The Boys of Twilight (1992)

Richard Farnsworth (The Grey Fox) and Wilford Brimley (Cocoon and all those Quaker Oats commercials) are both veteran actors who radiate warmth, wisdom, and stubborn individualism. The Boys of Twilight draws upon their familiar charms, casting them as lawmen in a rustic mountain town called Twilight. Farnsworth is the calm, wise sheriff; Brimley is his eccentric, obstreperous deputy. Their byplay provides light relief in this weekly crime drama — we're supposed to be amused by these crusty old duffers even as we admire their mystery-solving skills. The cast is rounded out by Oscar-winning Louise Fletcher (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) as the sheriff's wife, Amanda McBroom as Twilight's mayor, and Ben Browder as a young hunk of a new deputy who faints whenever he hears a loud sound. The Boys of Twilight is, as you might imagine, way too cute, and the crime plots already seem recycled from old episodes of Murder, She Wrote and Jake and the Fatman. If Boysdraws a sizable audience, it will probably be due to the low-key comic chemistry between Brimley and Farnsworth. C