The Comeback Trail Parent Guide

Max Barber (Robert DeNiro) has had a long and deeply unsuccessful career as a grindhouse movie producer. Most recently, his film Killer Nuns attracted a major protest from the Catholic church and appears to be on track to sell exactly zero tickets. This is a problem for Max, because he borrowed the money he used to make Killer Nuns from a very, very dangerous man. Reggie Fontaine (Morgan Freeman) wants his money back, and if he doesn’t get it, he’s made it abundantly clear that Max can expect his life expectancy to drop off sharply. But Max has a plan: to kill an actor and collect the life insurance. Unfortunately, he cast the legendary Duke Montana (Tommy Lee Jones), and Duke has a remarkable ability to survive…

You might think, on cursory inspection of the cast of this film, that here is no possible way it can be bad. The premise was also reasonably promising – I like a good scam movie as much as anyone, and with that cast, it has to be good…right? Wrong. The combined star-power of Robert DeNiro, Tommy Lee Jones, and Morgan Freeman cannot save this movie. That’s because there are two big problems with this movie: The writer and the director.

Conveniently, those are the same person: George Gallo, the man responsible for Vanquish, a movie less enjoyable to watch than a trash fire in a condemned sewage plant. As soon as I saw his name on this, I knew it was a lost cause. I was willing to keep an open mind based on casting alone, but Morgan Freeman couldn’t save Vanquish either, so I don’t know why I bothered.

The Comeback Trail has a retro slapstick sense of humor, and it does not work well. The “jokes” mostly involve Robert DeNiro (or, more probably, his stunt double) getting thrown a few feet by various animals and accidents, and since it wasn’t funny the first time, it doesn’t improve with repetition. His unhinged screaming and Tommy Lee Jones understated Texas charm are really the only thing that make this film at all watchable.

Those of you willing to sit through the entire film just for a little Tommy Lee Jones may also want to know that this movie has a considerable swear count. We’re averaging around one f-bombs every two minutes with this film, which is probably more than you’d prefer for family movie night.