Silent Movie
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Movie Reviews of Silent Movie
Movie Review: There's a moment very early in "Silent Movie" (before the opening credits, in fact) when Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, and Dom
Summary: 5 Stars
...DeLuise are tooling through Los Angeles in a tiny sports car. They pass a pregnant lady at a bus stop. "That's a very pregnant lady!" Brooks says (on a title card, of course, since this is a silent movie). "Let's give her a lift!" The lady gets into the back of the car, which tilts back onto its rear wheels. Mel drives off with the front wheels in the air.
This is far from being the funniest scene in a very funny movie, but it helps to illustrate my point, which is that Mel Brooks will do anything for a laugh. Anything. He has no shame. He's an anarchist; his movies inhabit a universe in which everything is possible and the outrageous is probable, and Silent Movie, where Brooks has taken a considerably stylistic risk and pulled it off triumphantly, made me laugh a lot. On the Brooks-Laff-O-Meter, I laughed more than in "Young Frankenstein" and about as much as in "Blazing Saddles," although not, I confess, as much as in "The Producers."
"Silent Movie" is not only funny, it's fun. It's clear at almost every moment that the filmmakers had a ball making it. It's set in contemporary Hollywood, where Big Pictures Studio ("If it's a big picture, we've made it") teeters on the edge of bankruptcy and a takeover from the giant Engulf and Devour conglomerate. Enter Mel Funn (Brooks), a once-talented director whose career was cut short by drunkenness, who vows to save the studio by convincing Hollywood's biggest stars to make a silent movie. This is a situation that gives rise to a lot of inside jokes (I wonder whether executives at Gulf and Western, which took over Paramount, will notice any parallels), but the thing about Brooks's inside jokes is that their outsides are funny, too.
The intrepid gang of Mel, Dom, and Marty set out to woo the superstars, materializing in the shower of one (who counts his hands, puzzled, and finds he has eight) and plucking another out of a nightclub audience. (There are several "actual" stars in the movie, but it would be spoiling the fun to name them.) Everything's done amid an encyclopedia of sight gags, old and new, borrowed and with a fly in their soup. There are gags that don't work and stretches of up to a minute, I suppose, when we don't laugh -- but even then we're smiling because of Brooks's manic desire to entertain. There's a story about the days, years ago, when Brooks was a writer for Sid Caesar and Caesar would march into the writers' office, pick up their desks, brandish them and shout "funnier!" I think the lesson rubbed off.
In a movie filled with great scenes, these moments are classics: The battle with the Coke machine. The behavior with the horse on the merry-go-round. The nightclub scene. The dramatic reaction of Engulf and Devour's board of directors to the photo of sexpot Vilma Kaplan. The fly in the soup. The Pong game in the intensive-care unit. The ... but space is limited: Perhaps I should mention, though,that the movie isn't really silent. It's filled with wall-to-wall music, sound effects, explosions, whistles, and crashes and, yes, one word.
Movie Review: Pure Genius
Summary: 5 Stars
Mel Brooks were at his creative top when he directed this picture; he took a lot of risks doing a silent movie during the half seventies
But the real Star for me in this movie is Marty Feldman as one of his sidekick dressed like a plane pilot.
You just have to look to his insane face and those big crazy blue eye balls to laugh and also Dom Delouise did it great as his Inspector Like Sidekick that never stops eating.
Mel funn the Once greatest director of Hollywood till the alcohol destroy his carrier is trying to make a big come back and he has an idea for it, to direct the first silent movie in decades and also save the "Big Pictures" Studio from bankrupt in the process
How he will succeed?
Hiring the biggest stars in Hollywood (Of the Seventies of course) and the World ....ok not the world Just France, that includes:
Burt Reynolds
James Caan
Liza Minelli
(Mel's Late Beloved Wife) Ann Bancroft
Marcel Marcau
Paul Newman
So these three friends engage in this frantic task full of laughs,
I must tell you; always it's very funny see big stars making fool of themselves in an intelligent Way.
So you have to watch this movie and see what I mean
And of course the villains, nothing is better in a comedy than a Stupid Villain, The More Stupid The more you Laugh, so we have this guys from some kind of corporation called "Engulf and Devore" who try's really hard to take over the studio "Big Pictures" how they will succeed, stopping Mel and Friend's pictures before they can even hire the Stars
So go and rent it or Buy It you won't be disappointed
Movie Review: Brooks' funny love letter to the silent film genre
Summary: 5 Stars
Compared to his previous efforts, "Blazing Saddles" & "Young Frankenstein", "Silent Movie" falls a bit short of satirizing the silent film genre. There are some genuinely funny moments, courtesy of Mel, Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise, Sid Caesar, Harold Gould & Ron Carey leading the list. Brooks opted for Bernadette Peters as leading lady this time, and she's perfectly cast, looking as if she stepped right out of a silent movie. There are some wonderful slapsticks gags here, often accentuated by Brooks' politically incorrect tone.
Several familiar faces (including Brooks' wife, Anne Bancroft, in a very funny nightclub scene) cross the camera lens (sadly, most of the cast is gone now). The one guest star who steals the show is legendary mime Marcel Marceau, who, ironically, is the only actor who utters a symbolic word: "NO!" Brooks has confessed that he had grown up watching silents (his favorite comedian was the great Buster Keaton) & developed a deep love & respect for them. So, it was natural for him to try a silent comedy within a silent film. The results are mixed: Strangely, the lack of sound makes the film seem slower than it really is, in spite of the frenetic slapstick.
A notch below his finer work; but it's an often funny & endearing little comedy from Brooks.
Movie Review: Hooray! On DVD at last!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great, funny movie with many of the best gags of any Mel Brooks movie. The casting is excellent, and there are moments that make me laugh just thinking about them.
The quality of the dvd is also excellent. I would have liked some bonus features, such as a commentary or making of. The movie looks good, the transfer is very clean, and the sound is nice and clear. I'm not so sure if this is really a 5.1 mix, or just the original soundtrack re-jigged somehow - really, it doesn't matter a whole lot.
I was particularly struck by Marcel Marceau's performance. I can't stand most mime, but the guy appears to be an entertainer first, and a mime second. His ability to move is just amazing.
Marty Feldman also excels in this film. He is given many choice bits, and a couple of solo moments that are just great.
Worth it.
Movie Review: Expresses the joy of what can be done if you make a movie without sound
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie really is a lot of fun, and it's absolutely hilarious. It didn't get a whole lot of publicity, but it's just as wonderful as YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, though not quite as great as THE PRODUCERS. There one great sight gag after another. Every minute of the movie is just classic. The cast is great. It's also Mel Brooks' cleanest movie that I know of. Great family fun. I want to mention one sight gag. The heroes are surrounded (I won't spoil it by saying why), and they use a use coke machine to attack. I can't tell you more, or I'll just be spoiling great scenes. You have to see it for yourself, but I'll tell you this, it's all hysterical. And as I said before, besides being funny, it's great fun. By the way, it's not really a silent movie. There are a lot of sound effects.