Went to East Coast for some sunet pics, but didn't get in a nice location, since the sun was setting in quite an awkward position.. Managed to get this shot of a fisherman line with the sunset in the background...
It looks way to heavy for my liking too. Very overcontrasty. I like the colour palette here, but I feel maybe going a little easier on the contrast, black point and saturations (both shadow and highlight saturation) might have helped.
The parameters that I'm listing here apply in Photomatix. I'm not sure where you perform your HDR work on, but I hope they help.