This Version Is Too Pc, Adding Song & Dance And Editing The Brooks' Comedy.
The Producers (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:148
Fresh:75
Rotten:73
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: Despite the rich source material, The Producers has a stale, stagy feel more suited to the theater than the big screen.
Runtime: 2 hrs 15 mins
Genre: Comedies
US Box Office: $19,151,907
Synopsis: This remake of Mel Brooks' 1968 film features Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the roles that they originated in the smash Broadway adaptation of the original film. Broadway producer Max... This remake of Mel Brooks' 1968 film features Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the roles that they originated in the smash Broadway adaptation of the original film. Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Lane) is famous for his spectacular opening night flops. Leopold Bloom (Broderick) is an uptight accountant who virtually discovers gold while reviewing Max's books. When Leo realizes that you can actually make more money with a flop than with a hit, the two team up and begin a search for both the worst script and the worst director they can find to ensure failure. The script selection seems easy when the duo stumble upon SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER, an homage to the Fuhrer penned by Franz Liebkind (Will Ferrell), a German sympathetic to the Nazi cause. Convinced that the script will incite outrage, the duo needs a bad director to seal the deal. Campy director Roger DeBris (Gary Beach) and his assistant (Roger Bart) fit the bill perfectly. But when their scheme fails, Max and Leo find themselves with the worst possible outcome: a hit. To make matters worse, Franz is just a little peeved that Hitler was depicted disrespectfully--and he has a gun. Will Max and Leo survive the playwright's wrath? Will they go to jail for cooking the books? And will Leo ever submit to the advances of sexy Swedish receptionist/actress Ulla (Uma Thurman)? Directed by stage director Susan Stroman, making her feature film directorial debut, this riotous romp features lots of laughs from the major players, as well as brief appearances by Jon Lovitz, Michael McKean, and Richard Kind. Lane and Broderick make it easy to understand why the show was an unprecedented hit on Broadway, and Ferrell is a scene-stealer as Liebkind. [More]
Starring: Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Uma Thurman, Will Ferrell
Starring: Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Uma Thurman, Will Ferrell, Andrea Martin, Gary Beach, Roger Bart
Director: Susan Stroman
Director: Susan Stroman
Studio: Universal Pictures
Reviews for The Producers
[It's] a little jarring at first on film because it’s so big and so broad and so over the top -- but I like that.
With hundreds of performances in New York and London under their belts, Lane and Broderick have their characterizations down cold.
It's hard to envision a worse big-budget film version of Mel Brooks's Tony Award-winning musical The Producers than this dreadfully lifeless affair.
Flaccid, shambling, and ill timed, The Producers evokes the crumbling remnants of its predecessors, devoid of their energy or charm.
The movie is so poorly conceived, directed, choreographed, and executed by Susan Stroman that it makes its lead actors, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, utterly charmless and the whole musical witless and unappealing.
Carries its lumpy theatrical bulk like a rucksack instead of as the dazzling firecracker it is.
'The Producers' lives on in this whimsical, wonderful romp - a notch better than the original film, and a surprisingly apt adaptation of the Broadway show.
Directly translating the stage version to the screen, particularly in retaining the stage acting, undercuts the film, but still it remains damn funny.
It was strange enough to have such a crass comedy serve as the basis for the salvation of the Broadway musical, but it is even stranger to find myself saying that The Producers is one of the classiest movie musicals I've seen.
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