The Producers Blu-ray Review

With a 1080p image, this is a descent enough presentation, but is marred slightly with a slight graininess. However, the colours pop off the screen and believe me it's pretty vivid, from the deep scarlet red of Max Bialystock's bathrobe through to Ulla's bright white dress or the sea blue one a little later, it all looks very good. Depth of field is great - take the opening for example as we zoom in to Broadway from a distance. All the car lights are clear and sharp, not blurring or being obscured in any way. Or take the “I Want To Be A Producer” number, where the grain isn't noticeable at all - the neon lights bright, the dancing girls costumes have every pearl sharp as a button (or pearl obviously) and looking the best I've seen for the movie, having seen the SD edition. My only real criticism here is it's not the best Blu-ray title, but if you like the movie, this is the best version picture wise so far.

With all the musical numbers present, both the Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM soundtracks really needed to be decent to do them justice and thankfully, this doesn't disappoint. With the dialogue, both sung and spoken, being clear throughout and never being drowned out by the actual music and a nice ambience given via the surrounds, mostly via the musical numbers. Even the LFE gets felt during the “Springtime for Hitler” number, which surprised me. The PCM gets the nod over the Dolby track, but there's hardly anything in it. If I have any criticism of the soundtrack it's mostly how the non-musical scenes are a little lacking in comparison, but this is a slight criticism overall.

First up, we have the Outtakes which run for 15:14 and to be quite honest, they made me laugh more than the movie did. It's probably just the fact that Nathan Lane ends up giggling constantly, in one instance they were on take 14 of a particular scene that he kept screwing up over and he just keeps laughing - actually begging them to let him go home! It's also nice to see Uma Thurman screwing up as well, maybe it's me but there's a lot of actors/actresses who don't seem to let you see them getting it wrong, so kudos here.

Next up, we have 8 Deleted Scenes which can be either played separately or together, which add up to a running time of 19:38 minutes. They're entertaining enough, but on balance I can understand the cuts, as it would really drag an already long movie out even further.

The Analysis of a Scene extra, features on the musical number “I Want to be a Producer” and lasts for 16:06 minutes and starts with Mel Brooks elaborating on this particular number and shows everything from the practicing of the choreography, set designing, costume designing and make up. It's actually very interesting and I actually would rather they had more of this than the other material! Oh well.

Finishing off the extras we have a director's commentary track.

Well, as I said, it's a very personal thing and from a musical standpoint, it's enjoyable, however, as a comedy to me, it's not. I can understand that people all like and appreciate different things, so don't judge my opinion too harshly. As stated, if you like Mel Brooks or this kind of comedy, or you just plain want to ogle at Uma Thurman, then you'll love this. If you're sense of humour is more akin to mine (given my examples) then you may enjoy this as a musical, but you'll probably wonder why people think that this is “Hillarious”.

As a Blu-ray title, the soundtrack is ok, but not exceptional (Chicago is much better) and the picture is good, but not the best. But if you DO like this, you will want it on your wishlist.