Young Frankenstein
For one reason or another Young Frankenstein has a come up a couple times recently, and E and I thought we’d give it our first ever watch to kick off Spooktober. Admittedly our Mel Brooks watch list is sorely lacking, having only seen Spaceballs myself, and while I’m not over the moon for that movie, I recognize that Mel Brooks is widely considered a comedy genius, and need to brush up on his catalogue. That said, I did fall asleep halfway through Young Frankenstein, so I missed a small chunk in the middle. But that isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy it, or find it amusing, but it is fairly slow, and didn’t keep me captivated enough to stay locked in. There are some very funny bits, and Gene Wilder is as much a treasure as Dr. Frankenstein as he is Willy Wonka. His performance alone demands a watch of this, if not for Mel Brooks appreciation. E and I have never seen the original Frankenstein either, which this is a very close satire of, and I’m sure that would also add to the appreciation of it. Probably not a completely fair rating given the facts, but we’ll leave it at that for now.
-Z
Frankenstein is one of my favorite books of all time, and with the new movie coming up, this rose to the top of the Z&E Spooktober list. For a movie over 50 years old, it is surprising how well it holds up. While it started off quite fun, it really started to drag and slow down towards the end for me - most of the big laughs seem to happen pretty early on. A fun take on the story and clever overall, but the ending didn’t quite do it for me.
-E
