| THE PRODUCERS |
 2005 - USADirector: Susan Stroman
- Reviewed by Vickie
HERE! LET ME TELL YOU! IT’S A BIT LIKE HAVING MATTHEW BRODERICK AND NATHAN LANE STANDING INCHES FROM YOUR FACE AND SCREAMING AT YOU FOR TWO HOURS AND TEN MINUTES! IT’S LOUD, IT’S EXHAUSTING AND BOTH ACTORS SEEM TO HAVE FORGOTTEN THAT THEY DON’T HAVE TO RECITE THEIR LINES LIKE THEY’RE PLAYING TO THE LAST ROW OF THE BALCONY BECAUSE THEY’RE IN A MOVIE NOT ON STAGE! Yeesh. About five minutes into Broderick’s way, way, way over-the-top performance I leaned over to my friend Heather said, “I feel embarrassed for him right now.” I wanted to reach into the movie and slap him silly just so he'd tone it down a hair. Thankfully, there were moments of comparative calm during this sometimes fun but often times tedious movie adaptation of the Broadway play that was adapted from Mel Brooks’ original 1968 film. The story centers on wildly unsuccessful and cash-strapped Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Lane), who’s earned a reputation for his colossally bad productions. When nebbish accountant Leopold Bloom (Broderick) enters the picture and makes an offhand remark about how to make a lot of money through unscrupulous theatrical means, Max’s wheels are put in motion. The duo team up to swindle $2 million from investors by staging the biggest flop ever to hit the Great White Way—and then flee town with the money before the IRS figures out their scam. They option Springtime for Hitler, a musical written by a panicky, poorly closeted Nazi (Will Ferrell) hailing the “misunderstood” Führer, and enlist the aid of buxom blonde Ulla (Uma Thurman) in putting the pieces of their corrupt puzzle together. While many of the musical numbers are lively and fun (if a bit long), the film isn’t anything spectacular. The action screeches to a halt and becomes flat whenever the overly drawn-out dialogue-only sequences begin. Despite a solid supporting turn from Thurman, and Desperate Housewives’ Roger Bart channeling Mario Cantone to play the gayer-than-Christmas Carmen, the cast’s familiarity with the material works to their detriment, in my opinion. Broderick and Lane seem very enamored of themselves and the characters they’ve played over and over and over again on stage, but that “aren’t we brilliant and precious!” schtick got old pretty quickly. I mean, does the world really need this movie? Did it have to star the Broadway leads? In a word. no. |
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