583. Young Frankenstein (1974)

Running Time: 105 minutes
Directed By: Mel Brooks
Written By: Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks, from the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Main Cast: Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman
Click here to view the trailer

HAPPY (EARLY) HALLOWEEN

My wife is at work today, which means I can binge watch BOOK movies. Actually, this binge will really only be two movies long, as I hope to get one last film squeezed in before my love returns home. I best get moving...

Well, it's Mel Brooks, so most of you reading this should know what to expect. The title is Young Frankenstein which refers to Gene Wilder's character of Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, the grandson of the mad scientist whom we saw depicted in James Whale's version of the horror tale. Dr. Frederick wants nothing to do with his grandfather's work, even refusing to admit that his last name is even pronounced the same way. That is until he visits the castle where his grandfather did his most notorious work. Once there, he meets Igor (pronounced Eye-Gor and played marvelously by Marty Feldman) and Inga (Garr), his assistants. He eventually comes around to the idea that reanimating life into a corpse is possible and thus gets to work putting a brain into a seven foot man, in hopes of bringing him back from the dead. Of course, he succeeds, but the brain that goes into the Monster (Boyle), is that of an abnormal man, by accident. The Monster escapes Dr. Frederick's lab, terrorizing the village, but is eventually lured back home by the doctor, who is now on board with being called Frankenstein, as it was meant to be pronounced.

I think we all learned from my Airplane! review that I have no tolerance for silliness. Actually, this wasn't half bad, I guess. You know, I used to really like Mel Brooks. I remember the first time I saw Blazing Saddles I really, really liked it and it prompted me to go out and blind buy both Young Frankenstein and Spaceballs. Then, several years ago when my wife and I were looking for something to watch, we happened upon Young Frankenstein in the DVD collection and decided to give it a go. We both HATED it. I can remember going to a used DVD store and trying to sell it, but for some reason they wouldn't buy it (they had too many copies of it already or something) so, I think we ended up just throwing it away. Even when I rewatched Blazing Saddles for THE BOOK, I hated that the second go around too. I'm growing up *wipes a tear from his eye*

But seriously, this wasn't that bad. Not once did I laugh out loud, but I thought Gene Wilder was terrific, screaming about half of his dialogue and entertaining me thoroughly. Add to that list Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Gene Hackman (did you spot him?) and Madeline Kahn and you had a very entertaining cast. Not to mention the lovely Teri Garr, who almost never gets her due for being a knockout. Mildly recommended, but it's definitely not for everybody and you must be in the mood for it.

RATING: 6/10  Let's keep it simple with this one, since that's the meat & potatoes of it anyway.

MOVIES WATCHED: 975
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 26

October 10, 2015  4:37pm

485. The Producers (1968)

Running Time: 88 minutes
Directed By: Mel Brooks
Written By: Mel Brooks
Main Cast: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn, Kenneth Mars, Lee Meredith

SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER

Needing to watch something short last night, due to the fact that I was so tired, I skimmed the 60s movies that were streaming on Netflix and decided on Mel Brooks' first feature, "The Producers".

Has been, Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Mostel) hasn't had a hit in years. Nowadays he's resorted to being a boy toy for aging widows to get enough money to survive. When Leo Bloom (Wilder), an accountant, arrives at Bialystock's office to do the books, he makes an interesting discovery. He finds that a producer could theoretically make more money with a flop, than with a hit. The producer would simply raise more money than he needed to produce the play and when it flopped on opening night, the backers would never come to collect on a play that presumably lost money. Bialystock, the schemer that he is, persuades Bloom to help him get the con off the ground and goes around to every old, rich widow that he knows asking for checks. Bialystock and Bloom ultimately raise a million bucks and go to work finding the worst play they can possibly find. Bialystock lands on a play titled, "Springtime for Hitler", written by lunatic ex-Nazi Franz Liebkind (Mars). They hire the worst director in town, Roger De Bris and cast the worst actor imaginable to play Hitler, Lorenzo St. DuBois (Shawn)...or L.S.D. to his friends. With a surefire flop under their belt, all that Bialystock and Bloom have left to do is set back, watch their play go down and then hop a place to Rio, where they plan to live high on the hog.

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!

This one started out bad, as for some reason the opening credits just really irked the crap out of me. Scenes of Bialystock "playing" with one of his merry widows, that kept stopping and were spliced with the opening titles. Beyond that though, the film is a romp! The plot is so ridiculous that it's actually very funny and I found myself doing something that I rarely do with comedies and that's laughing out loud (or LOL'ing to you youngsters). I very rarely laugh out loud when it comes to comedies and that's not to say that they're not funny, it's just that it takes a lot to get me to really laugh at something, but "The Producers" got me and mostly it was thanks to Gene Wilder (who's always great) and Dick Shawn, who I couldn't help but chuckle at. Zero Mostel was hilarious too and the entire time I was watching the film, I found myself asking whatever happened to this guy, because he's really funny. Turns out that Mostel was blacklisted for many years, unable to get movie roles, with certain directors like Elia Kazan and Mel Brooks petitioning to get Mostel into their movies. The whole cast here really did a fine job and added to the zaniness of the entire production.

Sure the movie was incredibly predictable, as it didn't take 20/20 vision to see that the film was obviously going to be a success and then the duo of Bialystock and Bloom would have to get out of the hole that they dug for themselves. But it's still a ton of fun and I'd recommend to anyone looking for a good comedy or just a good laugh. I think that about says it all for "The Producers".

I'll leave you with an interesting fact that I found while looking up tidbits for "The Producers". It turns out that in Sweden the title of this film actually translates to "Springtime for Hitler". In addition to that tidbit, apparently all of Brooks' films in Sweden are affixed with the word "Springtime", with Springtime for The Sheriff (Blazing Saddles), Springtime for Frankenstein (Young Frankenstein), Springtime for Space (Spaceballs), Springtime for the Slum (Life Stinks), Springtime for World History (History of the World, Part 1), Springtime for Stepmother (The Twelve Chairs), Springtime for the Silent Movies (Silent Movie), Springtime for The Lunatics (High Anxiety).

RATING: 7.5/10 Brooks is 1-1 with me and someday I'll watch his third and final film in the book, "Young Frankenstein".

MOVIES WATCHED: 317
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 684

August 8, 2011 4:39pm

586. Blazing Saddles (1974)

Running Time: 93 minutes
Directed By: Mel Brooks
Written By: Andrew Bergman, Mel Brooks, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, Alan Uger
Main Cast: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens, Madeline Kahn

ON MY JOURNEY I MET A MAN NAMED 'MEL'

Damn did I used to love me some Mel Brooks. I remember seeing "Blazing Saddles" many years ago on the insistence of a friend and I was hooked, raiding stores for films like "Young Frankenstein" and "Spaceballs". Fast forward to June 26, 2011 and I think my infatuation with Brooks is finally dead, as "Blazing Saddles" didn't hold up well AT ALL.

While supervising the building of a railroad, Hedley Lamarr (Korman) realizes that he's about to cross through some quicksand and that he'll have no other choice but to detour his railroad through the small town of Rock Ridge. The town of Rock Ridge is a small one, but it is populated and Lamarr will have to think of an idea to empty the town so that he can proceed with is plans. Enter recently jailed, African American, ex-railroad worker Bart (Little), who is pardoned from an execution at the last minute by Lamarr and appointed as the new sheriff of Rock Ridge. The idea is that the townspeople of Rock Ridge won't put up with a black sheriff and surely skip town. Bart takes on the job seriously, strolling into town despite wandering eyes and racist remarks and upholding his duty as the new lawman in Rock Ridge. Bart does find solace in the company of one man, The Waco Kid (Wilder). The Waco Kid used to be the fastest hands in the west, but lately he finds comfort at the bottom of a Whiskey Bottle. Bart, along with help from "the Kid" will do their best to clean up the town of Rock Ridge and fend off Lamarr and his hired henchmen...and women.

Yeah, like I said, this just doesn't hold up for me. Call me a man who's lost his sense of humor, but I don't think I laughed out loud once during this and the most it was really able to coax out of me was a chuckle here and there, thanks to Gene Wilder. "Blazing Saddles" is incredibly racist, but I'll give them credit, as Brooks really makes the entire concept of racism look ludicrous, turning the white racists into bumbling morons. Apparently there was a time when Richard Pryor was attached to play Bart, but they ended up picking Little due to Pryor's drug problem. I'm not even sure if the presence of Richard Pryor could have saved this utterly stupid movie.

Yeah, it's actually pretty stupid. The jokes just don't hold up anymore and are very un-funny. Consider this - In the past 24 hours I've watched three comedies. One from 1942, one from 1974 and one from 2005 and Brooks' comedy was, far and away, the least funny and least appealing of the trio. People always praise Brooks' for being a comic genius, but it seems like a lot of his repertoire is just retakes on Marx Brothers material. Mel Brooks, with the making of "Blazing Saddles", would set the stage for a countless number of parody films to come down the pike over the next thirty years, including stinkers from the Zucker Brothers and the Wayans Brothers. Was Brooks really a genius of comedy or did he set an annoying film trend that won't seem to go away?

RATING: 3/10 Maybe I skipped around the film itself to make some bold assumptions, but suffice it to say that I just don't find Brooks brand of humor that humorous anymore. Nuff' said.

MOVIES WATCHED: 271
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 730

June 26, 2011 6:22pm