THE PRODUCERS (2005) - Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Chris Will]

Very dissappointing to hear that, KOB is my favorite song from the soundtrack.

 

[Erik_H]

I picked up a copy of the DVD several days ago in NYC. The deleted scenes are mostly terrific. I found "King of Broadway" to be well adapted for the screen (not just a duplication of the stage choreography, as was largely the case with "Springtime For Hitler"). The comic bits that were omitted from the theatrical version of "Along Came Bialy" are included in the deleted section (the entire number is included in the deleted section, so those comic bits aren't presented as stand-alones). Audio for the deleted scenes is 2.0, not 5.1 (the film is presented in 5.1).

The outtakes (about 15 minutes worth) are very funny---for those lucky enough to see Lane and Broderick on stage, a reminder as to how they would reduce the audience to stitches when they decided to deviate from the script.

 

[RobertSiegel]

I bought my dvd on street date, and have watched it 8 times since. The more I see this movie, the more I love it. The sound on the dvd is absolutely fantastic! One of the best recordings of a movie musical ever. I am glad they gave us the deleted scenes, which, by the way, are all funny. I wish they would have put back King of Broadway (the song that was cut right before release) but at least it is there as an extra. Every time I watch this movie or show it to someone, I put the scene back in, it's a great song and very necessary to get to know some history about Max. Also glad to see the song In Old Bavaria, which was also cut, re-instated at least as an extra. The out-takes are hilarious, and there's a good 10-15 minutes of them. Havn't done the commentary yet because I am too busy watching the movie over and over. The only song that was completely cut was "Where did We Go Right." which was another funny song. I would rather have seen that and King of Broadway kept, and they could easily have gotten rid of "It's Bad Luck to say Good Luck on opening night." It's the only song I felt was not equivilant to the rest of the score.

My personal opinion (and I know not everyone's) is that Mel Brooks perfected this story with this version (he feels the same). Aside from Broderick's overacting in a few scenes, I love it, love it, love it.

 

[Jace_A]

What a ghastly experience. I enjoyed the original film, but this took witless vulgarity to new extremes. Much of the blame for this mess has to rest with the director who failed to moderate the performances of Lane and, especially, Broderick (who is simply terrible in this film, IMHO). They are far too broad to work on film. Everyone fairly screams through their roles and there's a fair deal of mugging for the camera (particularly from the actor who played Roger DeBres who at one point says a line, looks towards the 'audience' for a laugh and then proceeds to go back into character).

Uma brightens the film up somewhat, but there is only so much you can do with this material. I know Brooks is not exactly known for his subtlety, but I'm surprised at the raves this got on Broadway, assuming this is a fair reproduction of the stage play. The songs weren't memorable, the lyrics trite (perhaps deliberately so) and the humour overplayed.

 

[BarryR]

This kind of musical doesn't exactly demand moderating type performances; if anything it's evocative of past movie musical transfers of GUYS & DOLLS and Li'L ABNER--big, brassy, cartoon-like.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

I absolutely agree. I love the original film, it's one of my absolutel favourite comedy films, but the show definitely improved on the story.
* Ulla has more reason for existing (not that we ever really needed a reason for Ulla, but it's nice to feel that she actually plays a role rather than just being eye candy).
* They got rid of LSD, which is a nice move (I like LSD, and think Love Power is a very funny song, but he does date the film much more than anything else).
* And, best of all, he changes the ending to put them on trial for their scam, where the original had them blowing up the theater is a scene that seemed totally unrelated to anything else in the film.

 

[paul_austin]

I found the movie lacking somewhat but i'm sure its from my love of the original, i loved the new songs in the 'making of the producers' dvd and soundtrack. However I found Mathew Broderick to be really distracting, but i'll admit it might be from my love of Gene Wilders very warm presence and unfairly compairing the two. One scene that always touches me in the original really didnt affect me in the new film and thats in court when Bloom has his 'nobody ever called me Leo" speech at the end. I'm a sucker maybe its the sweet music lol

edit: the outtakes alone are worth the buy