Memorable, crazy movie

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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.

Greetings from Lithuania."Silent Movie" (1976) surely has it's moments, and the whole idea was great, although this is not very funny movie. Acting was, OK i guess for this material, and there were some cameos from very famous starts, but they almost felt flat. At running time 1 h 25 min movie dragged a lot, i almost managed to watch it in like 4 days. Overall, i really wanted to like this satire on of movies and studio system, and "talkies", but this movie is just silly to me. It has some laughs, but most of them aren't really funny or smart. All in all this is not a good movie. Disappointing picture.

In Hollywood, director Mel Funn (Mel Brooks) is a recovering alcoholic trying to make a comeback. Along with his friends Dom Bell (Dom DeLuise) and Marty Eggs (Marty Feldman), he's trying to pitch a silent movie to Big Picture Studios chief (Sid Caesar). Facing a hostel takeover, he approves the project as long as they get the biggest stars to commit to the film. They are able to sign Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minnelli, Anne Bancroft and Paul Newman. Marcel Marceau says no. Mel falls completely in love with Vilma Kaplan (Bernadette Peters) but she turns out to be a spy trying to stop the film. This drives Mel back to the bottle.God bless Mel Brooks. I love that he's trying something unusual. The problem is that it doesn't make it funny. The story is simply an excuse to have one gag after another while the stars make cameos. I want this to be gut busting hilarity. I can only say that I like the characters and everybody's effort. The best silent comedians for me are Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. Their comedies are much more physical and sometimes have great memorable stunts. I appreciate this attempt but not the result.

Mel Funn (Mel Brooks) wants to get a silent movie made, many years after such films are no longer profitable. As the studio he works for is on the verge of getting bought out, his only chance to make the film profitable is to find the biggest stars in the business: Burt Reynolds, Anne Bancroft, Paul Newman and others.This film has Burt Reynolds in the shower. That's all you need to know. But also, it has flying cans of soda anticipating that bad movie with Emilio Estevez ("Maximum Overdrive"). We see the creative genius of Marty Feldman, who died too young... see his work with the Monty Python crew. Best line in the movie comes from... Marcel Marceau! The wheelchair race, well that anticipates "Days of Thunder"...I'm just messing. All in all, it's a good film, but not one of Brooks' best. I'd rather watch "Spaceballs" or "Blazing Saddles" or just about any other thing he made...