'The Producers' lands somewhere between stage and screen
by Eleanor Ringel Gillespie

The decision whether to check out "The Producers" can be fairly simple. If you never saw Mel Brooks' long-running, Tony-laden musical on Broadway, with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, by all means go. It's a faithful — at times, too faithful — version of the show. If you did see it, you may want to rent the original nonmusical 1968 movie with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder instead. Good as they are, Lane and Broderick can't match their predecessors' overwhelming havoc and hysteria. And even when it's at its best, the 2005 movie can't replicate the intoxicating connection Lane and Broderick created with a live audience — capering around the stage with all the comic insanity of Martin and Lewis at the Copa. Read the full review

TO SUM UP
A shady Broadway producer and his accountant concoct a scheme to overfinance a huge flop and pocket the excess investment. But when the show unexpectedly becomes a smash, oversubscribed investors all want their shares, leaving the producers in hot water.

FILM FACTS ...
Universal Pictures
'The Producers'

Director: Susan Stroman
Starring: Will Ferrell, Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Uma Thurman, Gary Beach
Run time: 134 minutes
Release date: Dec. 16, 2005
Rating: PG-13 for sexual humor and references.
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READ THE REVIEW

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: C
"It's not all it was on stage and it's not all it could be on film. The result is a often jolly, highly-polished compromise..."

Austin American-Statesman: 3 of 5 stars
"The movie tickles in a way that's removed from the original film and stage musical. The jokes are as old as the hills, but funny is funny — and nobody knows funny like Mel Brooks."

Middletown Journal: B-
"The best movie musicals have life jumping out of every frame. ... Stroman, however, shows the perils of the opposite approach: she doesn't move the camera enough."

The Palm Beach Post: A-
"It is a valentine to the theater and its cherished eccentricities and dubious business practices."


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