Producers, The

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

It's a classic example of how a movie can be great without, strictly speaking, being good. But when something is this funny, who wants to speak strictly?

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Susan Stroman directed the show on Broadway and what she has done here is photograph that show -- no more, no less. This is good news for anyone who couldn't afford a trip to New York and $100 tickets, but it's a fairly odd approach to cinema.

Premiere Staff (not credited)

Once you drink The Producers' Kool-Aid, it's a thoroughly enjoyable descent into madness.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Producers hits few wrong notes on the big screen.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It was fun, it was funny, it was alive.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It's too long to be great and it's too square to be great and it's too loud to be great and it finds homosexual effeminacy too funny to ever be called great, but I can't imagine anyone coming out sadder than they went in.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Brooks's sweetness, innocence, and boundless love of the infantile inform everything from the brassy production numbers (capped by an homage to Jailhouse Rock) to the final credits.

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

In the end, The Producers is an enjoyable romp, and at times--as when Hitler sings "Heil Myself"--it's hilarious. But it's not transcendent.

Time Richard Schickel

There's no attempt to address the show's endemic weak spots--a slow start and a contrived end. Mostly Stroman just lets it rip. But in some respects the movie is an improvement on the show.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Broderick is a genuine trouper, hoofing his way through his big numbers, while Lane's antics are difficult to resist.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

The result is largely a giddy, goofy delight.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

In the world of Mel Brooks, everything is fair game and anything is good for a laugh. God bless Mel Brooks.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The new film is a nauseatingly unsteady medley of brilliance and foolish nonsense.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Enough is enough. Somebody should just stop remaking The Producers.

Variety Todd McCarthy

So determinedly old-fashioned it makes a strong claim to being the best film musical of 1959.

Empire Olly Richards

As a chance to see the celebrated Broadway show with the original cast, this is a treat. As a re-interpretation of a classic, though, it's a disappointment.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Brooks gives himself the last word, appearing onscreen for the first time amid chorus girls oozing PG-13 pulchritude. "Go home!" he says. "It's over!" Could he be referring to his career?

Miami Herald Christine Dolan

The chemistry is intact, but performances that were reaching-for-the-balcony big on Broadway haven't been scaled back a bit for a more intimate, up-close medium.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Can't find its rhythm and stride. It plays it far too safe and slick.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

If you have seen the play, especially if you've seen it with the original cast, treasure the memory and protect it. The movie will attack it like a virus.

Film Threat Rory L. Aronsky

It's the curse of overacting and overdone shtick that does them in.

Newsweek David Ansen

The theatricality is off the charts. Lane aims for the balconies; Broderick tones it down for the camera a bit.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The best two performances belong to Uma Thurman and Will Ferrell. For the film to work, though, the two best roles should belong to Tony-winning Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the title roles.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The accountant in Bloom would probably approve of the new Producers: It's an efficient extension of a popular brand. In theory, what's not to like? In reality, the whole schmear.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

The musical film version of The Producers is, for better or worse, a faithful record of the stage production, adhering to the same if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it philosophy that informed the recent "Rent."

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The Producers is a movie based on a play based on a movie about a play. And that's probably the funniest thing about it.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The film falls short even as a record of Broderick and Lane's crowd-pleasing rapport: Both have done the show so many times that every scrap of life is gone.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Stroman should have studied the original Producers that Brooks directed in 1968, with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. It answers the question "Where did they go right?"

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Most of the bits and performances have a hard time making the transition from stage to screen.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

This is the stage experience documented on film, from the perspective of someone sitting front row centre watching actors pitching for the back rows of the balcony.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Watching The Producers is simply exhausting.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

Whereas the original film is gleefully crass and energetically paced, the movie musical, weighing in at a robust two-plus hours, is bloated and self-satisfied. Whatever spectacle the stage musical possessed to make it such a box-office behemoth fails to transfer to the screen.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Ms. Thurman is the one bit of genuine radiance in this aggressively and pointlessly shiny, noisy spectacle.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The Producers on screen, as a musical, does not work. It is not very funny. It doesn't look right. It's depressing.

New York Post Kyle Smith

From bad to worse - Even in verse - The Producers moves like a hearse -Mildness and blandness -Mugging like madness - Who knew that "Rent" would win this fight? - Murdering a genre's just not all right!

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The Producers is nightmarish, in its febrile way, a head-bangingly primitive version of an overrated Broadway show that grew out of a clumsy 1968 movie with an inflated reputation.

Slate David Edelstein

There are no real people in The Producers --only actors laboring to dispel whatever magic they once were thought to possess. The director, Susan Stroman, has brought the Broadway smash to the screen (where it began, almost 40 years ago) with cataclysmic results.