Laughter on the 23rd Floor

This cable adaptation is a huge improvement over Neil Simon's original play for two reasons. The original was one of Simon's laugh a minute (and you can set your watch by it) plays with a big problem: it was written as an ensemble piece but one character-television comic Max Prince, who's based on stories about Sid Caesar-was so overpowering it threw the ensemble off. For this version, Simon, who got his start writing for Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" and "The Caesar Show," wisely puts more focus on Prince, adding scenes to flesh out the character and incorporate even more of the legends. With Nathan Lane in the role, he can't miss.

This is a very different performance for Lane, one of the industry's most capable farceurs. His Max Prince is as over-the-top as Lane often is, but he also invests the character with a strong serious side (like most great comics, Prince takes himself with an almost desperate seriousness) that gives the role heart. In between temper tantrums and one-liners belted out for all the world to hear, Simon and Lane have crafted some wonderfully subtle moments. He's strongly supported by the actors playing his writing staff-particularly Dan Castellenata and Saul Rubinek. And Richard Benjamin, who directed another Sid Caesar pastiche in "My Favorite Year," keeps the whole thing moving efficiently. I'm going to look for a rerun on Showtime so I can catch this again and can't wait for it to come out on video.

I have not seen the play, or read it. However, having watched Murder by Death, also written by Neil Simon, I know that this was once marvelous. The man has talent, there's no doubt about that. I am not sure how this got so messed up. The ideas are potentially interesting, and the themes could be compelling. Heck, this could, if nothing more, be *funny*. But it's simply not so. Well, the jokes are occasionally great. We're talking one out of five or so, though. Looking at the guy's filmography, I'm thinking a large part of the blame lies with the director. The actors are all excellent, and they do the very best performances they can with what they are given to work with. You can only do so well with a script as apparently bad as this adaptation, and direction as utterly unfocused as this shows. This revolves around a 50's television comedian(maybe if you enjoy those, you'll find this amusing to a greater extent than I did) and his colleagues. There's stuff about censorship, commercialism and pushing oneself too hard, meanwhile, none of it gets enough development to matter or make an impact. The pacing is fine. Editing and cinematography are standard. There is some strong language in this. I recommend this to fans of at least one person involved who feel that they must catch everything that he/she/they are/is in. 5/10

If you aren't old enough to cherish the memory of Sid's Caesar's Show of Shows in its heyday, if you don't think Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart and the rest of his writers' room was the greatest collection of comic talent ever, and if you didn't watch most of the Army-McCarthy hearings, well, maybe this movie isn't for you. But you're just the one who should see if for its educational value. It tells us a whole lot about the golden age of television, of the country's torpor in the 50's, of the days when people who cared more for those dependent upon them than they did for themselves got run over by the corporate machine, and of the contrived and deliberate dumbing down of our national intellect. See this movie, and then rent some of the classic skits by Caesar, Reiner, Coca, Morris and company on DVD. You'll know why those of us who were there still die laughing the hundredth time we hear, "You have gespritzen on un general."

A ring-tailed wonder of a non-stop spritzer with a dynamite cast headed by the incredible Nathan Lane. One of Neil Simon's all-time best, worth seeing over and over. It ranks with the classic comedies of Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges.

To see this film, is to see what television was and to a great degree still remains to be today. Nathan Lane with a wonderful supporting cast shows the audience what "real television" was like. It's a fine story of talent, respect and true friendship amongst a writing team and a proud star of a "Hit Show " as they face the end of an era of Americana, "Good Television Programming".

Lane demonstrates his breadth of talent by showing us the range of human emotion it takes to be a "Top Banana". Good direction and writing in this piece that could have lasted 10 to 20 minutes longer, as it left me wanting more for all the characters. Thank You Mr. Simon, Mr. Lane, et al.