The three words that can convince Mel Brooks to watch any movie: “We know it’s a good picture”
Whether it’s an actor, director, high concept, eye-catching trailer, awards season pedigree, or a captivating storyline, anyone can be convinced to watch a movie for any number of reasons. For Mel Brooks, all he needs to hear are three words, and he’s in.
This being an EGOT-winning legend who specialises in farcical comedy, it’s hilariously random. It’s not, ‘I love you,’ it definitely isn’t ‘Academy Award winner,’ and neither is it ‘I’ll be back.’ Instead, it’s a phrase everyone who’s ever watched an action flick or a thriller will have heard a thousand times and never paid attention to. As far as Brooks is concerned, though, it’s a game-changer.
Despite rib-tickling hilarity being his stock-in-trade, Brooks’ taste as a cinephile reaches far and wide. He’s inevitably a student of comedy, ranking everything from his mentor Sid Caesar to The Hangover as his favourites, but he’s also had a lifelong love of musicals and produced David Lynch’s The Elephant Man and David Cronenberg’s The Fly, so he’s tough to pin down.
He also admitted to watching Ridley Scott’s Gladiator once a month and pointing out what’s wrong with the swords-and-sandals spectacular, but his preference for a particular soundbite makes more sense when you consider he named Doug Liman’s The Bourne Identity as one of the greatest films of the 21st century.
It was the only action-oriented movie on his list, and alongside longtime close friend and regular creative collaborator, the late, great Carl Reiner, the veteran duo devised an ingeniously silly method for deciding what to watch when they gathered together for their almost-daily screenings of whatever tickled their fancy.
“We look for movies that say, ‘Secure the perimeter,'” Reiner informed The New York Times. To illustrate that they were drawn more to perimeters being secured than the quality of the picture, Brooks explained that they’d recently watched one that fulfilled the remit without being overly entertaining.
“We watched last night The Peacemaker, with Nicole Kidman and George Clooney,” he noted. “It was two and a half stars at the most. Good performances, very silly, you know.” If they couldn’t find anything where a character said ‘secure the perimeter,’ then they had a couple of backup options just in case.
“We like movies that say, ‘Secure the perimeter’ and/or, ‘You better get some rest.'” Brooks clarified. Reiner swiftly added, ‘Lock all doors!’ to the list, before the Producers and Blazing Saddles mastermind confirmed that ‘I want a five-block seal!’ is also acceptable terminology for their movie nights.
It sounds like a simplification, but that might really be the reason why Brooks rates the Bourne franchise so highly. “We found the Bourne series. We love Matt Damon,” Reiner elaborated. “If somebody says, ‘Secure the perimeter,’ we know it’s a good picture. Lock up, hold all exits, and secure the perimeter. If somebody says, ‘Get some rest,’ we know we’re in a good picture. Means they’re working hard to get there.”
Fortunately, there are no shortage of movies where people spout those lines, opening Brooks up to an endless supply of films. If anyone makes a movie that requires a secure perimeter or features a character in desperate need of a rest, he’ll be there with bells on.
