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Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane reprise their famous Broadway roles in the big screen adaptation of the stage musical The Producers, which was adapted from a previous movie from the bizarre imagination of Mel Brooks. Susan Stroman, who directed the Broadway stage version, also directed this film version.

Does Brooks' outrageous story, which follows a Broadway producer and his accountant as they assemble a misguided musical about Hitler, still get laughs?

Bob Smithouser (Plugged In) was let down. "It was very disappointing to find the sexual content in Brooks' story cranked way up here—especially the playful treatment of homosexuality by flamboyantly gay characters. The audience found the steady flow of crass innuendo hysterical. For me it spoiled an otherwise colorful, artfully done film."

Keith Howland (Christian Spotlight) praises "good music and performances," but he finds the content "so besmirched with sexual (and homosexual) 'humor' that the whole production is degraded beyond pardon. It is a shame that a number of genuine belly laughs must suffer alongside such tastelessness. … If there is a 'moral' to the story of The Producers, it is that dishonesty and trickery triumph. That is not too good, either."

Christian Hamaker (Crosswalk) says, "Often riotous, this silly romp provides lighthearted laughs during a holiday season heavy with the weighty fare studios save for the Oscar derby." He concludes that "the often bawdy content … could have been much more imaginative. … But moral lessons are not the order of the day for this zany musical."

Mainstream critics have reached a split decision.

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