1992 - YEAR OF THE COMET, attempt at a romantic action comedy

The Year of the Comet should have been a winner but for some reason the film just never came together.  The story is one of those couples on the run from bad guys in pursuit of something.  It's clearly trying to be an Alfred Hitchcock film.  While Hitchcock was working at Paramount Studios he developed a story formula called "beautiful people, beautiful places."  Put an attractive couple together, have them fall in love where the backgrounds are all beautiful locations in Europe or somewhere and you have an entertaining film.

The film was written by William Goldman who was considered one of the top screenwriters in the film business.  Peter Yates was the director.  The on location filming was in Scotland and France so all the ingredients were there for a entertaining rom-com but the film just doesn't work.

 

The leads were Timothy Daly who had been working on the comedy series TV series Wings so he knew how to put over a joke or humorous situation.  His romantic partner was a young woman named Penelope Ann Miller who had appeared in Kindergarten Cop, Biloxi Blues and The Freshman.  She also had a decent background in comedy.  But these two just didn't seem to have the chemistry to play a couple who fall in love.  If a film couldn't really work up any "juice" between the two leads it has a serious problem.

The director Peter Yates had made many fine films but  he just didn't seem to be able to make the story interesting.  Frankly a lot of the humor in the screenplay was kind of labored.  William Goldman may have been a great screenwriter but the comedic and chase scenes had a seen it all before feeling to it,

Probably the only interesting thing in the film is the actor Louis Jourdan who at the time was 71 years old and knew how to provide the light comedic touch the other actors were missing.   Although the critics really crucified it, The Year of the Comet isn't really a bad film, it's just kind of a mediocre film.

The running time is 91 minutes.