I thought the stage musical adapted from Mel Brooks' classic 1968 film was terrific and if anything even more outrageous than the movie. So it's strange that this movie based on the musical should feel so tame by comparison. It doesn't have that bawdy, let's offend everyone sense of fun that Brooks projects usually have, and it all feels a little lacklustre. Still, if you like the stage version, you'll probably have fun with this movie, as it's a virtual recreation, and the music sounds great.
What I appreciate most about this movie is its willingness to be an old-fashioned movie musical. Unlike "Chicago," which felt the need to justify all of its musical numbers as fantasy sequences taking place in the mind of a principal character, "The Producers" has people just breaking spontaneously into song, no apologies. If you're going to watch it, you have to accept that people are going to sing and dance and get on with it. And since most of the people in the film performed in the original Broadway cast, the songs are sung and danced well. Will Ferrell is new to the material, but he equips himself nicely as neo-Nazi Franz Liebkind and brings a lot of energy to his scenes. I would love to report that Uma Thurman stops the show as Ulla, the Swedish bombshell, but she doesn't. Uma, God love her, doesn't have the chops or the dancing skills to put over Ulla's big number, though the film makers do use her height to humorous advantage.
I love the original film, but I don't worship it like some others, so I'm not as averse to playing with the material, and I didn't feel the need to compare Nathan Lane's and Matthew Broderick's performances to those of Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. They don't really reinterpret the material as much as recreate it, but that's o.k. We're not talking about doing a Eugene O'Neill revival here, and Brooks's material has only so much depth to mine. This movie is a fun way to pass a couple of hours. It's never boring, and it was wringing plenty of laughs from the audience I saw it with.
Grade: B+
What I appreciate most about this movie is its willingness to be an old-fashioned movie musical. Unlike "Chicago," which felt the need to justify all of its musical numbers as fantasy sequences taking place in the mind of a principal character, "The Producers" has people just breaking spontaneously into song, no apologies. If you're going to watch it, you have to accept that people are going to sing and dance and get on with it. And since most of the people in the film performed in the original Broadway cast, the songs are sung and danced well. Will Ferrell is new to the material, but he equips himself nicely as neo-Nazi Franz Liebkind and brings a lot of energy to his scenes. I would love to report that Uma Thurman stops the show as Ulla, the Swedish bombshell, but she doesn't. Uma, God love her, doesn't have the chops or the dancing skills to put over Ulla's big number, though the film makers do use her height to humorous advantage.
I love the original film, but I don't worship it like some others, so I'm not as averse to playing with the material, and I didn't feel the need to compare Nathan Lane's and Matthew Broderick's performances to those of Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. They don't really reinterpret the material as much as recreate it, but that's o.k. We're not talking about doing a Eugene O'Neill revival here, and Brooks's material has only so much depth to mine. This movie is a fun way to pass a couple of hours. It's never boring, and it was wringing plenty of laughs from the audience I saw it with.
Grade: B+