We're marching to a faster pace

[cyrano]

Saw the new 'The Producers' last night. Liked it. Four wags. It joins such illustrious company as 'Little Shop of Horrors' and... 'Little Shop of Horrors' as a film that was made into a stage musical which was made into a film. And also like 'Little Shop' it was a period piece about a period that never really existed. It also allowed Mel Brooks, after such delights as 'To Be or Not To Be' and 'Life Stinks' to make a funny movie. The music was immediately satisfying and instantly forgettable for the most part, Matthew Broderick was again lovely, and Nathan Lane was fabulous. I even liked Will Ferrel, which may have never happened before. (They showed his football movie on a flight I was trapped in and I nearly sporked my own eyes out.) Um. I probably had more coherent things to say but I forget them all now. Anyway. I recommend it for a rental, if you like Mel Brooks, because the humor is pretty classic Brooks.

EDIT
Oh yeah! It was nice seeing Captain Jack in another WWII era role!

Comments

I too like the original

[phillipalden.livejournal.com]

It's one of my favorite movies of all time. Zero will always be "Max" and Gene Wilder will always be "Leo" to me. I'll watch the new one, but the original was Brooks' first film, and in my opinion, his best.

Some things don't need to be "re-made."

Re: I too like the original

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Was it his first? I'd thought Twelve Chairs was.
In any case, I'm hardly the person to tell folks not to re-invent, not to re-make. I mean, I love the new Little Shop about a hundred times more than the old one. And my collection of musical covers is staggering to me, let alone to my friends. My main thing is: If you're going to take something that's already been done and do it again, do something different with it. Don't just recreate it note for note. And the better the original is, the less likely you are to be successful. See 'Lion in Winter'; the new cast was good, the movie was certainly enjoyable. But it just couldn't match Hepburn and O'Toole. And comparison was inevitable--unavoidable--so the performance of the new version suffered.

Re: I too like the original

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

IMDB says Producers is the first he directed.
All double checked. (: