The Comeback Trail

Robert De Niro stars here as struggling Hollywood producer Max Barber, who finds himself in debt to a mobster (Morgan Freeman). Forced to pay up or die, Max enlists suicidal, washed-up screen cowboy Duke Montana (Tommy Lee Jones, giving a lovely, pathos-soaked performance) for a new project, intending to kill him for the insurance. But the plan quickly backfires, as Duke gains a new lust for life. Max's attempts to finish the job are cartoonishly fun, and De Niro is obviously having a blast in a scenery-chewing performance. After a promising start, though, the initially witty material becomes increasingly thin, relying on the starry cast's energy to prop it up. Freeman has little to work with as the gangster whose threats lack bite, and the result is a passably entertaining but toothless satire that falls short of its potential.