Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys (DVD 2004)

A 1995 made for television remake of the 1975 film of the 1972 stage play....

A stellar cast, as they say, Peter Falk, Woody Allen and Sarah Jessica Parker, plus a cameo from Whoopi Goldberg. The story is about reuniting 2 aging comedy stars, Lewis and Clark, to reform their double act for a celebration of the golden age of television (the original was the "golden age of vaudeville", one of only two differences to the original film), the only snag is that the two comics have artistic differences, they hate each other.

The script, by Neil Simon (The Odd Couple, The Goodbye Girl, et al and also wrote on The Phil Silvers Show), is impeccable. The performances by the three stars is also excellent, a rare outing by Woody Allen in someone else's work. Sarah Jessica Parker takes on the role of Peter Falk's agent niece (a nephew in the original played by Richard Benjamin). If it wasn't for the original this would be excellent. There aren't enough changes in the script for the performances not top bring back to mind the original film version. Woody Allen takes on the role played in the film by George Burns. The original film version gave Burns the best supporting actor Oscar, at the time the oldest recipient. The chemistry between Allen and Falk is nowhere near the standard of Burns and Matthau. Perhaps they had longer to make the original, this remake does seem hurried on occasion.

This is a great film, well worth watching, But please see the 1975 original as well.