Thursday, February 23, 2006

The Producers

I just got through watching the original version of the movie The Producers. Genius, pure genius. Gene Wilder gives one of his best performances and launches his comedic career. Zero Mostel is masterful as you would expect. There are some surprises too, the best being Christopher Hewitt (best known in the US as Mr. Belvedere) as the director.

Now, I love Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick and Wil Ferrell. (and Uma Thurman for that matter, although Lee Meredith was better in the original) But there is no way the new version can be as good as the original. In fact, from the clips I have seen, it's not.

I really hope Mel doesn't decide to re-make Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein next.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There were a couple of things I liked better in the new musical version: First off, the actual show "Springtime for Hitler" was a lot more funny, and they added a small twist that explains how the show warped from something that would have been just horrible into something that was so twisted it was funny.

It was also possibly the only Will Farrell movie I've ever seen where I actually thought he was funny.

The "Keep it Gay" song and surrounding scene beats the comparable scene from the original into the dust.

And the music over the end credits is one of the funniest gags ol' Mel has come up with in years. :-)

Nonetheless, the original was a masterpiece, and I'm kind of hard pressed to say which I liked better.