I finally gotten around to seeing this one. For those of you not familiar with it (is there anyone who isn't???), it is a movie beased on the Broadway play that was based on the movie produced in the 1970's by Mel Brooks. As you can imagine, that means it is going to be rip-roaring funny.

As with Hairspray, I put off seeing the movie because I could not figure out why there was a need to make it. The original movie is a classic. I can understand making it into a musical play, but why remake it into a movie again???

Well, I was glad that I finally watched it because the new version does strengthen things with additional songs and scenes that strenthens the story. The whole things centers around musical-flop producer Max Bialystock and former accountant Leo Bloom as they try to make it rich on the Great White Way. They try to do it in a most non-traditional way. Bialystock is sick of the fact that his career is floundering. Bloom points out that it would be easy to make it rich by using investors to bring in more money to make a play than is necessary and let it flop. But who would be that unscrupulous.

Before long, they are doing everything they can to create a well-funded bomb that is destined to fail. It takes on the form of Springtime for Hitler, a musical set during the rise and fall of Hitler in an attempt to make him appear sympathetic. They higher a failed director to put it on, the neo-Nazi scriptwriter and Hitler fan to take on the lead, and a gorgeous secretary with poor English to be the female lead. How could this play possibly succeed! Well, it does because it is so bad that it is good, and the critics and audience take the whole thing as dark satire landing the main characters in a whole lotta trouble!

Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick show what made them a masterful due on Broadway with this work by reprising their roles on celluloid. They are accompanied by a number of familiar cast members including Will Farrell, Uma Therman, and even a cameo by Mel Brooks himself. I actually liked this better than the original. Who would have thunk it!