Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

gwnightscream Mel Brooks writes, directs & stars in this 1977 comedy that co-stars Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman. This is a send-up of Alfred Hitchcock films, mainly "Vertigo," "Psycho" and "The Birds" and Brooks plays Richard Thorndyke, a psychiatrist who has a fear of heights, "High Anxiety." He helps woman, Victoria Brisbane (Kahn) search for her father, but in the process he's falsely accused of murder and tries to overcome his phobia. Korman (Blazing Saddles) plays Dr. Charles Montague and Leachman (Young Frankenstein) plays Nurse Diesel who set Richard up. This is a good spoof, Brooks is great as usual, the rest of the cast is good as well as John Morris' score. If you enjoys comedies, check this one out.

John Brooks Mel Brooks is first and foremost as a movie-maker a good businessman. He understood the things that worked, and the things that didn't, and did a whole lot of the first. What's this, a Mel Brooks parody film with Madeline Kahn that spoofs the Hitchcock movies, with a big self-titled song, in a totally wacky comedy that makes fun of big clichés in the fields of horror movies, psychology with the usual 'film that is aware it is a film' angle ? Oh, just that description alone will make people laugh and buy the film without even hearing the jokes themselves which are, as usual, terribly uninspired, common, predictable and repeated in kind.If you're a fan of his or of this film, seriously ask yourself: how difficult would it be to make a 1hr30min parody on Hitchcock films ? Could you not come up with at least a bit of a plot, some funny material in such an abundant context ? I'll give this a 4 rather than lower just for the two or three really funny moments where I actually laughed. Every so often of course, an intelligent man like Brooks who loves humor so much would ultimately stumbled on an actually funny, worthy concept. It's only mathematical probability. But out of the entire film, two or three funny moments are a terribly scarce occurrence.

Robert J. Maxwell All right, it's crude, vulgar, forced, and often silly instead of funny, and the plot makes little sense, but some of us NEED those guffaws.Mel Brooks is a distinguished psychiatrist who is hired to run a famous psychiatric facility for the up-trodden. That, basically, is ripped off from Hitchcock's "Spellbound." There follows a tangled plot full of irrelevancies that rip off other scenes and situations from Hitchock, including, most notably, "Psycho," "The Birds," and "Vertigo." But Brooks and his writers are reckless. They shamelessly rip off a scene from Antonioni's "Blow Up" as well.Some viewers have complained that there's nothing funny about seeing a scene from another movie, only with Mel Brooks as the central figure rather than, say, Janet Leigh. But, I don't know. I found it amusing when the bell boy assaults Brooks with a rolled-up newspaper in the shower and we see ink from the newsprint running down the drain instead of Janet Leigh's blood.And, really, it's hard to imagine anyone not smiling at "The Birds" rip off in which a flock of pigeons crap all over a fleeing Brooks. And even the "original" stuff is vaguely amusing, as when Brooks and Kahn are disguised as an old Jewish couple trying to bulldoze their way through an airport check.Brooks' direction is primitive. Multiple close ups, lots of reaction shot, plenty of time for the laughter to subside. Some of the gags are less funny than others -- Brooks lecturing to an audience of psychiatrists and, with two children in the front row, having to substitute words like "pee pee" for words like "penis." Why the substitution was necessary at all is left for the viewer to divine.The performances are generally okay, if only because no acting is called for. Ron Carey, as Brooks' chauffeur is a nuisance, constantly repeating himself, only to mutter a contradiction under his breath. Now, that's NOT funny.But why carp? Instead, sit back, relax, laugh occasionally, wince once in a while, and watch Brooks imitate Frank Sinatra in a piano bar, singing "High Anxiety."

Scott LeBrun Mel Brooks's "High Anxiety" isn't on the level of his masterpieces "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein" but still works nicely as an affectionate spoof of the films of suspense master Alfred Hitchcock. Working in references to "Vertigo", "Psycho", "The Birds", and "North by Northwest", among other classics, it stars Brooks himself as eminent doctor Richard Thorndyke, who's just been hired as the new director of the Psycho Neurotic Institute for the Very VERY Nervous. He eventually gets wind of a dastardly plot engineered by institute staff, including hideous Nurse Diesel (a priceless Cloris Leachman) and weaselly Dr. Charles Montague (Harvey Korman). Fortunately, he has loyal chauffeur / sidekick Brophy (Ron Carey) and lovely Victoria Brisbane (Madeline Kahn, looking quite fetching in a long blonde wig) on his side, as he seeks to discover the fate of Victoria's father Arthur. "High Anxiety" is best described as the kind of movie that has moments; it does indeed have some great comedy set pieces, but others don't work quite as well. It's probably best appreciated by Hitchcock aficionados, who will delight in the references to Hitch's work. Mel, who co-wrote and produced as well, is fun to watch, with the supporting cast (also featuring Howard Morris, Dick Van Patten, Jack Riley, Charlie Callas, Murphy Dunne, and Robert Ridgely) truly getting into the spirit of the thing. Buffs will be pleased to note that that's legendary artist Albert J. Whitlock, who'd actually worked with Hitch, playing the role of Arthur Brisbane, and that future director Barry Levinson ("Diner", "Rain Man"), also one of the writers, plays the lazy, complaining hotel bellboy. Mel further entertains us by belting out the title ditty, which he also composed, and comes up with some genuinely laugh inducing gags. For one thing, we're always made well aware we're watching a movie, as cameras crash into windows and the characters on screen actually take notice of the music score. (Mel upon exiting an airport, at which point the score abruptly cuts off: "What a dramatic airport!") Mel and Madeline also make a wonderful pair and do a great routine at an another airport late in the film. Of all the spoofing done in the film, the jokes relating to "The Birds" are this viewers' personal favourite. Highly recommended to fans of both Hitch and Mel, this begins and ends brightly, and remains likable throughout. Seven out of 10.