Reviews

I think this movie is the victim of many very clever movies before it. It's difficult to mislead an audience and have a surprise ending that actually surprises any more. Unlike many recent great 'surprise ending' movies, like Usual Suspects, Sixth Sense, Memento and Seven, I was always one step ahead of guessing what was going to happen next in Lucky Number Slevin. Had Slevin come out before any of those others I mentioned it might be in the same category. Unfortunately it is not.

The style of Slevin is very nice and there are some great clever moments. I found myself entertained by it. But I felt myself entertained in the same way as watching a movie I've seen several times already, detecting early on the clues that would eventually reveal the big secret at the end. And the reveals were slow enough that even if you're not looking for them you can see them coming.

Because of this it feels more like a rental than a gotta-go-out-and-see-it one. Probably explains why it didn't do so hot at the box office.

This pretty much felt like what it was: a movie based on a successful stage musical based on a successful movie. Not a whole lot original here. I can understand why it was made into a stage musical, as such an adaptation brings another dimension, but making it back into a movie again? The magician did one trick too many and blew the secret.

Its not a terrible film. Were it to stand alone it might have actually been OK. But to compare it to the original exposes all the brilliant subtleties are completely lost due to insider jokes and general staleness. The (new) film seemed often to be laughing at itself, rather than making something genuinely funny and allowing you to laugh at it. Nathan Lane did a fine job as Max Bialystock, and was probably the shining part of the film. Matthew Broderick, who I usually like, seemed to be desperately trying to imitate Gene Wilder, an impossible task, rather than making the character his own. Will Ferrell and Uma Thurman played their characters so broad I found myself amused more at the idea of what they were doing than what they were actually doing.

I'd say my biggest complaint of the film though, apart from its general pointlessness, was the fact that the pinnacle moment in the film, when Springtime For Hitler is finally revealed on stage to a stunned audience, it actually seems less over-the-top than most of the stuff that happens before and after it. In the original when that moment is revealed, we are grounded enough in reality and falling off our chair laughing at the absurdity-- because we actually buy it. In general The (new) Producers feels like one of those Saturday Night Live skits (and not a very good one) that goes on way too long.