Tuesday, January 17, 2012

You Shoulda Been There

Silent Movie
(Mel Brooks, 1976)

Madcap trio sets out to save the day using well-worn(out) charm of yesteryear.

Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, and Dom DeLuise set out in a silent film about making a silent film. A novel romp parodying and borrowing charm from the early days of cinema with mixed results. There is a sense that this was better viewed when new, way back when, since there is an apparent leaning-on of contemporary personalities (one more educated on pop would know them and gain more enjoyment) and old-school folks by then standards (wager to say wholly unknown now). Gags run the gamut of didn't quite get it?, ho-hum, and downright hilarious. Would have been nice if there were fewer dead-audio spots and if the text screens were treated better; printer's decorations or some such. A film with Bernadette Peters will always earn extra brownie points from yours truly.

Maybe not the best for solo or non-sexually-charged paired viewing, but certainly a good one for group movie nights where banter is the focus and on-screen funnies bring extra levity.

Recommended, contextually!

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