n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

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

When the film begins, Harry Regan comes knocking on the door of retired fellow private eye Ira Wells (Art Carney). Regan's been shot and soon dies. Wells vows to find the man's murderer...even though he's rather old and paunchy. Soon, he meets a SUPER-quirky lady (Lily Tomlin) who whines again and again about her stolen dog and together the pair get pulled into this mystery.Whether you like or hate this film is strongly dependent on what you think of Tomlin's character. Some might find her funny and cute. Others, like me, might find her super-annoying and unfunny. For example, when Wells is at his friend's funeral, this woman (who doesn't even know him at this point) interrupts and goes on and on and on insisting Wells must drop everything to retrieve her stolen dog. Lady...the man's friend was JUST MURDERED and you're whining about a dog?! Her complete lack of social skills and empathy really, really annoyed me--to the point that I really didn't care what happened to her. I just wanted her to go away...and stay! A fatal problem that ruins an otherwise interesting take on Film Noir.By the way, seeing the car explode when Ira shoots the tire of a speeding car was pretty stupid...sloppy and unrealistic.UPDATE: Soon after I wrote this, another IMDb user,'themathexpert', contacted me to tell me it was stolen cat, not a dog. Oops. Sorry about that. Guess I hated the character so much I was not listening to much of what she said.

The balancing of Lily Tomlin and Art Carney as the stars of this feature is a brilliant idea for a team. Lily's whims bounce off Carney very well. While Carney is no youngster here, age has never bothered his acting. He is great.Robert Altman wanted thee 2 to star in this detective noir type of film. there is little reason to doubt this would work, and it does. I really enjoy watching these 2 pros work together and a strong script and story make it go smoothly,The coincidence is Tomlin looking for her kidnapped cat, just a couple of years after Carney had a cat in his brilliant film "Harry & Tonto." This movie is much more serious but there are several spots where the humor shows brightly through. Bill Macy from TV's Maude is one of several very good supporting actors in the cast.The Late Show is a very good movie.

Ira Wells (Art Carney) is a wheezing, semi-retired private dick who is more likely to meet your concerns with a disinterested eye roll than with genuine interest. Margo (Lily Tomlin), on the other hand, is the definition of kooky: she designs every single piece of clothing she wears, is prone to babbling like a Woody Allen heroine, and isn't afraid to ask wheezing, semi-retired private dicks (see what I did there) if they would be interested in helping them find their recently catnapped kitty. They drive each other mad — Ira is too quiet and Margo is too talkative — but I'll be damned if they don't make for a fantastic, if eccentric, detective duo. They're like Nick and Nora Charles, Margo muses at one point, minus the opulence, sex, marriage, doggy sidekick. These days, ulcer related episodes, madcap car chases, tawdry villains, and cat starring plot devices will have to do.I love The Late Show. I love that it isn't quite a comedy or a neo-noir romp, existing somewhere cheekily in-between. I love Ira's contagious bitterness and his old school haggardness, unafraid to call a woman a dolly instead of an actual name, unafraid to walk around silently when his eyes are quoting Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon. I love the hilarious weirdness Tomlin brings to Margo, and how she can deliver snappy lines at lightning speed like it's no big deal. This is an intelligent movie made by intelligent people (Robert Atman is executive producer), one that is both entertaining enough for the casual viewer and whip-smart enough for buffs seeking out something kinda Foul Play and something kinda The Long Goodbye.When we are first introduced to Ira Wells, he wants to take a break from sleuthing. The world, however, is much too seedy for him to really take a break from cases. This notion becomes abundantly clear when an old friend shows up on his doorstep, shot in the stomach, dead only a few seconds later. Poor Ira. With his hearing aids, huge gut, and graying hairline, he's so unhealthy looking that he seems like the kind to go to a local diner, ask for the senior menu, only to suddenly have a heart attack. But whatever. Crime comes calling, you may as well answer back. After the funeral, he is approached by, you guessed it, Margo, inquiring about, you guessed it, her stolen cat. Ira takes the case, hesitantly, I might add, but much to his dismay, he finds that the situation is much more complicated than it seems. After years of thinking he's probably seen it all, he becomes tangled in a big ole mess of deceit, murder, and deadly femmes. The usual.But The Late Show is hardly a Harper or a Farewell, My Lovely. Ira is way too old to still be in the game, and a woman like Margo should not be tagging along as his Lauren Bacall. I can't say that The Late Show knows this and "runs with it", because it doesn't necessarily run with it. It knows that it concocts a questionable situation, but instead of trying to make things outrageously zany to match the oddness, it just shrugs and lets things happen. Funny things. Tomlin is a ball of fire, inhabiting a role Barbara Stanwyck or Katharine Hepburn may have landed in their glory days; her chemistry with Carney is so backward that we can't help but sit back and wonder aloud how these two will ever get along. When they do, for better or worse, the rapport is wondrous. When they don't, the rapport is still wondrous. With Tomlin in tow, the mandatory "detecting" scenes become electric after years of cynicism: who knew that a shady run-in with a suspicious wife and a dead body could ring with such infectious humor?As the ending approached, the sadder I became: I didn't want The Late Show to end. Of course, it's too good to have a sequel or a later sitcom of the same name, but I think the point is that I could watch Ira and Margo solve cases together for hours upon hours. Ira is the kind of intimidating question mark you want to get to know, and Margo has the kind of voice you want to hear mumbling at a constant pace. I like these people, and we simply don't have enough movies that are smart but also emotionally involving. Like the best of comedies, this one is effortlessly engaging.Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com

As many who have left comments before me have observed, this film echos the detective stories of the 1930s and 1940s. I would go a little further and suggest that the premise of the movie is what would the case be like if Philip Marlowe were roped into a mystery when he was pushing 80? Howard Duff's scene early in the film and even his character's name evoke The Big Sleep while Chandler allusions continue through the film. Art Carney's superbly underplayed Ira Wells is unquestionably an avatar of Marlowe surviving into the late 1970s and into his late 70s. He's a bit deaf, a bit slow, a bit more crotchety but he's still that one moral man walking down "these mean streets" of L.A.Benton has done some extraordinary work, but this is his elevation to the sublime, a movie that one can watch again and again. It's a minor masterpiece. If producer Altman's own The Long Goodbye had been as good a Raymond Chandler film as this is, Goodbye would have risen to the level of the other two incomparable films of Chandler novels: the Howard Hawkes, Bogart and Bacall The Big Sleep and the Robert Mitchum Farewell, My Lovely.