Customer Reviews

The Sunshine Boys [VHS]

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Wonderful and hilarious Neil Simon comedy about two old vaudevillians who worked together for 43 years, but hate each other. A chance to work a TV variety show tracing the history of comedy brings them together again for the first time in 11 years. Walter Matthau and George Burns play the two old troopers, and it's marvelous to see them work. Matthau is a grouchy curmudgeon - loud and proud and irascible; Burns is a bit more mellow but just as proud. A very funny movie, and poignant, too.

There are movies for one time and there are movies for all times..."The sunshine boys" undoubtedly refers to this last category. Beyond the simple high-class comedy, beyond the actors incredible performance, this movie refers to both of the most important themes in a man's life : friendship and nostalgy. The most complex relationship developped here between Al and Willy refers to complexity of friendship itself...which is made of ups and downs, as if Life was indeed, theater-like...But Macbeth has already unveiled this true human situation : "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more"...really, Al and Willy have played and lived their life on one single dimension : comedy...and nobody can tell the difference between acting and living...Beyond friendship's complexity, there's nostalgy...These two men are unchained by past only...they are prisoners of "old good time" and they cannot escape it...They have been famous, and then, they're unknown again...lost in city's human sea forever...While Willy still try to come back again, at the foreground of human stage, Al's made a different choice...He retired...All this 11 years quarrel comes from the fact that Willy Clark never intended to retire, and, as Moliere, wanted to play until death -but does'nt he play, anyway ? Even without audience ?...I agree about saying that this is the greatest comedy since Shakespeare ones...an absolute masterpiece about what is life, what is time and what is absolute friendship...These two men has been together for half a century, living, playing together, same thing...beyond quarrel, there's friendship which nothing can break for good...And life is rounded with...a joke

LEONTSKY

This brilliant Neil Simon comedy about two old vaudevillians who for 43 years were a tremendous comedy team onstage, but who irritated and eventually hated each other offstage is a gem of comedic acting and timing.

Based in fact on a pair of real vaudevillians who barely spoke to each other offstage, Simon has found another bickering Odd Couple with which to mine great humor. Willy Clark (Matthau) is an irascible old coot that can't give up showbiz and has his poor harassed nephew (Richard Benjamin) flogging up commercials etc. which he invariably messes up. He has not spoken to the other half of the team Al Lewis (Burns) in years, still angry at percieved onstage slights and the fact that Lewis retired. The nephew gets the idea to reunite them to do one of their classic routines on TV and that's when the insults begin to fly.

I cannot disagree more with the reviewer that disparaged Matthau's performance. He is absolutely wonderful. The old age makeup is subtle and it is his brilliant acting that convinces us he is the same age and era as his wonderful counterpart George Burns, even though Matthau was probably 20-30 years younger. The various voice modulations Matthau uses for different effects is especially noteworthy.

George Burns was called out of near-retirement to replace Jack Benny (when Benny died) in this role, and it created a new career for this marvelous old trooper. He and Matthau are superb together, and they have these old poops down to a T.

There is much fun made of these old boy's lapses due to their age. Probably politically incorrect, it is gentle and affectionate humor to my mind. Simon loves these old guys, and his ear for dialogue and eye for observation of behavior is as good here as anything he's done.

If you want to see comedy performed with exquisite timing, watch two masters at work here. Matthau is flamboyant and abrasive, Burns calm and economical. The counterpoint between them is perfect. It is also a touching story of friendship and the bonds of long partnerships in the end, and makes some nice points without going saccharine.

For most lovers of comedy, this is a "must see". Direction and all is satisfactory (nothing spectacular). It is the performances that make this 5 stars. Should be on DVD.

What a delightful comedy! Willie Clark and Al Lewis are two elderly former vaudevillians who try to reunite for a television special. But while they were famous together in their day as the Sunshine Boys, the two men never got along - their differences having been exacerbated by Al's retiring and leaving Willie out on a limb. The resulting comic conflict and hilarious dialogue form much of the comedy. There are a few secrets to this work. Ironically, Willie's and Al's actual interaction in real life is infinitely funnier than their stale comedy act. Furthermore, the play itself is structured like a giant vaudeville routine, with sight gags, non-stop side-splitting one-liners, and a straight man (Willie's nephew Ben). Al's admission at the end that he can't distinguish them from their act is very telling! Finally, like all great comedies, SUNSHINE BOYS has a strain of seriousness, in the form of Willie's surprising and sudden illness in the middle of the play. This poignant note stays until the touching conclusion.

As Willie, Walter Matthau has the kvetchy old man routine down to a fine art. Although occasionally Matthau's body movements betray that he is not really as old as he is made up to be (he was 56 and Willie is supposed to be in his 70's), in terms of voice and characterization he is perfect. While Jack Benny and George Burns would have been the ideal coupling (as they were both former vaudeville comedians, just like Willie and Al), I find it hard to imagine Benny in this role. Matthau has a grating obnoxiousness and a maniacal rage which I could not imagine in the genteel Benny. George Burns plays the quiet, reasoned side of the team. It is difficult to imagine why Willie found this man so disagreeable all those years, and this leads to the conclusion that Willie - a paranoid, obnoxious man - is really the center of this story.

While it is similar in many respects to Neil Simon's other hit play, THE ODD COUPLE - in fact, it is almost a companion piece - THE SUNSHINE BOYS is a wonderful comedy in its own right. If you love laughter, then check out THE SUNSHINE BOYS!

Acting more odd than he was in the Odd Couple, and definitely more grumpy than he was in Grumpy Old Men, Walter Matthau turns in an over-the-top performance as the volatile half of the Lewis and Clark vaudeville team. (He plays the impatient Willie Clark.) The perfect foil for Matthau's Clark is George Burns as his partner for 57 years--and then ex-partner for another 11--Al Lewis.

Much of Neil Simon's comedies focus on the pairing of people with irreconcilable differences, like The Odd Couple or The Good-bye Girl. Others focus on people out of their natural environments, like The Odd Couple Two or The Out of Towners. The Sunshine Boys centers on two men who, although professionally perfect together, are mortal enemies off-stage. On top of that, the men are out of their milieu, in terms of time. Their vaudeville careers are long over, and their attempt to rejoin for a television variety show, only highlight how anchored in the past they are--especially Matthau.

This comedy, although slightly dated (I'm sure the ACLU would accuse it of age-ism), still has a lot of laughs, more than I had anticipated. The Sunshine Boys is a must for anyone's Neil Simon or New York Comedy collection.

The "odd couple" in Neil Simon's 1972 play THE SUNSHINE BOYS is Al Lewis and Willie Clark, two elderly, retired vaudevillians who were a popular team ("Lewis and Clark, The Sunshine Boys") onstage but always bickered over trivialities in real life. The two men are forced to pair up again when they grudgingly agree to revive one of their old routines, "The Doctor Will See You Now," for a television special. Here Simon shows us, as he did before in THE ODD COUPLE, how silly obsessions hurt friendships. THE SUNSHINE BOYS is brilliant because the interaction between the main characters - Willie, Al, and Willie's "agent/nephew," Ben - is carried on almost entirely in the form of sight gags and one-liners. The Sunshine Boys are comedians in real life, too, and the play itself is a vaudeville show, with Willie and Al as burlesque comics and Ben as their straight man.
Like THE ODD COUPLE, THE SUNSHINE BOYS was made into a popular movie. Real-life former vaudevillians Jack Benny and George Burns were to have starred as Willie and Al. However, Benny died just before production started, causing Walter Matthau (who had played Oscar Madison in THE ODD COUPLE on stage and screen) to step in as Willie. Fortunately, Matthau does an outstanding job playing a man in his seventies; this could be his greatest performance. Matthau's Willie is the kvetch whose temper tantrums (he swears a little too much for my taste, though) conceal, until it is almost too late, the fact that he really loves and needs Burns' mild-mannered Al. It is a luxury to have such a talent as Richard Benjamin as Willie's "straight man" nephew. The final scenes of the movie, set in Willie's apartment where he is recuperating from a heart attack, always bring tears to my eyes. THE SUNSHINE BOYS is a perfect example of a comedy that touches your heart as it makes you laugh out loud.

Just because most of Neil Simon's work doesn't appeal to me doesn't mean he never hits the bullseye. I've always loved his brassier, vaudeville-inspired early work, where he was simply and shamelessly out to make you laugh, as with this movie. There are 'serious' moments here, but they're not destinations, just short bridges to more one-liners. For some, this represents artistic laziness, but I find Simon doesn't do 'serious/introspective' well at all: he's a seltzer bottle in an age of plastic Evian containers. THE SUNSHINE BOYS is one of the funniest urban comedies to have emerged from the 70s, an era that produced a lot of good ones. Simon, here working with archetypes as familiar to him as an old shoe & comfortably in his element, whips up a consistently hilarious 100 minutes. Matthau and Burns are great, but you already knew that; Richard Benjamin, however, is the film's secret weapon. He plays Matthau's long-suffering nephew/agent, and some of the biggest laughs in the film are his - such as the closeup of his face in the elevator following Matthau's blown audition for the potato-chip commercial that opens the film. He wears an utterly blank, almost zen expression of serenity-in-utter-failure. A later scene at the Friars Club, which has him desperately pleading with Burns on the phone while Matthau harangues him outside the phone booth, is played to comedic perfection. And all of his exchanges with Matthau had this viewer in convulsions. Matthau holds up a roll of paper towels and grumbles, "Here! Why didn't you get me an audition for this?" Benjamin, sighing deeply and painfully, responds, "I did get you that audition, Uncle Willy. You kept calling it 'toilet paper', remember?" The chemistry between Benjamin and the two leads is actually better than that between Burns and Matthau. (Although their scenes are very funny, the climactic "Doctor sketch" is subpar burlesque, nowhere near the quality of buffoonery we'd been led to expect. It's a disappointment, but a small one.) The rest of the film is nearly always on the mark and very satisfying; as a bonus, there's great NYC location shooting (always a plus in any movie).

When one thinks of the films and stage plays of writer, Neil Simon, popular titles like "The Odd Couple" and "The Goodbye Girl" usually come to mind for most people. But I always think of Simon's wonderful show biz comedy, "The Sunshine Boys". Over the years I would catch here and there, bits and pieces of this 1975 film on late night television. For some reason, I never got to see the whole thing. Well finally this chuckle inducing movie has come to DVD and I love it! In the story we meet Willy Clark (Walter Matthau) a septuagenarian and former half of the legendry, Vaudeville comedy team of 'Lewis & Clark'. He now spends his days traveling the streets of NYC, going on casting calls. Willy drives both directors, casting people and his agent/nephew, Ben Clark (Richard Bejamin) crazy with his stubborn and obnoxious behavior. It looks like forced retirement is in the wings. But at the last moment, Ben comes up with a big job offer. ABC television wants Willy and his former partner, Al Lewis (George Burns) to have a one time only reunion and bring back a 'Lewis and Clark' sketch for a "History of Comedy" special. There is just one...little catch. These two elderly, comedians literally can't stand the sight of each other! Just getting them into the same room is a major undertaking. This humorous film shows us how this original 'odd couple', fight it out during their reunion and eventually come to terms with each other. Herbert Ross's direction is steady and well done. But what really makes this film is Neil Simon's story and hilarious back & forth dialogue, which is filled with both zingers and heart.I love how as Willy leaves his botched casting call, he gives a speech to his nephew, Ben on what words can get a laugh. "Alka-Selzer is funny...Pickle is funny...anything with a K in it." The casting in this film is sheer perfection. Yes, we have seen Matthau do his 'grumpy old man' before and since. But this is the actor doing it at his best! His Willy Clark is truely a stubborn force of nature, who would rather spite himself then be proven wrong. George Burns is also very good (he won the 1975 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor) in the role of a elderly, sedentary comedian, who although slowed down physically by age, can still turn around and zing his partner with acid-like comebacks. I also particulary like Richard Benjamin's portrayal as Willy's nephew and agent. Yes, we have seen Benjamin do this part before as the guy, who's pulling his hair out and getting an ulcer. But behind the comedy schtick you can tell, that the character really does care about his Uncle and wants what is best for him. Finally look for Howard Hesseman (of WKRP fame) in a small, but very funny role of a director, who is practically being tortured by Willy Clark's obstinance at a casting call for a potato chip commercial. You have to see it, to believe it! The DVD for the film is only fair. The sound and picture could be better. Extras include Richard Benjamin's commentary, a theatrical trailer, an MGM promotional film about the movies they were putting out in 1975, make up and screen tests for various actors up for the roles. This is one of Neil Simon's best works. For an evening a great comedy, I highly recommend "The Sunshine Boys"!

From the wisecracking opening salvos to the heartfelt ending this movie is sheer hilarity that leaves you with more than badda bing badda boom punchlines and broad brush slapstick. It allows us a look under the grease paint of two vaudevillians who have been through the trials and triumphs of one of comedy's most unique times and how when brought back together for a nostalgic revisit fall back into their act and old habits which agitate each other to our delight. Walter Matthau plays Willie who is the partner who never learned when to quit and is constantly looking for that next great venue which will catapult him back to the fame he had. Unfortunately the ravages of age have made him forgetful and he has trouble remembering his lines, among other things, and then tries to improvise a wisecrack to cover his mistake that leaves the audience in hysterics. George Burns plays his retired partner and straightman Al Lewis. The flow of one liners and crisp dialogue keep the movie at a rapid pace and there is no end to the scene stealing and, in Matthau's case, scene chewing that keeps you laughing throughout. Each scene reveals that their act was their relationship and they used this to cover their friendship which had become strained by the demands of the businesss. They were business associates who were very good working together. However they both had mutual professional respect for each other's talents and this in the end helped to reveal the genuine affection that they had for each other. This is a movie for all ages and all families who wish to see a couple of masters who can use pathos, a sharp tongue, and a quick wit to entertain and make you laugh.

the best comibination is here. the cast is perfect and the dialogues are amazingly witty. a must see..