Movie Monday: The Producers

This week for Movie Monday I’m back with another of my favorites. It’s The Producers!

Plot Synopsis:The once-great Max Bialystock had once been the toast of Broadway, but now he has been reduced to a washed-up, aging, fraudulent, corruptible, and greedy Broadway producer who barely ekes out a hand-to-mouth existence romancing lascivious, wealthy elderly women (“angels” in theatrical terms) in exchange for money for his next play. Accountant Leopold “Leo” Bloom, a young man who is highly nervous and prone to hysterics, arrives at Max’s office to do his books and discovers a $2,000 discrepancy in the accounts of Max’s last play. Max persuades Leo to hide the relatively minor fraud, and while shuffling numbers, Leo has a revelation: a producer could make a lot more money with a flop than a hit by overselling shares in the production, because no one will audit the books of a play presumed to have lost money….

Plot: This is a freaking hilarious movie, and frankly one of Mel Brooks, because of course it’s from his genius mind, best productions. In fact it was so successful that Brooks actually went to Broadway with it and was a huge success. There is a remake, and while it’s good, it’s not the one I’m covering today. This is full of laughs, fun times, and more laughter. My favorite part might just be the opening of the play. You’ll see why when you watch it if you haven’t seen this already. If you have, you know what I’m talking about. “Winter for Poland and France”

Characters: All of the cast is awesome, but the fact that Gene Wilder is in it is just icing on the cake. However my favorite character has to be Lorenzo St. DuBois.

Cinematography: There isn’t any really fancy with this, mostly because it doesn’t need it. That being said it was still fun.

Music: Perfect. In fact I think I’ll go listen to that opening song of the play after I finish writing this post.

Overall: If you’ve never seen this movie, or the remake, you absolutely need to do so.

For those who like: Mel Brooks, Laughter, Satires, Broadway, Uncontrollable Laughter, Fantastic Plot, Excellent Cast.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, but how can you hate all that?

Movie Monday: Robin Hood Men in Tights

This week for Movie Monday I’m back with another favorite of mine. It’s Robin Hood Men in Tights!

Plot Synopsis: Robin of Loxley, is captured during the Crusades and is imprisoned at Khalil Prison in Jerusalem. With the help of fellow inmate Asneeze, who was arrested for jaywalking, he escapes and frees the other inmates. Robin is asked by Asneeze to find his son, Ahchoo back in England….

Plot: Yeah this is obviously another Mel Brooks production if you couldn’t tell from the picture above. So if you were expecting seriousness and solemnity you’re going to be really disappointed. However if you enjoy laughing almost constantly then, you’ll find Men in Tights to be pretty freaking hilarious.

Characters: The cast is great, and fun fact it features Dave Chappelle in his first ever Film performance. I didn’t know that this was the case, until I read it on the movie’s Wikipedia page. However my favorite character, other than Robin who is played by Cary Elwes of Princess Bride fame, is Blinkin. Blinkin is played by Mark Blankfield, and does an awesome job. The entire cast is truly excellent however and you’ll see lots of pretty famous faces.

Cinematography: Being a Mel Brooks film it’s not so much about the special effects as it is the script, that being said it was pretty good.

Musical Score: It was pretty fitting to the movie and that’s all I’ll say on the subject.

Overall: If you haven’t seen this movie, you ought to.

For those who like: Mel Brooks Films, Laughing, Comedy, Robin Hood, Mythology, Excellent Cast, Fantastic Script.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, but how can you hate that?

Movie Monday: Young Frankenstein

This week for Movie Monday I’m covering another work from my favorite director. It’s Young Frankenstein!

Plot Synopsis: Dr. Frederick Frankenstein is a lecturing physician at an American medical school and engaged to the tightly wound socialite Elizabeth. He becomes exasperated when anyone brings up the subject of his grandfather Victor Frankenstein, the infamous mad scientist; to dissociate himself from his forebear, Frederick insists that his surname is pronounced ‘Fronkensteen’. When a solicitor informs him that he has inherited his family’s estate in Transylvania after the death of his great-grandfather, the Baron Beaufort von Frankenstein, Frederick travels to Europe to inspect the property.

Plot: The plot is pretty good, although if you are expecting anything really serious you’re going to be sorely disappointed. That said there is some some adult themes in this, so children probably shouldn’t watch this.

Characters: The entire cast is amazing, though Gene Wilder as Frederick really steals the show in my opinion. That being said Igor is also pretty freaking hilarious. “Didn’t you used to have that on the other side?”.

Cinematography: This is done in black and white as a nod to the old Frankenstein films, which Young Frankenstein takes many inspirations from.

Music: The music is, as one might expect from a Mel Brooks film, spot on. That’s all I’ll say on the subject.

Overall: A must watch movie.

For those who like: Comedies, Mel Brooks, Spoofs, Hilarity, Awesome Plot, Fantastic Cast of Characters, Great Cinematography, Excellent Musical Score.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, but how can you hate all that?

 

Movie Monday: Blazing Saddles

For my Inaugural Movie Monday post, I’m covering my favorite movie of all time. It’s Blazing Saddles!

Plot Synopsis: In the American frontier of 1874, construction on a new railroad will soon be going through Rock Ridge, a town inhabited exclusively by white people with the surname Johnson. The conniving attorney general Hedley Lamarr wants to force Rock Ridge’s residents to abandon their town, thereby lowering land prices. After he sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky Taggart, to shoot the sheriff and trash the town, the townspeople demand that Governor William J. Le Petomane appoint a new sheriff to protect them. Lamarr persuades the dim-witted Le Petomane to appoint Bart, a black railroad worker who was about to be executed for starting a fight. A black sheriff, he reasons, will offend the townspeople, create chaos, and leave the town at his mercy.

Plot: First let me get this out of the way, this is purely a satire. I do not condone the usage of slurs or racial epithets. However the usage here in the film is to point out the obvious bigotry in the usage of such things. Okay with that out of the way, Blazing Saddles is absolutely not for children. However my Dad, who I love dearly and respect immensely, showed it to me when I was 8, so this film had a lot of influence on me growing up. If you ever thought I had a twisted sense humor, or my sense of morality was more than a bit askew, this film might be part of the reason. I always will love Mel Brooks films, because they are almost all funny with few, if any, really sad endings. Blazing Saddles is my favorite of the bunch and I love this film for it’s usage of comedy to show that bigotry is stupid.

Characters: The entire cast is just a mish-mash of comedy and side stitch inducing laughter. However my favorite might just be Gene Wilder as the Waco Kid. Or I just might like him as an actor the most. Either way I enjoyed the entire cast, even if we were obviously meant to hate certain characters, they were done in such a way that I really didn’t hate them too much.

Cinematography: This isn’t a Lucasfilm production, in fact the stage props are so blatant sometimes it’s hilarious. Okay you can stop pulling out pitchforks to gut me with, I couldn’t resist doing that.

Overall: If you’ve never watched Blazing Saddles, you need to stop whatever you’re doing (assuming your not at work or something like that) and go watch it right now. Like seriously, it’s one of my favorite movies of all time.

For those who like: Comedy, Great Plot, Laughing, Amazing Cast of Characters, Their sides aching from laughing so much, Excellent Cinematography, Not being able to breathe from lack of oxygen due to laughing so hard. (Are you sensing a pattern here?)

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, but how can you hate all of that?