The Producers- 2005 vs 1968

Capt Quirk

Capt Quirk

Veteran
I'm less than half way through the new version with Mathew Broderick, and I have to say I am not impressed. Normally I like Broderick, but not this time. The lines are just pantomiming of the original, without the character or heart. Aside from a few new songs, it is just flat. Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder really sold the original.
 
For me it`s some of the best acting I eve saw (in the new version).
But it´s much up tp personal taste.

The new Producers belongs to my absolute top 10.

Frank
 
Have you seen the original? If not, I highly recommend it. I finished watching the new version, and it took a radical left turn from it's predecessor in the second act, and I'll have to admit, it was pretty funny. But, I'll stand by my original statement, Mostel and Wilder were way better.
 
Capt Quirk said:
Have you seen the original? If not, I highly recommend it. I finished watching the new version, and it took a radical left turn from it's predecessor in the second act, and I'll have to admit, it was pretty funny. But, I'll stand by my original statement, Mostel and Wilder were way better.
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Mostel and Wilder in the original Producers is as good as it gets. Consider that the movie opens with something like a twenty minute scene where it's just 2 actors in a room, and it's completely hysterical. Granted, Mel Brooks gets a lot of credit for scripting brilliant dialogue, but it's up to the actors to carry it off. The new Producers, meh, it's okay. I wasn't offended by it, but I was never rolling on the floor laughing the way I was seeing the original.

An interesting side story. The original Producers was almost not released. It was molding away on a shelf at Universal when Peter Sellers and his friends decided to screen it. They often went to the studio theaters on the weekends to have parties and watch the latest films. When the Fellini film they asked for didn't show up, the projectionist said there was a Mel Brooks movie sitting on the shelf. Peter decided to screen it and after he and his friends spent two hours convulsing with laughter, the next day he took out two full-page newspaper ads at his own expense proclaiming that it was one of the greatest comedies he had ever seen. It got released and the rest is history.

http://articles.latimes.com/2001/may/30/entertainment/ca-4012
 
Batutta said:
Granted, Mel Brooks gets a lot of credit for scripting brilliant dialogue, but it's up to the actors to carry it off. The new Producers, meh, it's okay.
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Agreed. Like i said, the first act was little more than regurgitating the dialogue from the first film. But I liked the way it took off from the Second act to the end. If it had more character from the two leads, it would have easily been great. There is a lot to be said for both films, but Broderick just didn't sell it for me.
 
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