This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I love Neil Simon's work; George Burns- one of the funniest straight-man of all time; Walter Matthau among my favorites- How could this all-star lineup finish in last place?The opening scene of the pigeon standing on George M. Cohan's statue is the best part of the movie.The rest is worse than crash and burn, it's burn the whole way down before crashing into nothingness.

'The Sunshine Boys' is about the imminent reunion of two vaudeville era comedians. However, it is not so easy to organize a successful creative collaboration between two volatile actors who have not spoken in two decades. This is not a film for viewers who don't appreciate slow films. It is neither a slow film per se nor does it feature a quick succession of events. This Herbert Ross film starts in a slow manner but gathers pace as the story progresses. If one says that the life of an old person is difficult, one can only imagine how difficult would the lives of two creative old men be. There is a lot for audiences as a lot of questions are raised about actors especially their lives and acting methods. It is said that old people are left to fend for themselves. However, one has to appreciate the dedication with which a young nephew takes care of his old uncle. Lastly, a viewer would remember this film as an excellent creative endeavor aimed at depicting true feelings of actors who are past their prime.

Without doubt, one of my all-time favourite funny men has to be the late, great Walter Matthau. That marvellous deadpan face combined with his unmistakable, gawky walk used to have me in fits of laughter. He was at his best in Neil Simon comedies such as 'The Odd Couple' ( 1968 ), and, of course, this, also based on a stage play. He plays 'Willy Clark' an elderly comedian who, back in the days of vaudeville, was half of a popular double act with 'Al Lewis' ( George Burns ). Lewis retired at the height of their fame, feeling the act had gone about as far as it could. Willy disagreed, and tried to keep working but failed to make it as a solo act ( an audition for a commercial for Krumpies' potato chips goes wrong when Willy nearly chokes on the things ). The two men have not spoken in years. Al is now in a home while Willy lives on his own. Ben ( the excellent Richard Benjamin ), Willy's nephew and agent, tries to bring the pair together to recreate a classic dentist sketch for a television tribute to the vaudeville era. But the acrimony has not died with the passage of time. Al annoys Willy in other ways, such as prodding him in the chest with his finger during arguments and unintentionally spitting on him. When they meet after all these years, the insults fly thick and fast...Directed by Herbert Ross, this lovely movie saw the welcome return of George Burns to the big screen. His laid-back delivery contrasts nicely with Matthau's more manic approach. "If you were on fire you still wouldn't be hot!" he tells Willy at one point. His Oscar for 'Best Supporting Actor' enabled him to make a long overdue comeback, appearing in, amongst other things, Larry Gelbart's 'Oh God!' ( 1977 ). Lee Meredith, the busty nurse in the dentist sketch, was 'Ulla' in Mel Brooks' 'The Producers' ( 1968 ).What you have in this film are two wonderfully funny men sparring on screen, each equipped with an arsenal of witty Neil Simon dialogue. What more could you want?

There are three themes running through this Neil Simon comedy: (1) Jokes about the forgetful condition and other deficits of old people, (2) Resentment between two Jewish ex-vaudevillians (Matthau and Burns), and (3) The problems inherent in organizing a presentation of their famous medical sketch for a reunion on a television special on the history of comedy.They're all reasonably well handled. It's like "The Odd Couple" forty years on, only this time with a mediator, Richard Benjamin as Matthau's agent/nephew, the harried young man with the chest pains.Both men may be frail and scatterbrained but Burns is at least sane, while Matthau's character is a bitter curmudgeon filled with dislike and sometimes outright contempt for everyone, even those who try to help him. He can be dangerously out of control too, hobbling around after Burns with a kitchen knife, crashing into the furniture.It's not as funny as "The Odd Couple" though, not in the same way at any rate. Some of the gags seem a little forced and others, not forced, aren't especially amusing. Example: Benjamin opens the door when Burns knocks and says, "Oh, how are you, Mr. Lewis? Come in." And Burns replies, "How are you, I'm Al Lewis." That's funny? The same kind of ritualistic exchange is derailed over and over.The vaudeville sketch we see has gags that are so crusty with age that it's difficult to imagine that people once paid to see them. And it ends with a deus ex heart attack, which signals not only a collapse of the body but of the writer's imagination.Still, Simon hasn't lost his touch with verbal gags. "I'm okay," Burns tells Matthau at their first meeting in years. "The blood still circulates. It doesn't circulate EVERYWHERE but it circulates." Matthau gets off this impossible tirade when Burns visits him in New York and demands that, in the sketch, Matthau use the phrase "Come in," instead of "Enter." "You know the trouble with you? You're out of touch. I look out this window and I see everything. I see people scrounging, running. I see traffic. I see car crashes. I see murders. I see fighting. I see jumpers off roofs! You sit on your porch and you see a lawnmower. You see the milkman!" Burns: "And that's why you won't say 'Come in'?"Matthau's minor cardiac spasm leads to a warmer, though ironic, conclusion. Matthau is finally convinced that he should set up his life in a new setting, a home for retired actors in New Jersey. He's convalescing at home and is visited by Burns, who informs him that, now that his (Burns') daughter is going to have a baby, he's going to leave her house and live in a home for retired actors in New Brunswick, New Jersey. "I hope you'll come visit me," he says. "You can count on it," Matthau replies, burying his head under the covers.It has more sentiment than "The Odd Couple" and its comedy, except for Matthau's outright lunacy, is less barbed. Matthau is great as he slouches around his cluttered New York apartment in a bathrobe, mumbling to himself.You'll probably enjoy it, and thank God Matthau's character doesn't die.