Ever since Ferris Bueller’s Day Off I’ve been a fan of Mathew Broderick. He created a character that has become an icon for my generation and anyone else who experienced any part of the 80s. When I heard that he and Nathan Lane were starring in the Broadway production of The Producers I was sorry that I would never get a chance to see it. And finally when the stage production was turned into a film version both Shauna and I were thrilled that we would finally get a chance to see one of our favourite 80s actors in a hit musical.Ferris Bueller, where have you gone? Bueller? Bueller?
The first 10 minutes of the film were painful. Not painful like Reservoir Dogs or Saving Private Ryan, where the agony you feel is part of the director’s intention. No, the pain in The Producers was a result of the stilted, forced acting of Mr. Broderick. It wasn’t funny and it wasn’t intelligent; it was silly and nearly unbearable to witness. Shauna and I had to literally turn the whole thing off after about an hour. Maybe the film gets better in it’s second half but I’ll never know. Don’t make me go back there!
In its defence, a friend of mine and her husband (shout out to Amanda & Chris) watched the original Mel Brooks version of the film and they said the Broderick character was portrayed almost exactly the same. So it’s possible that Broderick’s acting is not the problem; it’s the character that is so darn annoying.
I can’t justify giving a full review of this film since I didn’t watch the whole thing and therefore I won’t be giving it a score. Suffice it to say that there’s a chance you’ll either really enjoy the film or you’ll want to hang yourself before it’s half over.
A couple of the musical numbers were quite well done, specifically “I want to be a Producer”. There, I said something nice about it.
3 comments:
Hmm.. sounds lovely..(said sarcastically). Never seen either version of the movie, but I know which one I won't bother trying out! Love the blog, Tom!
Barbara
In Matthew's defense, I've seen the original and the new one, and I loved the new one - the character was terribly annoying, but that's the way Mel Brooks wrote it! Did you hang in there until Will Ferrel made his appearance? He's absolutly hysterical...
We did make it to Ferrel's appearance and it was quite funny. I enjoyed much of the film but I just found Broderick's rendition of that character too forced and over-the-top. I've since come to realize that the character is supposed to be a little annoying, but I just think Broderick was the wrong actor to pull it off. Maybe I'll give it another chance somewhere down the road.
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