Simply A Masterpiece

Crappy film

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The premise of this movie I thought was interesting and promising, however really non of the joke seemed to land, and this being completely silent, made the whole picture drag on and become increasingly annoying frankly. There is a scene where they're dressed up as knights that really did crack me, but nothing really came from that unfortunately. This one I'd say is worth skipping and rewatching space balls.

I really like the hits and misses of Mel Brooks. He has brought joy to us all in many forms, from his comedy act to a series of fun movies. This one just didn't do it for me. I guess the concept was lacking any reason to exist. I can give it a six because of the characters' names, a lot of one liners, and a Brooksian bit of panache. It has an all-star cast with wonderful cameos, but it has little if any center to it. If we want to see silent films, we should watch Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd. But there are some rather nice moments and it comes across in a polished way. And, of course, there's the bit with Marcel Marceau. Not enough, however, to save the film.

What I'm reviewing here is the last of the "Slapstickers" series of Movies on the Lawn at the Baton Rouge Gallery-a series of classic silent comedies presented at the last Saturday of each month with an accompaniment of a live contemporary band of which this particular movie I'm commenting on had the musical stylings of Caftan Green (I think that was the name of the group). Anyway, I had previously seen this on Cinemax with the original John Morris score so it was such a treat to watch this again with a brand new score with some familiar jazz numbers spread throughout. The gags thought by director/star Mel Brooks and others were quite funny especially when they involved getting Big Stars to do his movie of which one of them was his actual wife Anne Bancroft. And both Dom DeLuise and Marty Feldman as his associates also contributed their own funny turns. I'm sure some gags may be dated to anyone born after the year this film was actually made but most of them are still quite effective today like the board of Engulf and Devour's reaction to their first viewing of a picture of Bernadette Peters' sexy poster. Oh, and many of the mostly middle aged audience I saw this with reacted appreciatively, laughing as loud as I did during the whole thing. So on that note, I very highly recommend Silent Movie. P.S. Since the score was a live one on this viewing, someone behind the screen said "Non!" when Marcel Marceau said the only spoken part of this picture.

Far and away Brook's best film, even though that's not saying much. Sight gags are Mel's forte, so turning the sound off was the best idea he ever had. Funny most of the way through, it is only occasionally that this dig at the silent pic gets tiresome. Moments of real hilarity serve to temper the dull ones.Stars are in plentiful supply, including main players Brooks, Feldman, Dom DeLuise, Bernadette Peters and Sid Caesar. Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minelli, Anne Bancroft, Paul Newman and Marcel Marceau all drop in to help make "Silent Movie" a hit.Saturday, January 8, 2000 - Video