Why? Just why? I can't believe they made this load of old tat. The 1967 "The Producers" was a masterpiece of ironic comedy and parody. It's still the best. This load of tripe doesn't come anywhere near. The script is near identical, but the acting is mediocre, and the musical numbers terrible. Worse, the Producers of THIS "Producers" have confused Irony with Slapstick. Once the PC brigade had been through the script with a red pen there is clearly nothing left. Sanitised. Waste of musical talent, waste of time. Get the Original 1967 version. It's as fresh today as it always has been. Mel Brookes' comedic genius at it's apogee.

Who knew? Time only improves this magnificent tribute to professional quality. In a time where entertainment is all about "Amateur" - eg amateur singers, amateur bakers, amateur shows about amateurs, the joy of The Producers rises and rises.If XFactor off-key warbling and tragic back stories have you throwing your IPad on the floor, this slice of theatre perfection will have you rolling on the floor and rushing back to the black monster TV on the wall. With joy, pleasure and sore face smiling! Nathan Lane and Broderick Crawford bring the triple threat of dance, song and acting with bursting-out of a canon power. The cast all do everything to perfection. Script - it's four yeses from me, set and costume it's a four out of four and high-fives for the camera work! PC is totally incorrect and has increased over the years - rudeness about transgender frocks, 'keep it gay, gay,' and words cannot describe the shocking ageist portrayal with sex and zimmer frames! Then there's Hitler.But most of all there's talent. Everyone's got Talent.

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.

2 stars? I must be in a charitable mood. The original movie of 1967 (per IMDb) had comic geniuses Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, who were well supported by Kenneth Mars and many others. The Broadway musical was, like this movie remake, aimed at people of degraded tastes. Truly wretched songs were added, for one thing, and they have been apparently transferred to this movie version of the Broadway show. Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane are garish caricatures. They do not perform and do not act; they merely mug and pose and throw themselves about clumsily and unconvincingly. (It's arguable which of the two is worse.)The role of Franz Liebkind has been greatly and badly inflated expanded from a nice little counterpoint for Mostel and Wilder to a feature role for Will Ferrell, who is not good in it: it's just more mugging. Broderick and Lane? What was the casting director thinking? Box office, I guess.