Ralph's Movie Reviews: THE PRODUCERS

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

THE PRODUCERS

Musical

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Nathan Lane: Max Bialystock, Broadway producer and con-man
Matthew Broderick: his naïve accountant Leo Bloom
Uma Thurman: Ulla, a Swedish secretary with limited talent
Will Ferrell: Franz Liebkind, author of the musical “Springtime for Hitler”
Gary Beach: Roger DeBris, famous musical director
Roger Bart: his assistant and companion, Carmen Ghia

REVIEW
The story is about two unscrupulous people who collaborate to produce a really awful Broadway play. The result is a really awful movie.

Only loyal fans of the old-fashioned musical theatre will like it, provided they are not offended by the glorification of Hitler, they do not take offence with the ruthless stereotypical portrayal of homosexuals or are unfazed by the irreverent depiction of little old ladies with walkers and who get a kick out of crude off-colour sexist jokes.

Not meeting any of these criteria, I did not.

CLASSIFICATION

for sexual humor and references.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
When Hitler is singing a solo, in the close-ups his hair is hanging down over his eyes but in each long shot it’s neatly combed.

P.S.
Apparently it runs more than two hours. I wouldn’t know: I walked out after an hour. But I was not the first to go. Five or six people got up and left before I did.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.