One of my all time favorites.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

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.

You must pay attention to the subtitles in this movie. I usually will not watch a subtitled movie but this one is worth it. Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise what more can one ask for in a comedy movie??? Harold Gould plays a campy studio head well. Sid Caesar, ahhh, what can one say about one of the funniest writers and directors ever? I love his movies. This one was a good one but, while I did not care for the subtitles, I did understand that they were necessary to the plot. The fact that Mel Brooks even thought of this kind of scenario just shows his comedic genius too me. I love all of his movies but of course there are some that are funnier than others. This one is one of his funnier ones even with the subtitles. '

"Slapstick is dead!" shouts Sid Caesar, the anxious producer, before sliding across the floor and hit the wall. You would think that indeed, slapstick is dead, that this kind of dated humor wouldn't work with today's audience, but that it worked during the post-Watergate pessimistic 70's, is the best guarantee of timelessness... and Mel Brooks' "Silent Movie" is not only one of the most underrated comedies but his best film in my opinion.It's interesting to note that the movie came out in 1976, the infamous year where the success of the cheerful "Rocky" over the more realistic "Taxi Driver", the cynical "Network" or the political thriller "All the President's Men" proved that the audience needed something new, but since the 70's revolutionized cinema, the newness could only be inspired from the past, the Golden Age. "Rocky" as the triumph of the underdog over the adversity was a celebration of the faith in human spirit à la Frank Capra, and in the same vein, "Silent Movie" is a return to the roots of comedy, the heritage of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and silent era's comedic treasures. Even the fans of Mel Brooks will notice the absence of explicitly raunchy humor and delightful vulgarity used to be his trademark. "Silent Movie" never exceeds a certain level of naughtiness, and the general tone carries the sweetness of a deliberate innocence drawing a big smile in our face."Silent Movie" is indeed a charming Family film that I had the pleasure to discover at the age of eight, I couldn't finish it but the least I saw was enough to keep intact in my memories. I remembered I laughed a lot, and even when i didn't get the jokes, I was smiling. I remembered the hysterical part in a shower, the funny sound effects, and more than anything, that skinny little guy with a race driver outfit who shared a vague resemblance with Jackie Wright, the little bald guy from "The Benny Hill Show", and it was not until I finally watched the film entirely that I put the name 'Marty Feldman' in his face. What a performance, he carries 50% of the fun, if only for him, the movie is a must-see, and never has the word 'see' be so relevant. "Silent Movie" is a visual delight in every meaning of the word. I even wonder why it hasn't been nominated for Best Art-Direction or Best Costume Design, the film's use of color creates a wonderful atmosphere making us wish that Keaton or Chaplin could have benefited from the use of Technicolor, at least once.I mentioned the slapstick pioneers, but the movie still has a modern feel beyond the homage to a classic genre. It's a masterpiece of adaptation in the way it keeps its relevance for a modern audience in three distinct ways. First, the gags, to name a few, there's one scene implying that a group of gentlemen are having a sensitive reaction toward a sexy picture, I won't spoil it to you, but the way, it's suggested is extremely well done, and shows how tactfully Mel Brooks handles a cruder form of humor, to paraphrase one of the character, Sex would have indeed killed "Funn". The second aspect is the way Brooks stills uses the cardboards to feature verbal jokes, cheating with the virtuosity of an iconoclast, after all, being silent doesn't prevent a movie from having a good script. And ultimately, there's the self-referential element : Mel Brooks plays the role of Mel Funn, a director who wants to make a silent movie, and with his two acolytes, Dom Bell and Marty Eggs, played by the namesakes De Luise and Feldman, they will propose to real-life stars to participate to the film. This is the genius plot device that provided the film's most memorable moments and some extra publicity.Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minelli, Anne Bancroft, Marcel Marceau, Paul Newman ... all these guest stars parody themselves in irresistible cameos that give the film an episodic feel without denaturing the narrative. "Silent Movie" is less a series of funny sketches than a self-reflexive depiction of the film. It's not just a tribute to silent movies but also to movie making, to the industry of cinema and the issues it faces : what "Sunset Blvd." did with a film-noir tone, Mel Brooks did with comedy and spoof humor. And the funniest reference to the industry is the big corporations that try to buy out smaller studios, the villainous team represented by Engulf & Devour is a clear reference to Gulf & Paramount. Ron Carey and the classy Harold Gould, provide the movie's best moments after Marty Eggs, and till now, I can't resist to the music played during their part, a sound that would have made Chaplin proud.Music, sound play a significant part to the film's success, even for the jokes, the sound effects perfectly match the scenes, but we're so distracted by the laughs that we forget the technical achievement the film represents. Silent films require a masterful direction relying on so many specific mechanisms : the timing, the speed, the editing. Some scenes wouldn't be as hilarious without the fast motion; others would be pretty dull without the sound. In fact, not all the jokes will have the same impact, some will eventually fall flat, but Mel Brooks doesn't censor himself and uses the film as the occasion to experiment old recipes with modern ingredients, and the result is absolutely delicious as we can all cheer for an uplifting family comedy, and the wonderful time we spent.And one particular moment is another proof of Brooks' comedic genius, there's absolutely no word to describe this scene, or actually maybe one which happens to be the only one spoken in the film. Only for that scene, the film is a must … who am I kidding? For every scene, this film is an absolute must see.

I suppose if anything epitomizes the style of Mel Brooks it is audacity, obscenity and a forthright quality that others seem either reluctant to use or often overplay with disastrous results. Brooks will do anything for a laugh. Anything. He is, for all intents and purposes, incapable of embarrassment. He's a rabble-rouser. His movies abide in a world in which everything is likely, especially the outrageous, and Silent Movie, where Brooks makes a bountiful aesthetic gamble and pulls it off, makes me laugh abundantly. On the Brooks calibration of amusement, I laughed not too radically more or less than at Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles or The Producers. It just doesn't have the subversive and ironic panache of those classic films.Brooks' fifth film as director, Silent Movie is streamlined fun. It's obvious in almost every shot that the filmmakers had a party making it. It's set in Hollywood, where Big Pictures Studio lurches on the brink of Chapter 11 and a merger with the mammoth Engulf and Devour syndicate, a daintily disguised reference to Gulf+Western's Paramount takeover. Enter Mel Funn (guess who), a has-been director whose career was stopped cold by drunkenness, who pledges to salvage the studio by persuading Hollywood's biggest stars to make a silent movie. This is a scenario that results in countless inside jokes, but the thing about Brooks's inside jokes is that their outsides are funny as well.The wild bunch of Mel, Dom DeLuise and Marty Feldman embark to charm the superstars, resulting in the shower of one, who counts his hands, confused, and discovers he has eight; and swooping another out of a nightclub audience. There are several "actual" stars in the movie, but the fun is in not knowing who's next. Everything transpires surrounded by a glossary of sight gags, classic and original. There are bits that don't work and durations of up to a minute, I guess, when we don't laugh, but a minute can feel pretty long. Perhaps it is Brooks' desire to control all that displaces an objective view of what will work.Nevertheless, in a movie overflowing with skillful Chaplin-, Keaton- and Laurel and Hardy-inspired set pieces, these parts are the chef d'oeuvre: Right before seeing the Studio Chief, Mel and his friends cross their fingers for good luck, and Mel can't uncross his. He shakes hands with the Chief, and the Chief's fingers are crossed rather than Mel's. The Chief then passes this crossed state to his secretary's fingers the same way. Another running gag is obvious discrepancy between the title cards and what the characters are really saying. The spoken lines are inaudible, as it is indeed a silent movie, but they can be clearly lipread. At one point Brooks asserts misgivings about DeLuise's idea of a silent movie by shouting "That's crazy!" as well as an agitated mouthful, but the screen says "Maybe you're right." In another scene, Marty hits on a nurse but gets slapped. When he gets back in the car, Mel obviously mouths a curse word, although the screen says "You bad boy!" And then there's the scene where Feldman and DeLuise haphazardly unplug and plug in his heart monitor various times, winding up changing the screen to a ping pong game and playing while the Chief flatlines and recovers over and over. Brooks stands outside the majority of Jewish comics and filmmakers in his lack of self-derision and in the success of his main characters, but still, humor is his own defense mechanism against the world, and he goes for broke.