Sadly Over-hyped

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

"They were your friends!" cries Maggie Harwood when she walks in on the pistol-holding, aged but well preserved Philippe. Lying on the rug behind him are his two, now dead, associates. "Well,' says Philippe, "we weren't that close." Maggie (Penelope Ann Miller) is the heroine in this romantic comedy thriller. While the hero is the overly handsome, strong-jawed and mustachioed Oliver Plexico (Tim Daly), the real sex appeal comes from Philippe as played by 73-year-old Louis Jourdan. This was his last film. While many may remember him as the dashing and love-struck Gaston Lachaille in Gigi, he remains more fondly in my heart as Dr. Arcane in Swamp Thing. Like Dr. Arcane, Philippe is an incorrigibly well-mannered, egocentric and murderous creep. I suspect there are few actors as good as Jourdan who would be willing to semi-sing, while smacking his lips, leering and snapping his fingers, "There are chicks just ripe for some kissin' / And I mean to kiss me a few! / Then those chicks don't know what they're missin' / I got a lot of livin' to do!" Jourdan does it. It's grotesquely funny. The Year of the Comet is all about wine, and especially about an extraordinarily rare bottle of wine, an 1811 Lafite, that was once part of Bonaparte's cellar. In auction it could bring at least a million dollars. Maggie, who works for her father, the wine merchant Sir Mason Harwood (Ian Richardson), is sent to Scotland to appraise an extensive wine collection that Harwood and Company may be commissioned to place in auction. Maggie, who knows almost as much about wine as her father, may be "a funny, over-worked ragamuffin" but she got the assignment from her father by telling him he either gives her this chance to show just how good she is or she's quitting. Now she's knocking on the great oaken door of an isolated Scottish castle to appraise the wine. Unknown to Maggie, she's interrupting the torture of the owner by Philippe and his men. Philippe assures his victim that shoving the hypodermic needle with a certain drug right in the eyeball won't interfere with the man's vision...although it will cause exquisite pain later with each blink. All that we know is that there is a formula Philippe is determined to have. Maggie is taken to the cellar and this is when, brushing off centuries of cobwebs and grime while she looks at these hundreds of encrusted wine bottles, she makes her discovery...the 1811 Lafite. And it's just a short while later that Maggie makes more discoveries. First, she finds Oliver looking for her, the man who prefers beer and calls wine a beverage. She met him at a wine tasting at Harwoods. She and Oliver discover the body of the owner in the wine cellar and they discover Philippe and his crew absconding with the bottle of Lafite. The chase is on! Sometimes Maggie and Oliver chase Philippe. Sometimes he's chasing them. They chase around with cars, motorbikes, helicopters, airplanes and rowboats. They chase scenically through the cold, rocky mountains of Scotland and the warm slopes of the French Rivera. Maggie and Oliver bicker, kiss, bicker, fall in love and bicker. And then they wind up having to listen to Philippe sing "Gotta lotta livin' to do." By now we've realized (this is no spoiler) that this adventure has as much to do with the secret formula and glands as it has to do with wine. Year of the Comet strains to be a Hitchcock romantic thriller. While it doesn't come close it's an engaging, undemanding romp. The script is by William Goldman, a man who knows what he's doing with this sort of thing. Try Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or The Princess Bride. He works wonders with the clichés he deliberately uses. The direction, however, is a letdown. It's clunky and never lets the script build much steam, either in the chases or in the romance department. I don't know what happened to Peter Yates, but the director of Bullitt, Breaking Away and Eyewitness just doesn't seem engaged. Miller and Daly are attractive enough, although Daly is better at being handsome than at being an amusing speaker of clever lines. Cary Grant needn't worry. The real pleasures of the movie, other than the plot, are Louis Jourdan (now nearly 90 and living in France) and Ian Richardson, such a sly actor. Ian McNeice as one of Philippe's men holds his own. Year of the Comet is amusing fluff, undemanding and a pleasant adventure. I liked it enough to have watched it twice in four years.

It is a little bit cheesy but very entertaining movie. Sometimes the scenes are too exaggerated but especially with the performance of the male lead, it is very funny and entertaining. This movie made me feel like the actors and the producers enjoyed making it as much as I did when I watched it. There is some sort of easiness and natural flow in the storytelling.I must admit I am a big fan of the lead actor, Tom Daly, from the TV show "Wings". I think he is really funny yet gorgeous. In this movie, he is the goofy and not-so-gentleman American chasing after this elegant European girl. Of course, the situations and contradictions are not very original, they are almost cliché, but he is very good at giving it a personal touch. I don't like writing spoilers but without giving away too much I must say, pay attention to the scene where he is in great pain after confronting the bottle box thieves, or when he is under the window of the girl. Also, the scene where he is trying to stall the bad guy saying "Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, .." numerous times. He definitely gives 110% effort in creating his character. Especially the mustache, funny, ridiculous yet still charming.. :) The lead actress is funny and beautiful, definitely carrying the hidden treasures of a beautiful,naive, stubborn and yet intelligent and diligent girl. Also, it is amazing how different she can look in different scenes, scenery, costumes, etc. But I must say, I am not that much impressed with her acting; a little weak compared to the main guy.The supporting actors are great, too. I liked the lady who runs the local hotel/b&b talking to her son! Don't expect an Oscar-winning moment but truly delightful for a night in your cozy home with someone you love (guys,you will have fun, too, believe me) :)

I have walked out of about 6 movies my entire life. This was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I don't know how I sat through an hour of it. I must have been in a coma that night. I saw it in the theatre when it came out 8 years ago. I couldn't even remember the name, but I knew that Penelope Ann Miller starred in it. It must have really affected me to be wasting my time commenting on it today. Yech! Vomit! Barf!

This film was a total bore! The only reasons I watched it were Ian Richardson and Nick Brimble. The so-called "romantic leads" were extremely annoying and unlikeable. The plot line was excruciatingly dull and the lead actors were absolutely dreadful. I kept hoping they would get killed soon. The only reason I even saw this film disaster was that my PBS station went off the air and the closest tv channel was broadcasting this waste of celluloid. I saw Ian Richardson and decided I would tune in. I saw those awful "romantic lead" actors, who I have never heard of previously, and was about to tune out. Then I saw Nick Brimble and thought I'd watch this awful film. He died in the film and I should have turned the tv off! I kept hoping he'd come back to life and kill those two awful lead actors! No such luck! Don't waste your time. Stupid dialogue! Boring premise! Yuck!