- Overview
Tom Mix and Wyatt Earp team up to solve a murder at the Academy Awards in 1929 Hollywood.
- Release Date
29 April 1988
- DirectingBlake Edwards
- Budget
$16,000,000.00
- Revenue
$4,594,452.00
- Stars
Videos
User Reviews
See moreDrewBlack
23 June 2021
This is one of those cases of a movie that should have worked way better than it did. Just the very idea of watching Earp and Mix solving some murder mystery in Holywood sounds incredible and fun to watch. However, Edwards' screenplay never truly finds its identity, floating between Neo-Noir, Western and Comedy. Maybe paired in Noir-Western or Comedy-Western it would've worked better: it just didn't know wheter to take itself seriously or not. That is, however, the only real problem with it. The production and time setting is awesome, with a shoutout to the costume design. Mix's especially. The colors are a sight to see, creating a warm-hot feel to the movie, reminiscent of the Western, but in a Noir setting. Mancini's soundtrack is one of the best I've ever heard. Perhaps as a consequence of the film's lack of true identity, Mancini went every which way with it. His "Sunday west" bits combined with more somber and serious tracks - reminiscent of his work on Touch of Evil (1958) - just complete each other so well. Willis is in a point in his career that is intersting to watch. Even before his greatest hit (and masterwork) Die Hard (1988), in which he hadn't found his persona yet. Still, he looks and sounds much like the star he would become months later, with a touch of Mix-cowboy in. He is a very "light" presence on-screen, and in the good way. McDowell is always a convincing actor, and his "Happy Hobo" Alfie Alperin is quite fun to watch - especially given the parallels to another Happy Hobo, Chaplin's The Tramp - but he isn't given a lot of screen time, and from the very beginning, it's quite clear that he is the villain. But the highlight of the film is the veteran James Garner. His incarnation of the legendary frontier lawman Wyatt Earp is (albeit anachronistic) one of the best. In my opinion, only second to Kurt Russell's in Tombstone (1993). That "hawk-eyed" archetype that Earp basically defines in pop-culture was very well-captured by Garner - even out of his "natural habitat" of the west. Sunset is a very fun, lighthearted buddy movie. It is a great movie that should have been an all time classic, yet it somehow feels right. It's a one-of-a-kind curio piece. And my heart says it deseves more recognition. Give or take a star or two.
More Like This
Scarface
In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant and notorious thug, Antonio 'Tony' Camonte, aka Scarface, shoots his way to the top of the mobs while trying to...
See more
The Big Sleep
Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood regarding a matter involving his youngest daughter Carmen. Before the...
See more
Dead Man
William Blake, an accountant turned fugitive, is on the run. During his travels, he meets a Native American man called Nobody, who guides him on a...
See more
Lethal Weapon
Veteran buttoned-down LAPD detective Roger Murtaugh is partnered with unhinged cop Martin Riggs, who -- distraught after his wife's death -- has a...
See more
Lethal Weapon 2
In the opening chase, Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh stumble across a trunk full of Krugerrands. They follow the trail to a South African diplomat...
See more
Lethal Weapon 3
Archetypal buddy cops Riggs and Murtaugh are back for another round of high-stakes action, this time setting their collective sights on bringing...
See more
Lethal Weapon 4
Officers Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh of the Los Angeles Police Department must stop a dangerous crime lord from China from getting his brother...
See more
Heat
Obsessive master thief Neil McCauley leads a top-notch crew on various daring heists throughout Los Angeles while determined detective Vincent...
See more
Mission: Impossible III
Retired from active duty, and training recruits for the Impossible Mission Force, agent Ethan Hunt faces the toughest foe of his career: Owen...
See more
The Maltese Falcon
A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a beautiful liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.
See more
Raw Deal
Mark Kaminsky is kicked out of the FBI for his rough treatment of a suspect. He winds up as the sheriff of a small town in North Carolina. FBI...
See more
Out of Time
Matt Lee Whitlock, respected chief of police in small Banyan Key, Florida, must solve a vicious double homicide before he himself falls under...
See more
Cop Land
Freddy Heflin is the sheriff of a place everyone calls “Cop Land” — a small and seemingly peaceful town populated by the big city police officers...
See more
Body of Evidence
When an elderly millionaire is found dead with cocaine in his system, his will leaves $8 million to Rebecca Carlson, who was having an affair with...
See more
Net Games
The successful publicist Adam Vance of the SFC is in the middle of a campaign to get an important Japanese client and is needy of sex because his...
See more
Breakdown
When his SUV breaks down on a remote Southwestern road, Jeff Taylor lets his wife, Amy, hitch a ride with a trucker to get help. When she doesn't...
See more
Parasites
A group of friends get lost in the seedy streets where they encounter a crazed gang of homeless derelicts that seizes them and kills them one by...
See more
Blazing the Western Trail
Stage line owner Brent has his men robbing Halliday stages and when his manager Waring learns of it, Brent has him killed. Jeff Waring arrives and...
See more
We Own the Night
A New York nightclub manager tries to save his brother and father from Russian mafia hitmen.
See more