Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Purely Joyful Movie!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Following he and Gene Wilder's cinematic love letter to James Whale's Frankenstein films, Mel Brooks wrote and directed a film hearkening back to an even earlier era with SILENT MOVIE. The film, for those who haven't seen it, is exactly what it claims to be: a silent comedy. Well, almost silent. There's a single spoken line in the entire movie and it's spoken by the one person whose delivery should guarantee a chuckle. The premise of SILENT MOVIE is, as I understand it, basically a comedic depiction of the trials and tribulations Brooks endured in trying to get the movie made in the first place. At the center of the film is our trio of filmmakers: Mel Funn (Brooks), Dom Bell (Dom DeLuise), and Marty Eggs (Marty Feldman). Mel Funn is a former Hollywood director whose career tanked when he fell into alcoholism. He has dreams of reviving his career with the first silent film in decades and his friends Dom and Marty are coming along to help him see it through. The studio is, obviously, more than a little hesitant at first but they've got the evil east coast conglomerate Engulf & Devour breathing down their necks in hopes of acquiring the company. When Mel promises to fill his picture with the biggest stars, the studio chief (Sid Caesar) gives him a shot. SILENT MOVIE is then a race against time for Mel to collect some of the biggest names the mid-70s has to offer and save the studio.SILENT MOVIE is slapstick fun in the vein of the classics like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. I'm a fan of Chaplin (and need to make time to watch some Keaton) and dig the goofball comedies of early cinema, and Brooks pulls from his love for the era to fill this movie to the brim with classic gags. There's loads of fun to be had here but it starts to drag after a while. Those early Chaplin films run about fifteen to twenty minutes apiece and, while some of them do run longer, they work best in those smaller, easily digested doses. I think the longest Chaplin film I've seen was about 70 minutes and, even then, it lost some of its fun by the end. SILENT MOVIE is just under ninety minutes and, regardless of how much fun the bits are, it runs a little long for me. I'm not adverse to silent film. I loved THE ARTIST, which brought the genre back again in 2011 to great success. But that had better storytelling and didn't have to rely on pratfalls and funny faces to fill out a feature-length runtime. I was thoroughly enjoying SILENT MOVIE up until around the halfway mark when my attention began to wander. A large section of the movie follows Funn as he tracks down Hollywood stars to convince him to join his movie, and it doesn't switch things up until the last twenty- five minutes or so when we head into the final act.Just as the characters in the film need to bolster interest in their silent film with the inclusion of big stars, so does SILENT MOVIE itself. Half of the movie is a string of cameos from the likes of Burt Reynolds, Liza Minnelli, James Caan, etc. If nothing else, it's fun to watch these big name stars get in on the cornier slapstick the movie brings to the table. I suppose my favorite cameo bit would be Caan's. It felt the most like a classic silent film comedy scenario with Caan inviting Funn and his buddies into his trailer for lunch to discuss their movie. Of course, the trailer has poor suspension so the four of them are teetering around inside as the trailer lurches from one side to the other with the slightest gesture. It was definitely one of the funnier scenes, as opposed to their courting of Liza Minnelli which involved arduous minutes of Funn and the gang toppling over each other in suits of medieval armor in the studio commissary. The bits are hit and miss, but I can at least say that most of them register on the positive end of the spectrum. At minimum, they'll elicit a smile. I can't be too harsh overall because I see what Brooks was aiming for and I appreciate the sentiment. Those early silent shorts get little to no attention anymore and Mel Brooks has done his part in shining the spotlight on them once again for newer generations.SILENT MOVIE probably isn't going to have you laughing your head off but, if nothing else, it's ninety minutes of harmless fun. There's nothing overtly racy in the film so it's a nice piece anyone of any age can enjoy. It's comedy fluff that I can't imagine will find itself atop many top comedy lists, or even top Brooks comedy lists, but it's good for some chuckles and people who know more about that early era of Chaplin and Keaton than I will probably find even more to appreciate.

If this entire film was constructed solely for the sake of a single joke--a mime speaking the only word in a silent film--I would be okay with that. Luckily, there's a little more to it."Silent Movie," written, directed, and starring Mel Brooks as Mel Funn, a down-on-his-luck Hollywood director--dressed as a sea captain, for some reason--looking for his comeback, which he believes will come in the form of a silent movie. He's joined by two cohorts, Marty Feldman--dressed as an aviator; something tells me Feldman wouldn't be able to acquire a pilot's license--and Dom DeLuise--dressed relatively normal, though bordering on golf enthusiast. The three must recruit major Hollywood stars in order for the studio to greenlight their film. The thorn in my side when it comes to this movie--and the same goes for 2011's "The Artist"--is that if this had come out prior to '29, nobody would care, and it would be seen as an imitation of greater artists. Many of the gags in the film simply lack the choreography and elegance of Chaplin, Keaton or Lloyd. Take a scene in which the three buffoons disguise themselves as knights in order to draft Liza Minnelli; it merely involves the three falling over, getting back up and falling over again, and goes on way too long. This isn't to say, however, that the film doesn't its moments; it has several, actually.Brooks is famous for having the world's most sophisticated fart joke--the coffee and bean diet of cowboys; it's only logical--and in this film, he performs the miracle of making an erection joke clever. Also, the running gag of bizarre California businesses is consistently funny, such as an acupuncture facility, in which customers walking out all look like hedgehogs. A frisky Coca-Cola machine nearly steals the show, and comes in handy later in a appropriately ridiculous manner. And who among us cannot crack a smile when witness to a high-speed wheelchair chase between Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise and Paul Newman. One would be remiss not to mention the fact that Burt Reynolds has both his name and a portrait of his face across the front of his mansion; if he doesn't have such a thing in real life, I will be sorely disappointed.While the film misses more than it hits, it's a pleasure to see it swing. The jokes that fall flat are quickly swept away by the charm of the movie and the childish optimism at the heart of it. I would rank it second-tier Brooks, along with "High Anxiety" and "History of the World, Part I." But second-tier Brooks is first-tier anyone else.

You must pay attention to the subtitles in this movie. I usually will not watch a subtitled movie but this one is worth it. Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise what more can one ask for in a comedy movie??? Harold Gould plays a campy studio head well. Sid Caesar, ahhh, what can one say about one of the funniest writers and directors ever? I love his movies. This one was a good one but, while I did not care for the subtitles, I did understand that they were necessary to the plot. The fact that Mel Brooks even thought of this kind of scenario just shows his comedic genius too me. I love all of his movies but of course there are some that are funnier than others. This one is one of his funnier ones even with the subtitles. '

"Slapstick is dead!" shouts Sid Caesar, the anxious producer, before sliding across the floor and hit the wall. You would think that indeed, slapstick is dead, that this kind of dated humor wouldn't work with today's audience, but that it worked during the post-Watergate pessimistic 70's, is the best guarantee of timelessness... and Mel Brooks' "Silent Movie" is not only one of the most underrated comedies but his best film in my opinion.It's interesting to note that the movie came out in 1976, the infamous year where the success of the cheerful "Rocky" over the more realistic "Taxi Driver", the cynical "Network" or the political thriller "All the President's Men" proved that the audience needed something new, but since the 70's revolutionized cinema, the newness could only be inspired from the past, the Golden Age. "Rocky" as the triumph of the underdog over the adversity was a celebration of the faith in human spirit à la Frank Capra, and in the same vein, "Silent Movie" is a return to the roots of comedy, the heritage of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and silent era's comedic treasures. Even the fans of Mel Brooks will notice the absence of explicitly raunchy humor and delightful vulgarity used to be his trademark. "Silent Movie" never exceeds a certain level of naughtiness, and the general tone carries the sweetness of a deliberate innocence drawing a big smile in our face."Silent Movie" is indeed a charming Family film that I had the pleasure to discover at the age of eight, I couldn't finish it but the least I saw was enough to keep intact in my memories. I remembered I laughed a lot, and even when i didn't get the jokes, I was smiling. I remembered the hysterical part in a shower, the funny sound effects, and more than anything, that skinny little guy with a race driver outfit who shared a vague resemblance with Jackie Wright, the little bald guy from "The Benny Hill Show", and it was not until I finally watched the film entirely that I put the name 'Marty Feldman' in his face. What a performance, he carries 50% of the fun, if only for him, the movie is a must-see, and never has the word 'see' be so relevant. "Silent Movie" is a visual delight in every meaning of the word. I even wonder why it hasn't been nominated for Best Art-Direction or Best Costume Design, the film's use of color creates a wonderful atmosphere making us wish that Keaton or Chaplin could have benefited from the use of Technicolor, at least once.I mentioned the slapstick pioneers, but the movie still has a modern feel beyond the homage to a classic genre. It's a masterpiece of adaptation in the way it keeps its relevance for a modern audience in three distinct ways. First, the gags, to name a few, there's one scene implying that a group of gentlemen are having a sensitive reaction toward a sexy picture, I won't spoil it to you, but the way, it's suggested is extremely well done, and shows how tactfully Mel Brooks handles a cruder form of humor, to paraphrase one of the character, Sex would have indeed killed "Funn". The second aspect is the way Brooks stills uses the cardboards to feature verbal jokes, cheating with the virtuosity of an iconoclast, after all, being silent doesn't prevent a movie from having a good script. And ultimately, there's the self-referential element : Mel Brooks plays the role of Mel Funn, a director who wants to make a silent movie, and with his two acolytes, Dom Bell and Marty Eggs, played by the namesakes De Luise and Feldman, they will propose to real-life stars to participate to the film. This is the genius plot device that provided the film's most memorable moments and some extra publicity.Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minelli, Anne Bancroft, Marcel Marceau, Paul Newman ... all these guest stars parody themselves in irresistible cameos that give the film an episodic feel without denaturing the narrative. "Silent Movie" is less a series of funny sketches than a self-reflexive depiction of the film. It's not just a tribute to silent movies but also to movie making, to the industry of cinema and the issues it faces : what "Sunset Blvd." did with a film-noir tone, Mel Brooks did with comedy and spoof humor. And the funniest reference to the industry is the big corporations that try to buy out smaller studios, the villainous team represented by Engulf & Devour is a clear reference to Gulf & Paramount. Ron Carey and the classy Harold Gould, provide the movie's best moments after Marty Eggs, and till now, I can't resist to the music played during their part, a sound that would have made Chaplin proud.Music, sound play a significant part to the film's success, even for the jokes, the sound effects perfectly match the scenes, but we're so distracted by the laughs that we forget the technical achievement the film represents. Silent films require a masterful direction relying on so many specific mechanisms : the timing, the speed, the editing. Some scenes wouldn't be as hilarious without the fast motion; others would be pretty dull without the sound. In fact, not all the jokes will have the same impact, some will eventually fall flat, but Mel Brooks doesn't censor himself and uses the film as the occasion to experiment old recipes with modern ingredients, and the result is absolutely delicious as we can all cheer for an uplifting family comedy, and the wonderful time we spent.And one particular moment is another proof of Brooks' comedic genius, there's absolutely no word to describe this scene, or actually maybe one which happens to be the only one spoken in the film. Only for that scene, the film is a must … who am I kidding? For every scene, this film is an absolute must see.