Long-delayed ‘The Comeback Trail’ is a Western comedy oddity

The film, starring three Oscar winners, sat on the shelf for nearly five years. We weren’t missing much.

The Comeback Trail is one of those movies where the behind-the-scenes story is a lot more interesting than the film itself.

A remake of a 1982 film of the same name that doesn’t seem particularly beloved by anyone, The Comeback Trail was shot in 2019, had a film festival debut in early 2020, and was set for release later that year. But then COVID happened, and then it continued happening, and then the film’s original distributor appears to have gone out of business.

(I have an email from September 2020, announcing the “official trailer debut” and a theatrical release date of November 13, 2020, but those plans were scuttled. I got another email the following June, listing a release date of July 23, 2021.) I was sent a screener that summer, but I don’t think I ever watched it.

The film isn’t without a pedigree. It stars a trio of screen legends — Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Tommy Lee Jones — with a total of four Oscars among them, although none has been above starring in schlock, especially lately. It’s directed and co-written by George Gallo, the screenwriter of Midnight Run; Gallo is credited as director of two movies since The Comeback Trail.

De Niro said in one interview that he signed up for the role because he was eager to do something “really silly” after he finished filming The Irishman. Not only was The Irishman a pretty long time ago, but De Niro filmed a whole other movie about heavy Mafia drama – Alto Knights — that reached theaters around the same time The Comeback Trail did.

Filmed during Trump’s first presidency and released during his second, The Comeback Trail spent Joe Biden’s entire presidency on the shelf, and finally saw the light of day earlier this year, getting a small theatrical release, followed by a VOD bow; it landed on Paramount+ this week.

I want to say it was worth the wait, but… it really wasn’t. There are laughs, here and there, and Jones’ performance actually goes for broke, which I can’t say about his two fellow legends. But it’s got a super-dark premise that’s somewhat at odds with its tone.

De Niro plays a down-on-his-luck has-been movie producer who owes money to a gangster (Freeman). But then he decides to exploit a loophole to solve his problems: If he makes a movie, and the star of the movie dies on set, he can collect on an insurance policy. That star is Duke Montana (Jones), a down-and-out cowboy actor with a death wish, who’s pulled out of a nursing home to star in one more Western.

The film is set in 1974, mostly because “grizzled veteran cowboy actor” isn’t really an archetype that exists in the present day. That’s also the year the greatest-ever Western parody, Blazing Saddles, was released, but this is no Blazing Saddles.

Speaking of Mel Brooks, this scheme to commit both murder and insurance fraud is both a blatant ripoff of The Producers, and somewhat in poor taste. The prospect of an on-set death, on a Western no less, is a bit iffy, especially in light of the Rust incident. But once again, that dark element is completely at odds with the breezy tone of the film.

The director of the film-within-the-film, in a joke the film has no idea what to do with, is a young woman (Kate Katzman), who is underestimated by everyone but turns out very capable. It doesn’t help that Katzman looks and dresses absolutely nothing like someone from the 1970s.

Zach Braff is on hand as De Niro’s nephew and producing partner, a character who’s supposed to be sort of wide-eyed and naive, something undercut because Braff is now 50 years old. Also in the film is Eddie Griffin, who I thought had given up acting in favor of conspiracy podcasting; Gallo directed Griffin’s best-ever movie, Double Take. And Green Book irritant Nick Vallelonga shows up as a mobster.

There’s also a touch of Get Shorty, with De Niro playing a version of Gene Hackman’s struggling schlock producer, one who owes money to the mob but has a perfect script that he believes will get him out of debt and also deliver him to respectability.

But the problem with The Comeback Trail is, the wit just isn’t there.