Film

The Producers

Name: The Producers
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2005
Cast: Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Uma Thurman, Will Ferrell, Gary Beach

Other titles called The Producers: the 1968 film.

Mel Brooks's 2005 musical-comedy remake sends Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick into gloriously tasteless pandemonium. Two Broadway schemers finance a Hitler musical by seducing elderly investors, only for their guaranteed flop to become an unexpected hit. It's anarchic, theatrical, and absolutely committed to the bit—a film that swings for the fences and mostly connects.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like broad, high-energy farce with big musical numbers and a sharp, cheeky streak, and you enjoy watching two schemers talk their way through increasingly ridiculous set pieces.

Skip it if you find loud, mugging comedy wearing, since the film leans hard on its performers' big voices and gestures and rarely lets up for its two-hour-plus running time.

What it asks of you: Stamina more than patience: two hours and fourteen minutes of unbroken, cheerful excess, with few pauses between the gags.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Singin' in the Rain1952

The gold standard of Hollywood musicals—pure joy, impossible athleticism, and comic perfection. Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor prove that musical comedy can be both hilarious and genuinely moving without trying too hard.

But Three-plus hours of unironic earnestness. After The Producers' gleeful chaos, this might feel quaint, though it absolutely shouldn't.

Hairspray2007

John Waters meets Broadway. It has the theatrical zaniness and affection for oddball characters that The Producers celebrates, with a lighter touch and genuine heart about acceptance and change.

But Sweeter and more sincere than The Producers. If you want constant, abrasive comedy, this pivots toward warmth in ways that might feel saccharine.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum1966

Another Brooks-adjacent romp through theatrical absurdity, with Zero Mostel commandeering the screen. Broad, physical comedy with ancient Roman costumes and shameless mugging. Pure entertainment.

But The plot is deliberately paper-thin and the pacing occasionally stutters. It's vaudeville on film, which some find charming and others find hollow.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Producers

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch2001

Both are theatrical comedies that use spectacle and tastelessness as tools for exploring identity and rejection—one in suits and seduction, the other in wigs and rock songs. Both understand that camp and sincerity can coexist.

A transgender rock musical about identity, rejection, and glitter. It has The Producers' theatrical abandon and its willingness to be outrageous, but it earns its emotional devastation. The songs are genuinely transcendent.

But The narrative is fragmented and deliberately self-aware in ways that can feel mannered. Some viewers find the rock-opera style exhausting rather than exhilarating.

La La Land2016

A modern musical that captures the theatricality and earnest artifice that The Producers parodies. Gorgeously shot, genuinely moving, and oddly giddy about show business romance despite its melancholy.

But Sentimental in ways that make cynicism difficult. Some viewers find the twee romanticism cloying rather than touching.

Victor/Victoria1982

Julie Andrews as a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman. Gender comedy with theatrical splendour, physical comedy, and genuine wit. A film that swings wildly in all directions and lands most of its jokes.

But The gender politics are 1982-flavoured, which means some elements haven't aged gracefully. It's also an oddly long romp that occasionally feels like it's spinning its wheels.

Blazing Saddles1974

Mel Brooks at his most fearless, with jokes at multiple registers and a commitment to absurdity that makes The Producers look cautious. It's ugly-funny and genuinely transgressive without apologising.

But Intentionally offensive in ways that require genuine openness. The racial slurs are part of the satire, but watching it demands active engagement, not passive enjoyment.

Pennies from Heaven1981

A musical comedy that's also genuinely tragic. Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters in depression-era fantasy sequences that are both hilarious and heartbreaking. It's weird and unafraid to earn your tears alongside your laughs.

But Tonal shifts are extreme and the balance is strange. Some find it pretentious; others find the tragedy underdeveloped. Few feel neutral about it.

The Happiness of the Katakuris2002

Both use theatrical excess and genre collision to make something singular. One is about how grand spectacle can seduce and mislead; the other is about how camp can contain real darkness and strangeness.

Takashi Miike's surreal musical about a Japanese family running a bed-and-breakfast where guests keep dying. It's absurdist, wildly inventive, and treats horror and comedy as the same language. Utterly un-American and magnificent.

But The tone is genuinely disorienting—it swings from slapstick murder to animated sequences to family tenderness without warning. Viewers expecting linear narrative will be genuinely lost.

In & Out1997

Both are comedies built around the gap between performance and truth—The Producers about fraudulent entrepreneurs, In & Out about living a false life. Both ultimately suggest that authentic desire and connection matter more than the con.

Kevin Kline as a closeted high-school teacher accidentally outed at the Oscars. It's a broad comedy about performativity and living a lie, with genuine affection for its characters and a refusal to punish queerness. Frank, funny, warmhearted.

But It's a 90s mainstream comedy, which means the queer politics are dated. Some jokes haven't aged well and the message feels sanitised by contemporary standards.