Watch The Producers For Free

Purely Joyful Movie!

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This film version of the biggest Broadway musical in decades couldn't be filmed and kept for posterity any other way. The team of Mel Brooks and Susan Stroman kept the remake of Mel's 1968 classic totally a camp riot, as pretty and witty and gay as they could possibly be. For those like me who couldn't score a decently priced ticket with original stars Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick got a chance with the film version. I was lucky in getting a ticket to the Los Angeles production with Jason Alexander and Martin Short, but the legendary team of Lane and Broderick was the dream of many a theatrical fan's impossible dream.Who'd think that anybody could rival the stars of the original, Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, but Lane and Broderick are their equals. Most of the original Broadway cast got to repeat their roles as well with Gary Beach and Roger Bart deliciously stereotypically gay as a lousy director and his "common law" assistant. Brad Oscar and Cady Huffman weren't as lucky, replaced though by two fine substitutes, Will Farrell and Uma Thurman. I normally can't stomach Farrell, but he's delightfully obnoxious as the playwright of the deliciously tacky "Springtime For Hitler". Thurman fills out the part of Ulla, the Swedish chorus girl who has the need for sex every day at 11, and us told by Lane and Broderick to report to work at that time. (Something tells me that they'd be done "rehearsing" by 11:05.)The chorus is mainly filled by mainly Broadway notables, including Brent Barrett, Peter Bartlett, Karen Ziemba, Andrea Martin and Debra Monk, although for some it's a blink and you'll miss them situation. Even the aging Mel Brooks gets in on the action, utilizing his voice for several parts.I've read reviews which claim that thus was "too theatrical", but how else should a musical comedy be filmed? I love the fact that this is also not afraid of going down dangerous paths with parodies of certain races and the gay lifestyle that are stereotypical and obviously true in some cases. It was nice to see all that laughed with rather than scorned. This is exactly what a big movie version of a smash hit Broadway show should look like, big and brassy in the 1950's and 1960's way, but with modern sensibilities.

Anyone with a dash of culture and affinity for anything theatre should really like this movie. I simply cannot believe the low ratings! Negative reviews seem to be complaining about certain niche aspects (like how over the top it is) but I think these were intentional and add to the charm.This is a feel good movie with a ludicrous plot line, many laughs, catchy music, excellent choreography, awesome set pieces, etc etc. What's not to like??? The original was good but it's so dated. This was a nice refresh and I think extremely well done! All the actors committed and did a great job. Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick were excellent castings for both venues.I love this movie and will be singing the tunes for a long time. Thank you so much for a great movie!! Nobody should be swayed by the low ratings, it's just simply a great movie.

I've seen every version of The Producers--the 1967 film with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, the Broadway show with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, and the movie musical with Lane and Broderick.Mel adapted his original film for Broadway tastes. It had to be a musical because that's what sells tickets in theater. Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick were Broadway stars. However, the show was disappointing. A few of the musical numbers, particularly the old ladies and walkers was inventive. That Brooks had to include a song about being gay was cringe- worthy but necessary as Broadway musical theater audiences have to be hit over the head with the obvious. The show did not make a great film musical because it was not a great Broadway musical. Everything wrong about the musical starting with Lane and Broderick made its way to the screen. Lane and Broderick could never fill Mostel's and Wilder's shoes. Lane was too stridently fey, and Broderick too limply colorless. I disliked that some characters were combined, and that Ulla's character became Bloom's romantic interest. In the 1967 film, Bialystock was the great romancer. Everything and everyone was a conquest. Part of the fun was Bialystock's unstoppable wooing of the little old ladies for their money, of Bloom for his accounting wizardry, and everyone else who could serve his end game. Mel made a pot of money on his musical versions and I say bully for him. His genius was rewarded financially and theatrically with 12 Tony awards (not much competition that year). Saying that, if this is the only version of The Producers seen, there's enough humor and talent to entertain. It is nowhere and I mean nowhere nearly as funny and zany as the 1967 film. Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder are comedic giants. The original script and movie is simply one of the funniest ever.

What's the deal with directors who remake movies and get angry when anyone calls it a remake? ("It's not a remake, it's a re-IMAGINING!") Whatever. Not here. "The Producers" (2005) is a hands-down, unapologetic, knock-down, dragout REMAKE. And a fine one at that. Not just scenes, but sets, costumes, actors' intonations, and the overall feeling is just like watching the 1968 classic. I can picture both Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane intently studying the reels of Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel to get pinpoint accuracy.If it's so true to the original then why, you ask, would anyone bother watching the remake?For the same reason we rush out to buy the digitally remastered versions of our favorites. We want to see them shiny and new, the way we've never seen them before but without destroying the original charm. Here we have writer/director Mel Brooks after 40 more years of experience and maturity, doing it again for a new generation, yet having the humility to keep it the same as it was for the old generation. Imagine going to your favorite band's reunion tour and having the thrill of seeing/hearing them sound exactly the way they did decades ago but now with a stage 5x the size and all the fun stuff that they never had the chance to do before.What's that? Never saw the original "Producers"? Even better. Here you have the opportunity to see a classic, but with crisp, modern production standards. And with some crazy showtunes that were never there the first time around. My guess is that Mel always wanted this to have more music, like his later classics, "Blazing Saddles""History of the World", "High Anxiety", etc. But with "The Producers" being his directoral debut in '68 he toned it down a bit. Here we get the absurdly flamboyant musical he always wanted.Actually there are 2 big changes to the original, both of which are so perfect I can't believe I went all these years not missing them. The first is the expanded role of "Ulla" (played by Uma Thurman) who is perfect as the ditzy Swedish bombshell. The second is Will Ferrell as the Franz the closet Nazi. In both of these cases, the characters pop right out of the screen. Will's song "Der Guten Tag Hop Clop," complete with choreographed pigeons, had me howling.And that brings me to the biggest reason why you'd want to see this remake, aside from the songs, the dancing and choreography is EXCELLENT. Folks, this isn't just a movie with some crazy songs and actors flailing for laughs. It has some great dance numbers with nice moves had by all.All of this has the effect of making "The Producers" (2005) more like the extravagant musical comedies that made Mel famous in the 70s. This remake got everything right. I have to say, compared to other successful directors who now sit in their ivory towers disparaging their early work and swearing they'll never do that again, Mel's still the same as he ever was, but even more so. Keep em coming, sir!