Not even bad in a good way

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

We've all known that Mel Brooks is a Comedy Genius. His crazy movies such as Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and Spaceballs have earned him his own sub-genre in the world of comedy films. However, before those films, there was this one; his second outing as a Director. I actually never heard of this film until a few years ago. I purchased "The Mel Brooks Collection" which was a collection of nine of his films on Blu-Ray. The Twelve Chairs was the first film in the collection. I was pleasantly surprised when I watched it. The humor is much more subtle than his other films. It's also different in that it's based on an earlier novel instead of coming directly from Mr. Brooks. However, what he did with this film is a testament to his artistic sense. The interaction between characters is very well choreographed. The comedic timing is excellent, especially with Dom Deluise. You're laughing almost immediately after he first appears in the story. A great deal of his story is separate from the other two characters as he makes his own search for the chairs. However, it's still a fine performance and much of what you expect from him for those familiar with his work. The interaction between Ron Moody and Frank Langella is fantastic. Moody does an excellent portrayal of the inept former aristocrat turned clerk and Langella is also excellent as the dashing and intelligent rogue. The two make a great odd couple, yet work very well together. Of course, there are the standard Mel Brooks trademarks such as the director's cameo and doubling as song-writer for the film's soundtrack. As usual he performs both roles very well. Finally what really makes this film a work of art is the cinematography. Mel Brooks certainly knows how to frame a picture and with Russia serving as the backdrop, we are really treated to some great imagery. The travel montage at 1 hour, 17 minutes in is definitely the best as Moody and Langella's characters make a long 3000 mile trek across the Soviet Union and back to Moscow. Highly recommend seeing this film. It's probably best to just do what I did and purchase The Mel Brooks Collection and see for yourself. You won't be disappointed.

The Twelve Chairs Years after the Russian Revolution in 1917, the former aristocrat Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov (Ron Moody) is informed by his terminal mother-in- law that she has hidden her jewels in a the upholstery of chair from a set of twelve chairs. The Orthodox Father Fyodor (Dom DeLuise) also hears and leaves the Church to seek out the treasure. Vorobyaninov travels to his old house and meets his former servant Tikon (Mel Brooks) that adores him. He learns that the chairs had been expropriated by the new government and sent to another place. However the con artist Ostap Bender (Frank Langella) convinces Vorobyaninov to be his partner. They travel to Moscow where Ostap succeeds in luring Father Fyodor, telling that the chairs belong to the Engineer Bruns (David Lander), who has very similar chairs and lives with his wife in Siberia. Will Vorobyaninov and Ostap find the twelve chairs?"The Twelve Chairs" is a typical Mel Brooks' comedy with the usual type of humor with a satire to the Russian Revolution. This comedy is also the debut of Frank Langella in the cinema. Fans of Mel Brooks will certainly like it, but who is not his fan may not find this comedy entertaining. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Banzé na Rússia" ("Mess in Russia")

By the Nineties what you expected from a Mel Brooks movie was a satire of film genres, whether it was horror, western, science fiction, the backstage show business story, the fertile mind of Mel Brooks somehow skewered them all. He did one remake of a classic comedy from the studio era with To Be Or Not To Be. But most of his work was his own original take on a film genre. The Twelve Chairs stands out as an odd fish among his work.Although it has some very funny moments it doesn't quite come off as well as The Producers or Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein. Perhaps it was because Brooks was not creating his own original work, but was filming a play from another source, a novel The Twelve Chairs by Soviet Union authors Ilyiu and Petrova.Former aristocrat Ron Moody who was quite lucky to be alive after the Russian Revolution hears a death bed confession from his mother that the family fortune is in jewels that the Bolesheviks didn't get, but was hidden in one of twelve parlor chairs the family owned. The Soviets confiscated the furniture and sold it to benefit the new government.Moody teams up with young gentleman thief Frank Langella to try and find the one chair with the loot. They have a rival in fake Russian Orthodox priest Dom DeLuise also looking for the chair with the swag.Moody steals the show in this one, thinking about the lost life he once had and that the chair will gain it back for him in some measure, he becomes positively more manic as the film continues. His performance is a whole lot like Zero Mostel's in The Producers.Still The Twelve Chairs is not what I've come to expect from Mel Brooks. He'd do so much better in his next film, Blazing Saddles.

The Twelve Chairs is not one of Mel Brooks's funniest comedies, but then again it IS a Russian based comedy, where big laughs are as hard to find as a tropical climate. This film does, however, display the director actually able to really tell a good story, and act as storyteller with characters in a plot to care about. If it is not really as successful as his other films though it is in this- I didn't really have a BIG laugh during the length of the 90 minute running time. I note this not because it is a laugh-less comedy, as I had good chuckles, grins, and smiles at the material presented. But in most of Brooks's films, even when the structure is held on a thread of sketches and bits, they become the funniest in modern movies. This time there is actually a lot of reverence to the early 20th century Russian times, even as there are some moments when the irreverence Brooks is best at pops up. Perhaps if you're die-hard into Russian history it might serve more for the in-jokes and the well-captured reality of the times.The acting is good, and the main cast is well placed, even if too not the best work is turned in. Frank Langella is definitely very good as the straight 'handsome desperado' character to Ron Moody's crazy old man, as he is an actor who maybe pulls out one good joke in the film. Moody meanwhile delivers some of the funniest moments just based on the delirious, if repetitive, bits on his face and in his unwavering dedication to the jewels stuck in the chair. It is Dom De Louise, on the other hand, who comparatively to other work he's done (primarily Brooksfilm work where he's genius in bit parts), as he really has to rely mostly on physical gags more than hysterical dialog. It becomes a running gag as the most desperate quack of the three hunting for the chair, and only intermittently (mostly when he tries to get the chairs from a husband and wife on a wild goose chase) is funny. And possibly some of the most memorable bits come with Brooks himself as the dim, clumsy but well-intentioned servant to Moody. One almost wishes he might pop up unexpectedly later in the film just as a brilliant goof.This is not to say I wasn't glad to finally see the often under-seen film in Brooks's oeuvre. It's certainly a good notch above the worst the director's done (Life Stinks and Dracula Dead and Loving It), where unlike those unfortunate moments he doesn't shoot for jokes and gags and puns that just don't work. Here they do, and they're juxtaposed with a story that allows for some good tongue-in-cheek moments(including a few smart moments when people chase each other in sped-up silent-film comedy style), while with a dramatic adventure story. There's even one or two moments where Brooks reveals a fine cinematic eye for the real locations on the character's travels. At the end, I felt I hadn't seen the great sleeper of a career, but a fun enough romp that has good intentions for something different- and what's more 'different' than a comedy set in Russia.