Movie thoughts and fiction updates.
The comedian who made movies like Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and History of the World Part I, Mel Brooks left an indelible mark on American comedy. So, of course, I'm going to talk about the one movie everyone wants to forget exists, Life Stinks. Brooks began his career on Sid Caesar's television writing staff (dramatized to some effect in My Favorite Year)… Continue reading Mel Brooks – A Retrospective
Mel Brooks started out in one direction and ended up following another for pretty much the rest of his career. His genre parodies, starting with Blazing Saddles in 1974, defined his career, erasing all memory of his second film, The Twelve Chairs, and casting his first film, The Producers, in a new light as a… Continue reading Mel Brooks: The Definitive Ranking
#10 in my ranking of Mel Brooks' filmography. Mel Brooks' final film is more of a piece with Robin Hood: Men in Tights than Young Frankenstein, which isn't really a surprise how artist careers go. However, it is simply less funny for long stretches of its runtime, feeling like Brooks and his writing team of… Continue reading Dracula: Dead and Loving It
#5 in my ranking of Mel Brooks' filmography. I think this is the movie that Spaceballs was trying to be. Funnier, with a better lead (though I do like Bill Pullman), and a better understanding of the source material, Robin Hood: Men in Tights is a consistently amusing comedy from a pigeonholed filmmaker. Life Stinks… Continue reading Robin Hood: Men in Tights
#11 in my ranking of Mel Brooks' filmography. Is this an earnest entry in the subgenre of "the homeless are magic" that Hollywood cranked out from the late 80s to the early 90s, or is this a satire of that genre? On the one hand, there's a certain feel similar to Mel Brooks' earliest films,… Continue reading Life Stinks
David Vining, Author 