“THE COMEBACK TRAIL” (2020) | Film Review

Reference to Jackie Chan: none available

“Ed Wood will get the script before it lands in your greasy fingers!”

Films about filmmaking are popular with film fans. Whether it’s ‘BOWFINGER’ (1999) or ‘WAG THE DOG’ (1997), it’s simply interesting to look over the shoulders of the professionals and see how unglamourous Hollywood can be.

In principle, this is exactly what ‘THE COMEBACK TRAIL’ (2020) is about. MAX BARBER is a film producer who just can’t seem to pull off a coup. And now he’s also in debt to dodgy investors. So he comes up with an idea: kill an old actor on a fake film set and collect the insurance.

Wow, how macabre. But humour is when you laugh anyway, right? Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to do that very often during the film. The gags don’t really want to ignite, the joke TNT has become damp from silly wire-work and childish background music.

The soundtrack is more reminiscent of a family adventure such as ‘AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS’ (2004) with Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan. But at the same time, the film wants to be a kind of crime mockumentary for adults. The desired effect falls flat.

Instead, I find it ‘cringe’ to say the least, that you go on a hunt for victims in an old people’s home and the residents actually move like zombies. The victim then becomes DUKE MONTANA, who has his best movie cowboy years behind him but is able to pull off the whole coup thanks to his charm.

‘Only one scene separates me from my Oscar’, Max Barber shouts at him and I have to roll my eyes. What we are presented with as film-within-a-film footage is not that good.

All in all, the story trots through the prairie with shallow thigh-slappers, while Hollywood once again celebrates itself and remembers its good old days – whenever that was, according to the film, probably in the 50s.

A lonely 4 out of 10 stars

Original trailer | “THE COMEBACK TRAIL” (2020)

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