1988 - SUNSET, supposed Hollywood comedy is not really a comedy, actually not really anything.

Sunset was a film sold as a comedy from writer/director Blake Edwards which starred Bruce Wlllis and James Garner.  The film is not funny, it's actually kind of an episode of Edward's old Peter Gunn detective series padded out. 

The film is about the supposed friendship between silent screen cowboy star Tom Mix (whose life would probably make a more interesting film) and Wyatt Earp.  Mix and Earp become involved in a murder mystery in old Hollywood.  Garner's OK as Wyatt Earp, Bruce Willis smirks his way through another film.

For some reason Blake Edwards got himself the reputation as a comedic auteur mostly because he wrote and directed his own films.  Edwards was a pretty mediocre filmmaker who fancied himself some sort of keeper of the traditional comedy heritage of Hollywood.  What this mostly translated into was a lot of bad films with a lot of bad slapstick in them,  his Pink Panther films can be a major ordeal to sit through.

For some other reason,  Blake Edwards the supposed admirer of old Hollywood comedians, has a Charlie Chaplin like figure as his bad guy.  He's played by Malcolm McDowell who usually specializes in sadists and killers, nothing to subtle there.  I'm not sure what Charlie Chaplin did to deserve this kind of treatment.  Edwards based his career around cribbing old routines from silent comedians like Chaplin.   

A real oddball of a film.

103 minutes.