Arriving 17 years after Mel Brooks' single year of brilliance—1974 saw the debut of both Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles—Life Stinks committed a cardinal sin and sank Brooks' career toward the foul depths of Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving It. That sin was to strive for social significance. Life Stinks actually attempts to find laughs while making an earnest statement about our society's down-and-out and mentally challenged urban populations. It's an idea that a younger Brooks might have pulled off with a certain audacity, but unfortunately, Brooks was officially a senior citizen when he made Life Stinks, and the snappier instincts of the man who made Young Frankenstein had been dulled.

Brooks portrays Goddard Bolt, egomaniacal and insanely wealthy zealot with heartless plans to destroy an urban homeless region and erect a gaudy shopping plaza. The film's plot gets moving when a competitor for the land—Vance Crasswell, played well by Jeffrey Tambor—rears his haughty head. Crasswell suggests a bet that will determine who can stake claim to the real estate: If Goddard can survive life in the streets for 30 days, he can destroy the area and build his mall. If not, Crasswell gets the privilege. In short, Goddard must come to understand what it's like to live a poor, destitute existence, with no home and no help.

Wearing the three hats of writer, director, and star, Brooks seems to have a bit too much to handle, as he takes his character into the ghetto and surrounds him with homeless caricatures. Lesley Ann Warren provides some spark as an impossibly beautiful and talented bag lady. (Warren has an admittedly fine scene in which her back-alley living space is transformed into a stage and she dances beautifully with Brooks, straight out of her character's most fervent fantasies.) Howard Morris tries to inject pathos with his performance as Sailor. And in perhaps the film's funniest bits, Rudy De Luca (also the film's co-writer) is memorable—in too brief a role—as the deluded J. Paul Getty. (De Luca takes part in an uproarious scene of face-slapping that feels sadly out of place inside this otherwise mediocre comedy.) But one of the film's chief weaknesses is Brooks in the lead role. He seems awkward and lumbering through most of the film, providing only a few snickers.

The movie's message is driven home forcefully at the climax, and at that point any laughter that you might have enjoyed seems compromised. Brooks wants to have it both ways—a silly romp and a heartfelt message—but how can I feel for the homeless when I've been laughing at (not with) them for an hour? In the face of this confusion, Life Stinks just never gels.

MGM presents Life Stinks in a good anamorphic-widescreen transfer of the film's original 1.85:1 theatrical presentation. (You can also watch a bastardized full-frame version on the flip side.) The image provides impressive detail, but it also has a slightly aged look. Colors, although natural, seem to have lost their vividness to a certain extent. The print is fairly clean, but I noticed some mild edge halos.

The disc presents a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track that befits this dialog-heavy movie. Dialog is clear with only a slight loss of fidelity. Music comes across cleanly but is a tad thin. Stereo separation across the front channels is fine.

The chief special feature is an Audio Commentary track with Brooks, De Luca, and co-writer Steve Haberman. The three talk in a leisurely way about the origin of the project, then gradually sound off on random behind-the-scenes trivia. Brooks is an entertaining commentator, and despite some dead spots in this track, he only made me wish that he'd done one for the recent release of The Producers. All in all, this commentary is fun, if not particularly exciting.

You also get a newly produced featurette called Does Life Really Stink? After watching this 14-minute piece, I realized I could have skipped the commentary almost entirely and come away with the same information. The commentary's three participants (Brooks, De Luca, and Haberman) share their thoughts about the progression of the film's production. Special attention is paid to the slapfest.

Finally, the disc offers the film's Trailer, presented in anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital 2.0, and some sneak peeks at Other Great MGM Releases.

Life Stinks is a miscalculation from a once-great comedy director. Despite its mediocrity, however, it provides a few moments that will leave you smiling, if not laughing hysterically. The DVD offers a fair amount of impressive extra features, and provides above-average image and sound quality. Life Stinks is worth a rental.