Al & Willie, ennemies professionnels

This is a made-for -TV film of the Neil Simon comedy, better known in the Walter Matthau and George Burns version. Peter Falk and Woody Allen play two grumpy old comedians who get back together after many years of mutual hatred.

Woody Allen understates his performance in the George Burns role and his character is pleasingly different from his normal screen persona. Unfortunately Peter Falk's performance is so mannered that it renders the film virtually unwatchable

This is a great movie. This movie is played by two strong characters which is represent "hagelian" relationship. They worked together as a comedian, but they always fight in argument about small things. It has been done during 8 years, until one day Willy got heart attack. You will see the power of dialogues, characters, and inner-action from these old guys. They can tell you something without any dialogue. Their moves and acts are very strong. These characters was built by Neil Simon's script who advanced in theater plays. This is one of his movies that I like much, beside "The Lonely Guy" :)

The Sunshine Boys always struck me as a lesser Neil Simon comedy, amusing and likable but neither as funny nor as insightful as his best work. The original movie worked mainly because of a terrific cast. But this less well-cast and less well-directed TV remake exhibits all the flaws and none of the strengths of Simon's light work.

There are so many problems with this movie. Falk and Allen are too mismatched, with Falk overplaying to the point of annoyance and Woody underplaying to the point of putting me to sleep. They are both talented people, but they exhibit zero chemistry, and thus make no sense as an ex comedy duo. Walter Matthau and George Burns hated each other, but they also riffed off of each other. Falk and Allen feel not like people who worked together for decades but like people who met a week ago.

Sarah Jessica Parker isn't especially bad as Falk's niece/agent, but without the nervous energy of Richard Benjamin, her part just lays there, and she feels wildly unnecessary.

While many people here complain of Simon's rewrites, the truth is, the jokes from the first movie are mainly intact, and it's not Simon's fault that most of them fall flat the second time around. It is the listless direction and mismatched performances that sink this movie.

With the right cast, this movie could still work. But what's the point?

With some minor and not always successful updates to bring the times into focus The Sunshine Boys is given an update with Peter Falk and Woody Allen playing the roles that Walter Matthau and George Burns played two decades earlier. I doubt this can be updated again though. Comedy teams like Lewis and Clark just didn't make it into a newer age of entertainment.

Falk is the active feisty one still scratching for a living doing odd jobs here and there with an agent in the family his niece Sarah Jessica Parker. Lots of things annoy this curmudgeon most of all his former partner Woody Allen now retired comfortably in New Jersey.

Parker gets an offer to reteam the two in small supporting roles in a film. The film is the story of what happens with them.

Falk and Allen fit very nicely into the roles that Neil Simon created. But I do recall Falk talking about an incident in 1930. In 1996 the people involved would have been cracking the centenary. I guess Simon missed that one.

Look for a very important and unbilled appearance by Whoopi Goldberg as a nurse. She and Falk could have made a great team.

Neil Simon's cantankerous comedy about old show-biz team of Lewis and Clark reuniting in the modern day for one more performance--and picking up right where they left off, by arguing--didn't quite work in 1975, despite lots of acclaim. Walter Matthau was ill-suited for the larger role of Willie Clark, though it did give us the return of George Burns as Al Lewis, for which he nabbed a Supporting Oscar. Simon has tweaked the material for this TV-made remake, peppering the dialogue exchanges with some modern references (which don't really work) and changing Clark's nephew to a niece (which does). Peter Falk plays Willie Clark this time, and though Falk isn't naturally a comedian (and his Jewish lapses into Yiddish), he holds his own with Simon's hit-or-miss rhythm and wrings some laughs out of the outrageous arguments. Woody Allen's performance as Al Lewis is even better; Allen doesn't bicker so much as search for logic in the illogical, and this coupled with some very funny lines results in a surprisingly successful bit of casting (who would've thought we'd ever see Woody Allen performing Neil Simon!). Sarah Jessica Parker is terrific as well playing Clark's level-headed relative and agent, hoping for a miracle in bringing these two together again--though sweetly resigned to the fact it may never happen. Good production values (except for some bad lighting), a smooth pace and a satisfying finish; this one is more enjoyable than the theatrical feature simply due to the casting. Falk and Allen would appear not to be convincing as a former comedy duo from the 1960s, and yet they nearly pull it off.