Producers: The Movie

Cafe Society
1

I love the original movie. (I have grave suspicions about anyone who doesn’t. Wanna make something of it?) I haven’t seen the Broadway version of The Producers and most of the reviews of the movie haven’t been promising. But, hey, it was supposed to be good, old fashioned Mel Brooks. And the last movie I saw The History of Violence and I had to wash the awful taste of that puke out of my brain.

And the movie is funny. Not great, but funny. The funniest movie I’ve seen in a long time, in fact.

I was really worried at the beginning, though. The first few minutes are a near exact replica of the original film and all any fan can think during those few minutes is how great, how much better, how irreplaceable Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder were. Much the same feeling I had while watching Spamalot. Comedians don’t get full credit for originating roles, even though normal actors can never step into their shoes and be as, well, comedic. Lane and Broderick are road company imitations of their betters, and my skin crawled.

Fortunately, the new material mostly makes up for it. Once the musical kicks in and the silliness starts, Brooks’ inspired bad taste sweeps you along. There’s a real difference between Brooks’ offensiveness and that of modern comics, at least in this movie. His bad taste makes fun both of what it’s satirizing and of itself. The stereotypes are so over-the-top that they become huggable.

Uma Thurman is totally miscast as Ula. She plays it as a role rather than inhabiting the part. Will Farrell, to my surprise, does the Nazi playwright to a fare-thee-well. He’s not Kenny Mars, but he isn’t Will Farrell either. Jon Lovitz has a scene-stealing little role that’s excellent. Roger Bart and Gary Beach are carried over from the play and know exactly how far to stretch believability. Far.

And the Springtime for Hitler play inside the play is a killer.

Yes, the reviews are right when they call it a filmed play rather than a movie. So? Why would you want to open this up and let the real world in? The movie is only a shaggy joke story to begin with.

Fans of old time comedy, relax and rejoice. It’s safe to go back to the movie theater.

2

I saw this yesterday with my family, and I feel the same way about it. I was the only one among our crew who’d seen it on Broadway - but I went after Broderick and Lane left. It’s a filmed play, and some of it isn’t that well-filmed. The jokes are theatre-style jokes, so some of them don’t translate well to a movie, especially at the beginning. The scene in the office was just strange because of the similarity to the first movie. I couldn’t stop comparing, and thinking how Nathan Lane really is turning into Zero Mostel.
Yes, Mostel and Wilder are better. Lane is all mugging and Broderick doesn’t have much underneath his nervous tics. But they’re both funny, and so is the movie. And I did like Jon Lovitz and the closing numbers.

I do think that the gay jokes, which of course are cheap anyway, felt wrong in the movie. Maybe I’m projecting or reacting to nothing, but they seemed to push the gags even further in the movie, and you didn’t get the sense that people were laughing because these are theatre strereotypes.

3

I may have to change my standing rule of never going to a film Will Farrell is in.

I loved the film of the Producers and had hoped to catch it on Broadway last summer, but my plans fell through so I was excited about it becoming a screen musical until I heard that Farrell and Lovitz would be in the cast.

4

I don’t like him either, but he’s fine here.

5

As my wife said after the movie, “That makes two films in which I’ve liked Will Ferrell. I may have to reconsider.” He’s fine when he’s not playing Will Ferrell. I can stretch my dislike of him to go that far as well.

Obviously, I’ve never seen a movie in which he’s the star, so I probably shouldn’t talk. But it’s highly unlikely that I ever will see a movie in which he’s the star. The trailers are sufficient.

From now on, maybe we could just have all bad movies star him and Uma Thurman (who’s all length and no breadth) and then we’d never have to think about them again. :slight_smile:

6

Saw this today. I like it a lot. I did have some minor annoyances, though. For one, the fact that Nathan Lane was playing Zero Mostel playing Max Bialystock. For another, what the heck was the point of the way-too-long recap scene in the jail cell?

Other than that, I thought it was great. I (being gay) was SO not offended by the gay jokes and laughed my copious ass off. And having never seen the whole 1968 film, I finally found out where the (I think) Doper carmen_ghia got his/her name!

7

First off, I never saw the Broadway show, so critics saying it was just a filmed version of the stage show didn’t bother me one bit.

I thought Lane was okay, but Broderick – while probably a better dancer than Gene Wilder – suffered in every other comparison. No way could Lane and Broderick ever equal the manic energy of Mostel and Wilder.

Every other supporting player, even Uma Thurman, did a great job.

I agree though, it dragged in the beginning.

8

On stage that’s a showstopper, but it doesn’t really work on film. I could not believe… make that COULD NOT BELIEVE!- that they kept that in but cut The King of Broadway, the Fiddler on the Roof parody that’s not only the opening chorus number but also one of the funniest bits in the whole show. I’m sure they filmed it and it will be on the DVD, but I’d love to have seen it on screen. There’s footage during the credits that they cut as well, which explains why the great Andrea Martin plays such a ciper role as “Old Lady Number 23” or whatever.

I’m another totally unoffended homo on the gay stereotypes. For one thing, it’s as much a parody of theater folks as of gays, and for another the show’s a farce. Also, there were at least three openly gay actors in the scene (Gary Beach, Nathan Lane, and Jai Rodriguez [who has a glitter pasty nippled cameo as Sabu the Houseboy]) which almost adds to the joke.

I liked that two other B’way Max Bialystoks had cameos: Richard Kind and Michael McKean. I didn’t recognize any of the Leo Bloom replacements, and unfortunately Gene Wilder wasn’t in it (he’d have been great as Mr. Marx or the Judge or in any role any where- I don’t know if he was offered a part or not).

Overall I’d give it a B, though it had some A moments. And if you see, BE SURE TO STAY THROUGH THE FINAL CREDITS. There’s a musical blip at the end The same one that’s on the B’way recording (“Thanks for coming to see our show…”) and it includes a cameo by Mel himself.

9

Dammit! I was specifically waiting for the end of the credits to see whether there was anything, but got hustled out by my movie-watching companions.

10

I loved the original movie and never saw the Broadway musical version.

The new movie has its moments and picks up steam as it goes on, with a couple of major caveats -

Matthew Broderick just is not very believable as a complete nebbish, partly because my chief memory of him is playing the part of Ferris Bueller, the anti-nebbish. He more than anyone else suffers from comparison with the actor who originally made the role (Gene Wilder). It also does not help that he physically dwarfs Nathan Lane.
And while I’m not in general a big fan of musicals and especially movies made from them, they go a lot better if there are actually good songs, of which there is maybe one in the entire movie (“That Face”).

I can see where this would have been a lot more fun on a Broadway stage.

11

I saw the play during its pre-Broadway Chicago run and absolutely loved it. I may get to see the movie this weekend (depends on whether I can talk my girlfriend into going); if I don’t I will try and catch it next weekend. I am, however, greatly upset to hear that The King of Broadway was cut from the movie, as I think it very nicely established Max Bialystock’s character (besides being one of the funniest things I’ve seen in ages).

12

I saw it and really enjoyed it.

It seems unanimous that the Betrayed song in the jail cell with the recap should have ended up on the cutting room floor. I could see in a live show how that might be a magic trick with the changes in music and tone being so tight… but in a movie it falls flat.

I am pretty indifferent about Uma Thurman for the most part but… damn… She was gorgeous in this movie. I think I actually liked her more than I would have liked Nicole Kidman in the part.

Obviously Mostel and Wilder are beyond replacement but much like Depp as Wonka, the new actors had different takes. Lane plays Bialystock as a desperate and pathetic failure (all in a funny way) where Mostel played him as a desperate huckster. I got the sense that Lane’s Max was once a decent producer while Mostel’s was always more Barnum than Ziegfield.
And Wilder’s Bloom is a lunatic who is also playing a little dumb. Broderick’s is a basketcase taking a chance.

13

Am I assuming correctly that

they cut out the “intermission” joke in this?

That was the funniest part of it in the musical.

[sub]tag fixed. – Uke, mod[/sub]

14

I’m wet, I’m hysterical, and I screwed up the vB coding!

15

They did. They replaced in another scene with a movie set joke, when Ulla/Uma (there’s David Letterman’s next gag) asks Matthew Broderick

Why Bloom moves always to camera right when Ulla around?

or something similar.

16

Finally saw the film yesterday and the entire audience laughed throughout - and I thought it was great!

I am not a huge Will Ferrell fan, but he was damned good in this film.

And do wait until the credits end to see the last little tidbit…quite funny.

This is on my “must buy” list when it comes out on DVD!

17

I’m one of the millions who know the original movie totally by heart, but haven’t seen the Broadway show –

The parts where they stuck too closely to the original didn’t work (and what was with Matthew Broderick’s weird voice?) – but I loved all the places where they went off in their own direction with the story. The whole part in the accounting office was great!

And I think Uma Thurman was much better as Ulla than Nicole Kidman would have been – I don’t think Nicole Kidman has the inner (god, I don’t know what to call it – the inner silliness? the playfulness? the drag queen?) to do the part justice.

Overall I thought it was good, not great.

And I missed the final tidbit, dammit!

18

I loved the original movie but it wasn’t all that funny and was really a cult favourite, in Australia at least. My favourite memory of it revolved around a musical duo called Silver Studs who used to do classic 50s rock songs, Whenever they appeared at an RSL club (Returned Soldiers - say American Legion) they used to close their act with Springtime For Hitler. Since no-one saw the movie when it was released no-one knew enough to chase them off-stage.

19

:confused: :confused: :confused:

Funniest movie ever made.

twicks, who saw it for the first time in 1968 during the original release

20

Always struck me as Mel Brook’s least funny movie by a long way. Rated very high for yelling though.