This was funny?

Rating: 2/10 (15 April 2001)

I never professed to be a big Mel Brooks fan. Blazing Saddles and the first hour of Young Frankenstein were great, but otherwise I just shake my head at everything he does and keep saying over and over "This is funny?" How this thing EVERY got to be in the top 50 movies on AFI is beyond me.
Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel obviously have talent - and they waste it monumently in this thing. You can actually SEE Mel Brooks' giving direction to overact in nearly every gesture of every person in the movie. (You can see him saying to everyone "Make sure they can see your every move in the back row of the theater. Make sure you overact beyond belief because that is SOOO funny." Hey Mel - it's not.)
In his defense, the idea for Springtime for Hitler is pretty gutsy for a man of Jewish persuasion and the opening musical number is funny, but you can't help reacting a lot like the audience. Is this in such awful taste that it's funny? (Being a Monty Python fan I say yes...)
And then, when the swastika dancers are done and the cannons lower to fire at the audience and when you think it's going to be worth the 1 1/2 hours spent on this, it gets stupid. Not 'funny' stupid. Not 'Tom Green Show' stupid. Just stupid. '7th grade' stupid. 'People trying desperately to be funny when they are not' stupid. It's actually painful to watch. (If you want to see something in bad taste done well, see the 'KKK' section of "Fletch Lives".)
Too bad. The idea was a good one. The execution is bad.