You surely can count on Mel Brooks for a good time! Much of this movie is very stereotypical, completely over the top and very, very funny. The actors-especially Wil Ferrell in an inspired performance as a neo Nazi playwright-have been given free reign to do whatever they want and they make the most of it. The biggest problem with this movie is-it's a Broadway play on film. You felt like breaking into applause after the lavish song-and-dance numbers, as you would were you at the theater. Not that this is bad per se, but it just works better in live theater than it does in a movie. Nathan Lane stares into a silent camera at the end of his big number and it seems lonely. I enjoyed the movie and would recommend it, but I think the director needs to know next time to translate these things a little bit better for the screen.
Review of The Producers
