Mel Brooks's "Silent Movie" is a take-off on silent movies, but it also uses the silent movie as a way of getting a fresh angle on today's world. In many ways it's Brooks's best film, less pushy than "Blazing Saddles," less shticky than "Young Frankenstein."… Brooks is one of our few authentic mad comic poets, and his daring to make a movie without spoken dialogue is an audaciously creative act in this bet-hedging time….

The gags as usual vary in quality from gold to zinc, but what makes "Silent Movie" more than a string of gags is the comic sensibility of Brooks. Believe it or not, the master of bad taste becomes almost endearing in this film—as when he pays homage to the good old bump and grind with a pelvic paroxysm by the pneumatic Bernadette Peters. The film's foremost quality is a genuine sweetness of tone...