 Blazing Saddles 1974  R, 93 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Gene Wilder, Cleavon Little, Madeline Kahn, Alex Karras, Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens, Mel Brooks, David Huddleston, Dom DeLuise, John Hillerman, Liam Dunn, Jack Starrett
This is a hilarious satire on Western movies by the master of wacky, Mel Brooks. Ex-convict Bart (Cleavon Little) is offered amnesty if he becomes sheriff of a Western town that is (unknown to the population) about to be taken over by the railroad. Great cast having lots of fun. Madeline Kahn was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
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Dracula: Dead and Loving It 1995  PG-13, 90 min.
Genre: Comedy / Horror
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Leslie Nielsen, Mel Brooks, Harvey Korman, Peter MacNicol, Steven Weber, Amy Yasbeck, Lysette Anthony, Anne Bancroft, Clive Revill, Mark Blankfield, Megan Cavanagh, Chuck McCann, Avery Schreiber
The Prince of Darkness (Leslie Nielsen) is happy as a Transylvania vampire–even though he keeps tripping over his cape. However, he still has a huge ego to overcome as he tries to keep his dignity in impossible situations throughout this very funny Mel Brooks film.
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High Anxiety 1977  PG, 92 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Korman, Dick Van Patten, Ron Carey, Howard Morris, Barry Levinson, Jack Riley, Charlie Callas
This satirical look at Alfred Hitchcock films takes place in a San Francisco sanitarium: Psycho-neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous. A new director, Richard Thorndyke (Mel Brooks), arrives on the scene and tries to help Victoria Brisbane (Madeline Kahn) whose father is being detained at the mental hospital.
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History of the World: Part I 1981 R, 93 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Mel Brooks, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Orson Welles, Cloris Leachman, Gregory Hines, John Gavin, Paul Mazursky, John Hurt
The Roman Empire, the Spanish Inquisition, and the French Revolution are presented as you have never read in history books. Added to that are excerpts from the Bible presented in humorous, irreverent ways. This is definitely a hysterical historical movie.
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Life Stinks 1991 PG-13, 95 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Mel Brooks, Lesley Ann Warren, Jeffrey Tambor, Stuart Pankin, Howard Morris, Rudy De Luca, Matthew Faison, Billy Barty, Michael Ensign
A callous land developer wants to buy the poorest section of Los Angeles and develop it, leaving the poor people with nowhere to go. On a bet, he decides to live as a homeless person in the area for a month. Lots of silly humor in this vacuous comedy.
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The Little Rascals 1994  PG, 82 min.
Genre: Family
Director: Penelope Spheeris
Cast: Travis Tedford, Bug Hall, Brittany Ashton Holmes, Kevin Jamal Woods, Jordan Warkol, Zachary Mabry, Ross Elliott Bagley, Mel Brooks, Whoopi Goldberg, Daryl Hannah
This 1994 version of the early 1930s' "Our Gang" films is filled with many of the same trappings of its predecessors. For example, the actors exhibit uncanny resemblances to their earlier prototypes including Spanky, Alfalfa, and Buckwheat. This time around, Alfalfa (Bug Hall) falls in love with Darla (Brittany Ashton Holmes), and that threatens what the "He-Man Woman Haters Club" stands for. To save the day, the gang plots ways to keep Alfalfa and Darla apart. 1 User Review
| User Review |
| | great | lulu36 02/05/2007 | | Couldn't stop laughing... very cute movie! |
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Look Who's Talking Too 1990  PG-13, 81 min.
Genre: Comedy / Romance
Director: Amy Heckerling
Cast: John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Bruce Willis, Roseanne, Mel Brooks, Olympia Dukakis, Elias Koteas, Gilbert Gottfried, Damon Wayans, Twink Caplan, Lorne Sussman, Danny Pringle, Don S. Davis, Louis Heckerling, Neal Israel
In this sequel to "Look Who's Talking," Mikey (Lorne Sussman / voice of Bruce Willis) is a toddler just starting potty training. He now has a baby sister, Julie (voice of Roseanne), and confusion reigns in the household as Mikey and Julie add to the strains already being experienced by their parents James and Mollie Ubriacco (John Travolta and Kirstie Alley).
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The Muppet Movie 1979  G, 98 min.
Genre: Family
Director: James Frawley
Cast: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Dom DeLuise, Charles Durning, Orson Welles, Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, Bob Hope, Madeline Kahn, Richard Pryor
Jim Henson's muppets are brought to the screen to tell their unique rags-to-riches story of success in Hollywood.
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 The Producers 1968 N/R, 88 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars, Dick Shawn, Lee Meredith, Christopher Hewett, Estelle Winwood, Renee Taylor, Frank Campanella, Andreas Voutsinas, David Patch, William Hickey, Barney Martin, Shimen Ruskin, Josip Elic
Mel Brooks won the Oscar for Best Screenplay in this film about two characters, Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) and Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder), who con people into investing in a non-existent Broadway show: "Springtime for Hitler." Wilder received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. 2 User Reviews
| User Reviews |
| | Parts of this are the funniest movie ever made | 1fatts 03/27/2007 | Mel Brooks is a cannon on the loose. It is his strength and his weakness. The 2000-year-old man sketches with Carl Reiner are classic for Brooks' unpredictable leaps from political humor to burlesque inuendo to bizarre non-sequitur. At his best, he can take your breath away. At his worst, he is a runaway train.
Stand-up comedy benefits most from this kind of wildness; movies suffer most. Movies need plot and structure and discipline.
Brooks' best film, as a work of cinema, is probably Young Frankenstein because Gene Wilder shared writing credit and imposed some order which Mel Brooks simply cannot supply -- see all the shotgun "sometimes the magic works and sometimes it doesn't" humor of "Robin Hood - Men in Tights", "Spaceballs", et al.
But even in a movie that is all over the map (they pretty much run out of central joke and plot in The Producers after the play is a hit), there are a half a dozen scenes that are perhaps the funniest stuff every put on film. Brooks' writing is certainly a major factor, and the other is the casting. Only Zero Mostel was Zero Mostel. He was a life force, a stampede, a landslide. He defined this role . . . and Tevye in Fiddler . . . and Pseudolus in "Funny Thing Happened. . . " Other people may have played his roles, but they were never near the standared. His Max Biolystock is incomparable. His teaming with the young, intensely neurotic Leo Bloom (Wilder), the outrageous Hold Me Touch Me (Estelle Winwood), Kenneth Mars' Nazi, Christopher Hewitt's gay director ("Max, he's wearing a dress."), etc. are the best scenes Brooks has every directed, the funniest filmwork he has ever done.
The first twenty minutes of the film are incomparable. I forgive Brooks all the dead ends and ramblings that may go on elsewhere. I take it as the price we have to pay to be allowed into the near-perfection of the scenes that work.
You can't call youself knowledgeable in comic film if you haven't studied The Producers. |
| | Outstanding | Googleeyes 03/01/2007 | | One of Mel Brooks finest achievements, maybe the best of his achievements. |
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Putney Swope 1969 R, 84 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Robert Downey Sr.
Cast: Arnold Johnson, Laura Greene, Allen Garfield, Antonio Fargas, Mel Brooks, Pepi Hermine, Stan Gottlieb, Allan Arbus
By a fluke, Black advertising man Putney Swope (Arnold Johnson) is elected head of his agency, and he immediately makes changes that rock the "soul" of the industry.
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 Robin Hood: Men in Tights 1993 PG-13, 102 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Cary Elwes, Richard Lewis, Roger Rees, Amy Yasbeck, Dave Chappelle, Mark Blankfield, Tracey Ullman, Mel Brooks, Dom DeLuise, Dick Van Patten, Isaac Hayes, Megan Cavanagh, Erick Allan Kramer, Matthew Porretta, Patrick Stewart
The evil Prince John (Richard Lewis) and his henchman, the Sheriff of Rottingham (Roger Rees), are oppressing the people while King Richard (Patrick Stewart) is in exile. Robin Hood (Cary Elwes) gathers together a band of men to protect the people, and, in his spare time, Robin Hood falls in love with Maid Marian (Amy Yasbeck). The humor is delightful, and, while a satire, this film somehow brings to life all that Robin Hood represents in the genre of swashbuckling heroes.
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 Robots 2005  PG, 90 min.
Genre: Family
Director: Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Robin Williams, Mel Brooks, Amanda Bynes, Drew Carey, Greg Kinnear, Lucille Bliss, Jennifer Coolidge, Paul Giamatti, Jim Broadbent, James Earl Jones
In a world of mechanical beings, Robby (Ewan McGregor) comes from a poor family so he often lives in hand-me-down body parts. Robby has talents as an inventor and heads to Robot City to meet his idol: master inventor Bigweld (Mel Brooks). He meets evil business executive Ratchet (Greg Kinnear) and learns that Ratchet has fired Bigweld and has taken control of the city. Robby joins forces with misfits Fender (Robin Williams) and Cappy (Halle Berry), and, together, they set out to find Bigweld and restore order to the city.
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Screw Loose 1999 R, 85 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Ezio Greggio
Cast: Ezio Greggio, Mel Brooks, Julie Condra, Gianfranco Barra, Randi Ingerman, John Karlsen, Enzo Iacchetti, Riccardo Miniggio, Claudio Parachinetto, Dario Ballantini
On his death bed, Bernardo's (Ezio Greggio) father asked his son to go to the U.S. and find the man who saved the father's life in World War II. The dutiful son finds the man, Jake (Mel Brooks), in an institution for the mentally ill. He must now contend with Jake's wildness on the trip back home. Really poor.
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The Silence of the Hams 1994  R, 80 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Ezio Greggio
Cast: Ezio Greggio, Dom DeLuise, Billy Zane, Joanna Pacula, John Astin, Phyllis Diller, Shelley Winters, Larry Storch, Martin Balsam, Mel Brooks
This satire on classic thrillers features FBI agent Jo Dee Foster (Dom DeLouise) interviewing Dr. Animal Cannibal Pizza (Billy Zane) as his girlfriend creates her own problems when she makes off with stolen loot and checks into a motel. 1 User Review
| User Review |
| | very funny movie | chris j 10/30/2009 | | This movie is a must see, for anyone who loves a good slapstick flick. I love it when Dom does the Dracula bit, it's hilarious!!! If you need a good laugh, definitly watch this movie |
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Silent Movie 1976 PG, 86 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise, Bernadette Peters, Sid Caesar, Paul Newman, Liza Minnelli, Anne Bancroft, Marcel Marceau, Harold Gould
Mel Brooks portrays movie director Mel Funn who cons a studio executive into letting him make a silent film to save the studio from a takeover. This film is a series of hilarious sight gags; only one word is spoken during the entire film–by Marcel Marceau!
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 Spaceballs 1987 PG, 96 min.
Genre: Comedy / Sci-Fi / Adventure
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Mel Brooks, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Bill Pullman, Daphne Zuniga, Dick Van Patten, George Wyner, Michael Winslow, John Hurt, Stephen Tobolowsky, Joan Rivers, Lorene Yarnell, Sal Viscuso, Jim J. Bullock, Leslie Bevis
This is a tongue-in-cheek parody of "Star Wars" in which President Scroob (Mel Brooks) plots the kidnapping of spoiled Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga). Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) is the villain opposed by Lone Star (Bill Pullman) and Barf (John Candy) who is half dog and is his own best friend. This one is "Mel Brooks" all the way.
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To Be or Not to Be 1983 PG, 108 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Alan Johnson
Cast: Mel Brooks, Anne Bancroft, Tim Matheson, Charles Durning, Jose Ferrer, Christopher Lloyd, James Haake, George Gaynes, George Wyner, Jack Riley
This movie is about Shakespearean actors who get involved with the Polish underground during World War II. They manage to outwit the Nazis in this remake of the 1942 film. Charles Durning was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
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The Twelve Chairs 1970 G, 94 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Ron Moody, Frank Langella, Dom DeLuise, Mel Brooks, Bridget Brice, Robert Bernal, Diana Coupland, Andreas Voutsinas, Vlada Petric, David Lander
A Russian nobleman (Ron Moody) gets help from a thief (Frank Langella) in retrieving 12 chairs of a dining-room set. One of the chairs has a fortune in jewels hidden in the seat.
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 Young Frankenstein 1974  PG, 105 min.
Genre: Comedy / Sci-Fi
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Gene Hackman, Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Kenneth Mars, Richard Haydn, Liam Dunn, Danny Goldman, Oscar Beregi Jr., Arthur Malet, Anne Beesley, Monte Landis
This is a great satirical look at Frankenstein as seen through the eyes of comedy when the Monster (Peter Boyle) comes across as a sympathetic creature who elicits many laughs. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) is the grandson of the infamous Frankenstein and has inherited his Transylvanian estate. He moves in and meets hunchback Igor (Marty Feldman), assistant Inga (Teri Garr), and housekeeper Frau Blucher (Cloris Leachman). Frankenstein creates his Monster, but Igor has stolen the wrong brain, and problems–and humor–are a certainty. 1 User Review
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| | The Most Successful Mel Brooks Movie | 1fatts 11/08/2007 | I think the credit goes to Gene Wilder -- not as an actor, although he is very good in this, but as the co-writer. Wilder shares writing credit with Brooks on this film, and that may be where the disciplined structure comes from in the film.
The film is, of course, zany and contains the requisite number of Brooks silliness, bad puns and misfires, but, as a film, we have a tight, controlled structure. And we end up, because of it, with a true spoof and tribute to the original James Whale movies.
Wilder does a fine job. Madeline Kahn was a wonder. Kenneth Mars does another one of his truly gifted dialect roles. Gene Hackman's cameo as the blind hermit is, hands down, the funniest thing he ever did. Still, my own personal favourite here is Cloris Leachman doing a take-off of Judith Anderson's housekeeper in "Rebecca"/
I can't say it's the funniest Mel Brooks stuff on film -- that must forever go to two or three of the best scenes in The Producers (That's the original; we won't talk about the musical), but Young Frankenstein, taken as a a whole, is the best "film" Brooks ever did. |
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| 1. Blazing Saddles (1974)
2. Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)
3. High Anxiety (1977)
4. History of the World: Part I (1981)
5. Life Stinks (1991)
6. The Little Rascals (1994)
7. Look Who's Talking Too (1990)
8. The Muppet Movie (1979)
9. The Producers (1968)
10. Putney Swope (1969)
11. Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)
12. Robots (2005)
13. Screw Loose (1999)
14. The Silence of the Hams (1994)
15. Silent Movie (1976)
16. Spaceballs (1987)
17. To Be or Not to Be (1983)
18. The Twelve Chairs (1970)
19. Young Frankenstein (1974)
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