Producers (Widescreen) (2005)

"Spectacular!   Roseann Rogers, NBC-TV
"The Producers Delivers Huge Belly Laughs and Lots of Fun.  Pete Hammond, MAXIM
"Outrageously funny!  Jess Cagle, People Magazine
"It was fun, it was funny, it was alive.  Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Editor's Note This remake of Mel Brooks' 1968 film features Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the roles that they originated in the smash Broadway adaptation of the original film. Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Lane) is famous for his spectacular opening night flops. Leopold Bloom (Broderick) is an uptight accountant who virtually discovers gold while reviewing Max's books. When Leo realizes that you can actually make more money with a flop than with a hit, the two team up and begin a search for both the worst script and the worst director they can find to ensure failure. The script selection seems easy when the duo stumble upon SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER, an homage to the Fuhrer penned by Franz Liebkind (Will Ferrell), a German sympathetic to the Nazi cause. Convinced that the script will incite outrage, the duo needs a bad director to seal the deal. Campy director Roger DeBris (Gary Beach) and his assistant (Roger Bart) fit the bill perfectly. But when their scheme fails, Max and Leo find themselves with the worst possible outcome: a hit. To make matters worse, Franz is just a little peeved that Hitler was depicted disrespectfully--and he has a gun. Will Max and Leo survive the playwright's wrath? Will they go to jail for cooking the books? And will Leo ever submit to the advances of sexy Swedish receptionist/actress Ulla (Uma Thurman)? Directed by stage director Susan Stroman, making her feature film directorial debut, this riotous romp features lots of laughs from the major players, as well as brief appearances by Jon Lovitz, Michael McKean, and Richard Kind. Lane and Broderick make it easy to understand why the show was an unprecedented hit on Broadway, and Ferrell is a scene-stealer as Liebkind.

	Matthew Broderick
	Nathan Lane
	Uma Thurman
	Will Ferrell
	Charles Minsky - Cinematographer
	Glen Kelly - Original Music By
	John Bailey - Cinematographer
	Jonathan Sanger - Producer
	Mel Brooks - Producer
	Mel Brooks - Writer
	Mel Brooks - Original Music By
	Steven Weisberg - Editor
	Susan Stroman - Director
	Thomas Meehan - Writer

Uncut
"[I]ts frothy fun and energy are hard to deny. Quite a production." 02/01/2006 p.99

Sight and Sound
"[T]he new picture's snazzy glare is rather the point of the joke....The director underlines nicely Max and Leo's crassness by piling vulgarity onto vulgarity." 02/01/2006 p.79-80

Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
I know the 1968 movie "The Producers" virtually by heart, and it's one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. That makes it tricky for me to review this 2005 musical version - both because it's different, and because so often it is the same. There are stretches in Susan Stroman's opening scenes that follow Mel Brooks' 1968 version so closely it's as if Gus Van Sant, having finished his shot-by-shot remake of "Psycho," advanced directly to this assignment. - Roger Ebert

Variety.com 7 of 10
Reproducing Mel Brooks' still-running Broadway smash so literally you can practically see the proscenium arch, new pic is undeniably stagy, even clunky, and its commercial fate rests on whether auds find the blunt theatrical artifice and playing-to-the-balcony performance style off-putting or endearing. Older viewers should turn this exuberant, sometimes hilarious picture into a moderate hit domestically for Universal, although Sony/Columbia's prospects overseas look shaky. - Todd McCarthy