User Reviews

A forgettable easygoing romp in the rich tourist section of Mexico, this movie was hamstrung from the beginning with its insurance scam plot - not an exciting prospect. Grodin is the maverick investigator whom the head of the insurance company wants on the job even though he caused them some problems in the past. Grodin plays this sort of slack jawed throughout, to the point of annoyance. Farrah joins up as his make believe wife. This was Farrah in her prime, just post the silly Angels TV show and before she got into serious actress mode. It's her middle film in the 'S' trio - all of which bombed. She & Grodin are incompatible, in more ways than one, and the fact she does end up in bed with him feeds the fantasies of many a middle-aged males. Art Carney's a private eye employed by Grodin; he brings in the usual feisty old man humor. Joan Collins shows up as a rich, horny wife. A lot of the scenes are plain stupid, such as Grodin dressing up in a night prowler outfit for no reason, other than to appear stupid. But, since all of this takes place in hot weather, Farrah usually wears something skimpy. There's also a fairly exciting car chase in the last third, including a run-in with a bull - some of those shots looked very realistic, to the detriment of the bull.

A rich old man has a suspicious fatal car accident in Acapulco, and his widow wants his insurance company to pony up $5 million. What can they do? "Get me Jake Decker!" barks company bigwig Keenan Wynn. OK, they get hotshot investigator Decker to check it out, but he's played by Charles Grodin, whose self-consciously dry brand of comedy needs a script tailored to his style (like MIDNIGHT RUN, REAL LIFE, or 11 HARROWHOUSE, which he co-wrote, which explains a lot...but I digress... :-), which the routine insurance fraud plot of SUNBURN doesn't provide. What can the filmmakers do? Get Farrah Fawcett(-Majors, as she was then billed) at her most charming and dazzling, Art Carney in fine form, and a good supporting cast including Joan Collins (hilarious as a sex-crazy glamorpuss), Alejandro Rey, Seymour Cassel, John Hillerman, and brief bits by Eleanor Parker and the aforementioned Wynn. Put them in Acapulco's most beautiful locations, sprinkle in a few background tunes by 10 CC, and voila! You've made a blah crime caper into a lively, unassuming bit of fun for a lazy afternoon (or a snowy one, like the kind we've been having this week). Best sight gag: Farrah's insanely huge load of luggage (reminded me of trips with my mom). Cute seemingly off-the-cuff bit: Grodin mistaking the portrait of Collins' father for one of Lee Van Cleef. Farrah and Carney also get into a pretty good car chase that ends up in a bullring. If you stumble across this on cable and you have nothing better to do, this SUNBURN isn't painful at all!

I remember being very upset when Farrah left TV and started making movies. It was before VCRS and DVDS so once she was gone there was no way to see her every week. The movies that she made once she left didn't help with getting your Farrah fix. She still looked beautiful, but they didn't capture her personality the way her TV show was able to. This is a starring role for Farrah Fawcett (her second film after leaving Charlie's Angels) but it is Joan Collins who turns out to be the sexier of the two and who steals the film despite her small role. Charles Grodin is seriously miscast and makes the film hard to watch. Luckily the scenery is beautiful and so are the two women. This was the movie that made me realize how sexy Joan Collins really is. Watch her vamp it up in her Pre-Dynasty days.

Based on Stanley Ellin's not-bad mystery novel "The Bind", "Sunburn" became Farrah Fawcett's second attempt to resurrect her TV golden-touch at the movies (it drove her back to television after one more try, the sci-fi bomb "Saturn 3"). It has amusing fashions and disco music, a pleasant ambiance at the outset, lots of sand and sunshine, but a script that becomes murky early on. There are too many sub-plots and incidental characters here (such as Joan Collins in an indescribable bit). The central relationship between insurance investigator Charles Grodin and model Fawcett (posing as his wife) is curious but unsatisfying, and Art Carney has very little to do as a gumshoe. Not a disaster by any means, and '70s aficionados will soak up the clichés, but it's easy to see why "Sunburn" never attained much of a following: it's a commercial for Acapulco--not a movie. * from ****

Farrah's hair looked wonderful! Her eye makeup even stays on underwater! I also enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Acapulco.

It's not "Citizen Cane" nor is it suppose to be, but I will always love this movie. Definitely makes me think of the late 70s, with it's visuals and "neat-o" soundtrack with cool songs by Wings and 10cc. I seen it on Showtime in about 1981 and have loved it ever since. I also remember that I just about flipped when it played "With a little luck" at the end. Charles Grodin is hilarious and Farrah is stunning. Joan Collins is kind of a hot cougar as well, if you are into horny old winos, which I must be. It'd make a great triple feature of late 70s light entertainment and music with "Xanadu" and "FM". Perfect movie to watch on an air conditioned hot summer day.

Richard Sarafian's "Sunburn" is very much lighthearted comedy. It's not a movie that'll give you belly laughs, nor is there anything serious or explicit about it. Most of the humor derives from Charles Grodin's and Farrah Fawcett's personalities bouncing off each other. Nonetheless, the movie is a neat look at Acapulco (although I'm sure that the city is a lot more developed now), and the car chase at the end is to die for. That's what it is. Nothing special, just a plain old comedy/murder mystery.

Aside from the main stars and Art Carney, other cast members include Joan Collins, William Daniels (Dustin Hoffman's father in "The Graduate"), Keenan Wynn (Bat Guano in "Dr. Strangelove") and Alejandro Rey (Carlos Ramirez on "The Flying Nun", on an episode of which Fawcett played one of his love interests).

In 1979's strangely toned "Sunburn" insurance investigator Charles Grodin hires Farrah Fawcett to pose as his wife while he probes a dodgy death in Acapulco. There they're drawn into a bland plot involving blackmail & the mob with the likes of Joan Collins, Art Carney & Seymour Cassel. Director Richard C Sarafian and writers John Daly, Stephen Oliver & James Booth may have thought they had the best of both the mystery thriller & jaunty rom-com genres - but ended up falling between the two as neither funny nor tense: just pretty lame & pointless. What it DOES having going for it in retrospect though is its nostalgic Seventies feel - but that's not enough. Disappointing fare.

Rich man dies in a suspicious way. Widow wants a $5 mil insurance settlement. Enter Charles Grodin on the case to "fix" it for the insurance company and Farrah by his side as his pretend wife.

Could have been a film noir, but it's actually a lightish comedy-drama. But then, neither of the leads could pull off a real fim noir.

The movie is very much directed like a 70's TV movie. All the way down to the cheesy music. (Not including the WIngs song).

The movie is filled with character actors you will instantly recognize, adding to the TV movie feel. Farrah does a lot of dumb blonde giggling. She looks good, but the movie is really a triffle to be watched if you have nothing else to do.

"It's so bad, it's good." Farrah Fawcett has never looked better. And, maybe you have to like Charles Grodin's humor. He's like Albert Brooks, Jim Carey, or even Woody Allen, you either "get them" or you don't. I saw this as a comedy not an action flick. If you see it as a serious drama or action film you'll find all kinds of flaws including horrible acting by the insurance company's board of directors. But this seemed necessary in order to have Grodin "assigned" to investigate the death of the insured. Grodin is the "clueless" investigator. He is the anti-hero, he stumbles his way through everything with Farrah Fawcett there to rescue him. I guess I wouldn't mind stumbling around a bit if Farrah Fawcett were there to rescue me. Art Carney adds a wonderful "serious" performance as the local contact. It's harmless and funny, even endearing at times. I thoroughly enjoyed it even though it was "bad".

The same time Farrah Fawcett and then-husband Lee Majors produced his KILLER FISH in sunny Brazil, she went to sunnier Acapulco in an action-comedy almost entirely lacking humor...

And yet, helmed by VANISHING POINT director Richard C. Sarafian, the action sequences are pretty good, as are the bright shots in the glistening locale with a scantily-clad Farrah who, having just left CHARLIE'S ANGELS, was so hot/popular that anything she starred in could pass as Exploitation Cinema... Although SUNBURN is mostly a mainstream venture juggling too many characters while losing focus on the main plot: A rich old man's car crash might not be accidental, and his insurance company has to shell out 5M...

So Grodin, supposedly a troublesome private eye, is sent with Fawcett as his fake wife... But there's hardly any trouble or suspense surreptitiously investigating the man's family, including a lusty Joan Collins and the dead man's adult kids, a quiet Joan Goodfellow and womanizing Robin Clarke.

Meanwhile, Art Carney... as a gumshoe's gumshoe mentor... gets lost in a mix of neo noir crime and chaos wherein, since Grodin plays it so dry he hardly seems there at all, only Fawcett really shines... Which was obviously this film's backup plan that ultimately becomes pretty much everything.

This is one of my all time favorites. For pure entertainment value. I usually go for much more thought provoking films, but this one was fun. I saw it originally on cable many years ago. I still hear the 10cc song "I don't want to lose you. Dadda dadda da dah" and think of putting lotion on Farrah's back side while she lies with that bed sheet seductively covering her!(Which was much more enticing than actually seeing a nude scene.) With the dry comedy of Grodin, and his way of making you believe it could be you and the always likeable Art Carney I just wish I could've been there in Mexico with them. I almost became a Insurance Investigator! I wish I could find this on video. Stranded on an island, this would be one of my 5 films to keep.

It's been years since I've seen Sunburn from start to finish, but I still get a glimpse of parts of it from time to time. I taped it on TV in October 1985...then decided to tape the baseball playoffs (I'm a St. Louis Cardinals fan.) & wound up taking over about 40% of it.

It's still fun to watch that part of it, though. It confirms my belief that America (or the world) has never had a more gorgeous sex symbol than the scrumptious Ms. Fawcett (or Mrs. Majors, as I think she still was in 1979)! My TV & VCR were both brand new in late 1985 & the quality of the tape was surprisingly good...and has remained so over the years. Just watching Farah (and wishing I were Grodin!) is a fun way to pass some time. The plot was OK & the rest of the cast decent enough...but I have to admit that FFM's sexappeal & charisma make it a special one for me...even if it DOES jump from Farrah lying on a bed to a ground ball suddenly being hit to a second baseman! lol

Despite being labeled as a comedy, "Sunburn" really isn't one - its aim seems to be a light-hearted mystery. But there really isn't much mystery in this movie - much of the footage is more or less padding. I started to grow impatient as the movie progressed. I didn't find any of the going-ons amusing in any way. Also, there is some very bad editing that really sticks out like a sore thumb.

I was prepared to hate F.F.'s performance, but I was surprised. She isn't great, but her acting is a lot better than you'd think. And it's nice that her character isn't the expected bubblehead, but someone with average intelligence, and isn't a screaming wimp. However, the romantic pairing of F.F. and C.G. is one of the strangest and most unlikely pairings in motion picture history!

Charles Grodin plays a insurance investigator and Farrah Fawcett poses as his wife to solve murder. Art Carney is added for comedic relief to keep the movie rolling. Grodin is little serious as the usual roles that play in other movies. This is not Fawcett best role, but will show her acting ability in later movies as The Burning Bed and Extermities. Its not the best movie, but I like for the adventurous plot.

I love this movie! Farrah is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. It has Art Carney, and Joan Collins, and of course Charles Grodin. This movie reminds me of a two-part episode of Charlie's Angels.

After capturing the hearts and minds of most teen boys in America, Farrah Fawcett branched out into posters and films. Leaving behind "Charlie's Angels" and fame and fortune, Farrah embarked on her "S" trilogy. The middle installment in the trilogy was aptly titled "Sunburn"(the other two movies were called "Somebody Killed Her Husband" and "Saturn 3") and involved Miss Farrah's teaming with Charles Grodin and their ability to portray themselves as husband and wife. The reason for the elaborate ruse is to clean up a phony suicide claim. Insurance fraud has never seemed more exciting as it does here, where you can walk outside into the streets of Acapulco or slip into a million dollar chateau for a cocktail party. Speaking of posters this film has one of the best: Farrah in a one-piece that defies gravity, Grodin with a sidearm and Art Carney parachuting in on a pair of sunglasses with the ocean in the background. Oh, well, maybe you should purchase the poster instead. But if you don't wish to watch three straight Farrah Fawcett films on a summer' afternoon, pair this one up with the Mexican-set, Neo-Noir classic, "Against All Odds."