When you watch the new musical version of Mel Brooks' classic "The Producers," you really miss Gene Wilder. I'm sorry, but I just can't see how Matthew Broderick has gotten away with playing the character he plays on Broadway for all these years if he plays it as he does in this movie version. He's horrible, annoying and irritating. Yes, he has a lovely singing voice, but he opts to play the part of the neurotic Leo Bloom as if he were a fake medium trying desperately to channel Jerry Lewis. Seriously, this is a really bad performance. I always disliked Gene Wilder's performance in the original, but Broderick made me long for it. With Broderick's performance, it becomes glaringly obvious that the character as written by Mel Brooks is nearly impossible to play. I've racked my brain for a couple days now and I can conceive of one living actor of any age who could play the part well. Even if someone lip-synced the singing of a better vocalist and just performed the role, I don't see anyone other than Wilder being able to make this character work. It requires someone who can play a annoying neurotic without being annoying. That is nearly impossible. Broderick is just awful in the role, but at least he can sing.

What does work in this updating and musicalization of the movie, that became a stage musical and then a movie again, is Brook's original comic genius and Nathan Lane. This film makes one long for the fabulously silly glory days of Mel Brooks. It makes it so easy to erase cinematic crapfests like "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" and "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" and "Life Stinks" from your brain's harddrive and brings to the forefront of your mind the original hilarity of "Young Frankenstein," "Blazing Saddles," "High Anxiety" and "Spaceballs." One of the things that makes Brooks' schtick seem so lively and humorous again is that he has set it to music. The songs are funny. Remember "The Inquisition" from "History of the World Part 1?" That's a great indication of Brooks' comic genius as a song writer. The songs in "The Producers" blend Brooks' comedic absurdity with Broadway showtunes and the concoction is infectious fun.

And no one gets it more sharply and presents it more wonderfully than Lane. He is at the top of his game here and hits every line with the peek of perfection. It's obvious he's played this character for a few years now because he hits every joke with the precision of a Swiss brain surgeon. Well, a Swiss surgeon high on laughing gas. Lane is having the time of his life here and it's hard not to become as giddy with glee as he is.

If there is any problem with "The Producers," it is the tasteless gay comedy within it. I don't know who should be more offended when Hitler is turned into a mincing, prissy, preening homosexual here, gay people or Neo Nazis. Brooks' is quite an old man now and his comedy is very dated with its laughs provoked by guys in dresses, extras in Village People costumes and a fey Hitler. But Goddamn it, its funny. How can you be mad at a guy who makes you bust a gut laughing for two solid hours, especially when he also gives you a group of showtunes that are more fun to sing than nearly any other musical has ever offered. That's like a gay man's dream. Hitler as a mincing homo. Goddamn it; It's funny.

Notes:

Also with Uma Thurman, Will Ferrell, Roger Bart, Gary Beach, Jon Lovitz, Andrea Martin, Debra Monk, Richard Kind, Michael McKean, and Jai Rodriguez.

Directed by Susan Stroman, who also directed the stage play.

There is a short song at the end of the film (after the end credits) with many of the characters singing which ends with a cameo by Brooks.

The film, Brooks, Lane and Ferrell are all nominated for Golden Globes.

This is a film based on a musical based on a 1968 film about the staging of a musical.

At one time Nicole Kidman was to play the role that went to Thurman.

Filmed in New York.

Viewed on its opening day, Christmas Day 2005, in Austin. On that same day I also viewed another film that opened, "Rumor Has It..." The two films have a connection in the late actress Anne Bancroft. Brooks was, of course, married to the actress until her death earlier this year. "Rumor" features Bancroft in her famous scene from "The Graduate" as that film (and the book it was based on) is important to the plot.

Report Card

Script: A+

Acting: A-

Cinematography\Lighting: C+

Special Effects\Make Up: B

Music: A+

Final Grade: A