle Motion Pictures just had a huge failure with their exploitation film about killer nuns. Producer Max Barber (Robert DeNiro) is in debt to the mob in the form of Reggie Fontaine (Morgan Freeman) and his nephew and partner Walter Creason (Zach Braff) wants him to sell his prized script to get out of hock. But Max has an idea, could an insurance scam involving the ageing star (Tommy Lee Jones) of his next film make him the kind of money his films have never managed.
The Comeback Trail is written and directed by George Gallo. Back in 1988 Gallo wrote Midnight Run. A classic comedy starring Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin. Since then his biggest credit has been providing the story for Bad Boys and otherwise he has a string of films with big stars, but low entertainment value. In fact I recently reviewed the diabolically bad Eye For An Eye which he has a co-director credit on. So I approached The Comeback Trail with some trepidation.
Based on the 1982 film of the same name the premise is The Producers meets Get Shorty. As a means to get out of the financial difficulty he has found himself in with the mob, Max Barber decides to make the nearest script available to him and have his star killed in an accident to collect on the insurance. What follows is a sort of screwball comedy where the star proves more resilient than expected and the producer becomes the butt of the accidents.
Where this film excels it is solely down to the skill and energy that DeNiro and Jones bring to it. DeNiro is clearly enjoying himself and lights up the first half of the film with his rants about his predicament. Jones on the other hand plays his scenes on set with aplomb, although his sub plot about a woman whose heart he broke is best forgotten. Its issues however slightly outweigh these efforts. Morgan Freeman seemingly now has a contractual stipulation that he must be sitting for the majority of all his scenes. A reasonable request for a man in his 84th year but unfortunately it means his entire performance is flat. The budget clearly also did not extend to the stunts and effects which are pretty amateurish. And finally the story in general seems a little flat, especially when DeNiro is not on screen.
As a DeNiro fan I still think this is worth a watch and it’s certainly a lightweight watch. Stay for a mid credits scene as well, possibly one of the funniest in the film.
Phil the Bear's Film Reviews 
Also a De Niro fan, but this is about the lowest ever. A mugging performance which is just not funny. There is no understanding of movie making nor the 70’s exploitation era. The level of jokes is summed up by a bull chasing a red item. To think this was written by the man who wrote Midnight Run. Shocking. The only positives are the joke about hiring a woman director – which actually did touch on the sexism of the age and, as you say, the mid credits add on. Now that would be a great exploitation feature.
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I absolutely don’t think it’s De Niro’s lowest! There are many worse than this in the last decade.
As I said though, he’s the best thing in it. So if you thought it was awful what does that say for the rest of it?
As for Gallo. He has never managed the heights of Midnight Run. And it’s been over 30 years.
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