The Producers

As a film buff, I am of course guilty of one of the great sins. I went to a remake and have never seen the original. Of course I know Mel Brooks' The Producers (1968) is a classic which inspired a musical and now a movie musical. But then again maybe its better because I can't compare the two and can have an unbiased view of the movie. Of course that doesn't help the fact that the new musical version just isn't very good.

I admit that I have problems with musicals because I just find the breaking into song a bit on the ridiculous side when I see it on film. This movie feels more like a musical than a movie though. There are lots of stage sets that feel like stage sets and very little camera movement, mostly straight on so it feels like you're sitting in an audience. When I go to a movie I don't want to feel like I'm in the audience. I want to be immersed in the story.

Still, these aren't the reasons I didn't like the film. For the most part, I just didn't find it very funny. The moments I enjoyed most were the scenes with Will Ferrell. In fact I laughed loudest and most naturally when Leo (Matthew Broderick) and Max (Nathan Lane) met Ferrell's character on the roof. After a while I was eagerly anticipating Ferrell's next appearance on screen and finding myself relatively bored with everything else. I didn't laugh much until the actually production of the play with in the movie "Springtime for Hitler".

I suppose for fans of musicals and maybe for fans of this musical in particular, it might be entertaining. But for a simple movie goer, I found it mostly unfunny with a few exceptions. Maybe its funnier on stage. But I doubt it.