The leggy Uma easily lights up the screen whenever she's present.
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In 1968, Mel Brooks would make his big screen directing debut with "The Producers", which would form the first part of his hilarious Holy Trinity, along with "Young Frankenstein" and "Blazing Saddles." In the movie business, if something is done right, you have to milk it for all its worth. With the success of "Chicago", Hollywood looked to resurrect the long-dead musical. "Phantom of the Opera" and "Rent" hit theaters with mixed results, "Damn Yankees", "Dreamgirls", and "Sweeny Todd" are all coming soon. Remakes have been around for decades and, arguably, have never been more prevalent than now. Studios sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into the remakes of "King Kong" and "The Poseidon Adventure." It seems only inevitable that this version of "The Producers" would see the light being both a musical and a remake.
In 2001, Brooks adapted his film into a Broadway musical, even writing the numerous song & dance numbers. It was a smash hit at the box office and the Tony Awards. With the exception of Will Ferrell and Uma Thurman, the original Broadway cast reprise their roles for the film version. Nathan Lane plays Max Bialystock, a Broadway producer of schlock who is reduced to romancing little old ladies for production capital. He meets Leo Bloom (Matthew Broderick), a nebbish accountant who hits upon a scheme to get rich quick.
Promising to pay back the investors with their profits, Bialystock and Bloom decide to put on the worst musical humanly possible and embezzle the remaining cash for themselves. They find the perfect play in "Springtime for Hitler", written by a crazed German named Franz Liebkind as a way to redeem his beloved Fuhrer. A singing Hitler? Goose stepping Nazi officers on stage? Surely, "Springtime for Hitler" won't even be able to last the night. Shockingly, something goes "right" and it becomes a rousing success. Now, Bialystock and Bloom must worry about the unwanted spotlight shining on their cooked books.
Being a big fan of the original film, it's hard to watch the remake without comparing this cast with the original cast. Broderick's histrionics seem like a poor imitation of Gene Wilder with a bit of Jerry Lewis thrown in, just for the heck of it. In one of his first scenes, Broderick launches into hysterics, in a bit that is tiresome and agonizingly long. Nathan Lane is fine, but he's no Zero Mostel. Ferrell is funny, but he just doesn't compare to the scene-stealing Kenneth Mars. Gary Beach plays the cross-dressing theater director, Roger DeBris, a role that Christopher Hewitt first played. As a child of the 80's, I will forever remember the image of seeing Mr. Belvedere in drag. The definite highlight is Uma Thurman as the Swedish sexpot, Ulla, a role originally intended for Nicole Kidman. The leggy Uma easily lights up the screen whenever she's present.
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[release]19009[/release]