leonblackwood
Review: I enjoyed the banter between Falk & Allen, which Falk dominated, and I liked the chemistry between the 2 characters. Watching them grow old together was sweat and funny in parts and it was good to see another side to Falk who everyone knows as Colombo. You can tell that the film was adapted from a play because it's mostly based around conversations between the 2 comics who are trying to get along so they can make a movie. It didn't get a major release, like the Matthau and Burns version, because it was made for TV but it's a watchable movie with fast jokes and clever wit. Watchable!Round-Up: After all of the Colombo reruns around the world, Peter Falk is definitely a household name. Famous for his trench coat and cigar, it's hard to watch him without thinking of him cracking some crime is his unique way. In this film he stands toe to toe with Woody Allen and he proves that in his later years, he still could pull off a great performance. Woody Allen was pretty toned down but he still pulled out some funny lines which were well written by Neil Simon. It's not as good as the Mathhau/Burns version, but it's worth a watch, just to compare to two.I recommend this movie to people who are into there comedies about 2 old school comedians with a rocky relationship, who join up to make a movie. 5/10
RainDogJr
If you check the acting filmography of Woody Allen you may find movies you may have never heard of before, in my case I was extremely surprised when I found that Allen participated in an Alfonso Arau (Alfonso Arau's Zapata is a film you must avoid like the plague, I've been avoiding it and feel darn good!) film (the 2000 Picking Up the Pieces, that has in it also Sharon Stone, Cheech Marin, David Schwimmer and Kiefer Sutherland), certainly quite bizarre that Allen is in that film. Thankfully over the last years Allen has appear only in his very own projects (hey Whatever Works arrives tomorrow in the US! Can't wait to see it, and I just hope it can be playing in my city at least well, at least by the end of this year. Allen's previous film, the great Vicky Cristina Barcelona, was released in the US in August 2008 and in my city in December 2008), actually Picking Up the Pieces is the last one of those "strange" titles in his acting filmography.This one, The Sunshine Boys (a 1995 TV movie based on the Neil Simon play of the same name) is one of those almost unknown titles with Allen but unlike, to name one, Picking Up the Pieces The Sunshine Boys is a movie I first knew not on the internet but when I came across with its R4 DVD. And I usually come across with that R4 DVD and certainly I had considered buying it, certainly just because of Allen (Peter Falk or Sarah Jessica Parker may be the reason why you may be interested in seeing this movie), but until yesterday I did that when I found at a supermarket extremely cheap R4 DVDs. I ended adding to my collection two absolute gems: Terry Zwigoff's great film Ghost World (that I saw on DVD more than a year ago but that I didn't have in my collection) and Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz (I have seen only bits but can't wait to see the entire film). I got Ghost World for about $1 and The Last Waltz for about $2, and there it was in the bunch the R4 DVD of The Sunshine Boys for only $1 then if it completely sucked, like I was thinking it would, well at least I only paid $1 for its DVD.The Sunshine Boys is about, for those who like me never heard of the play by Neil Simon, a former comedian duo (Allen and Falk) that now after many years of their separation have the chance to return to the big leagues, via a cameo in a big Warner Brothers movie, but the only problem is that they can't stand each other. Allen doesn't appear during the first minutes of the movie, he appears after like 10 minutes, certainly that is not much but the very first minutes with only Falk and Sarah Jessica Parker (as the niece and agent of Falk's character) are very bad (I was like "remember you paid only $1), we have the present situation of Falk's character, we see one of his auditions, for a part in a commercial, and for his good the director of the commercial admires him but, and like us, finds him now very annoying, unfunny, he certainly will not get the part and also he really annoyed me. This stuff, I mean this character of Falk who always changes things from the scripts, who is really annoying only worked for me when Allen's character is with him for the very first time. That part is the funniest and well just the best of the whole movie, actually after Falk's character suffers his collapse the movie is totally uninteresting if not totally un-watchable (Whoopi Goldberg appears in one really bad scene). In short, if you are a fan of Allen (he is good enough to keep us fans satisfied with his work) this is worth to take a look BUT only if you can find it on TV or you can find its DVD as cheap as I found it, don't rush in order to see it. The Sunshine Boys isn't really good or really terrible, it is just something watchable, a decent 90 minutes TV movie that I'm not going to see again. And well, at least I loved when Allen's character says a 5 year old kid comes twice a week to teach him how to play Nintendo, he has to be better than his grandson! Hope that when he gets to play Nintendo really good he gets better luck than Homer Simpson when Homer was ready to kick Bart's butt and put an end to Bart's supremacy!
LatigoMeans
I was so looking forward to seeing this remake/rewrite having missed it when it was originally broadcast. I so enjoyed the original with Burns and Matthau, and always wondered what the pairing of Falk and Allen would bring to the story. Alas, very little. Allen was better than OK, but Falk seemed totally miscast. This is strange as I find his work in comedies is usually very good. But as has been mentioned in other comments here, there was absolutely no chemistry between the two actors. I think the reason was Allen took his role to a newer place while keeping the basis of the relationship between his character and Falk's true to the story. He didn't play George Burns playing Lewis. He let his personality and comic delivery take over the role. Falk, on the other hand, didn't seem to rise above the Willy Clark as done by Walter Matthau. He didn't even seem to me to have ever been Allen's comic partner. Just not his role. Unfair to compare the two versions? Perhaps, but if one is going to try and redo what was done so well before, one has to expect the yardstick to be what it is.
rallen
A delightful view into the lives of legends lost. It has heart and soul. Besides the lines being hilarious, it is funny just to look at Allen and Falk together.If you enjoy woody's acting and simon's writing then definitely check this one out.
