“Life Stinks” is a comedy film directed by and starring Mel Brooks (“The Producers”, “Spaceballs”) and although it is a sweet and enjoyable film, it falls short as a comedy but to be fair it is quite hard to tackle this subject matter with Brooks’ usual larger than life characters.

In this film, Mel Brooks is Goddard Bolt, a ridiculous rich man in L.A., and he makes a bet that he can survive in a rough neighbourhood like a regular bum for a month in order to secure the land for building rights. The film shows how he struggles on the streets but unlike Brooks’ other work, you never really feel that this is a funny scenario. There are some very clever parts to the movie such as the scene in the hospital, the opening involving shots of feet and the part where Bolt keeps attacking someone claiming to be even richer than he is.

Brooks is definitely good here but the things he has himself do, just doesn’t make me laugh. His character here isn’t a memorable as Yoghurt from “Spaceballs” or the director from “Silent Movie”. Also the people around him aren’t as strange and as bizarre as they should be; just think about the weird souls in “The Producers”.

Brooks’ films have never struck me as being amazing but some of them have certainly succeeded at making me laugh and this is no way his worst film (need I remind you of “Dracula: Dead and Loving It”) but it is a movie masquerading as a comedy when it doesn’t have figure to match. Brooks has got the charm right, he just needs to get the laughs sorted out and then we’ll have a great film on our hands. If you want to see what is possibly the best Mel Brooks character/performance then check out “The Muppet Movie” instead.