To Be or Not to Be

Director: Alan Johnson
Year Released: 1983
Rating: 1.0

Just as Hamlet wondered aloud whether he should live or die, so the filmmakers should have asked whether or not this remake should have existed in the first place, considering (a.) Mel Brooks already made fun of the Third Reich in The Producers (making this appear more familiar than it should) and (b.) the original Lubitsch film - a picture quite appropriate for its time (1942!) - is still highly regarded by many (not me, alas). I do find the very sight of Brooks making faces and doing anything for a laugh to be uplifting, but nothing else made me even crack a smile.