Spaceballs (1987)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Purely Joyful Movie!

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

They mix in Star Wars and other space movies into the mix. They also make everything the opposite and the enemy leader is absolutely the funniest with how he commands his army of "assholes". It is such a funny movie and was one of my first comedy movies and it was really good. I have seen at least 3 times and it never gets old and you can understand some of the jokes better the more you watch. One of my personal favorite scenes is when they are told to comb the desert and they get an actual comb and start "combing" it. The ending is great with Lonestar marrying the Princess who he absolutely hated in the beginning of the movie. Caps off to Mel Brooks putting this together the way he did.

I had always been curious to see this spoof movie, having seen many images from it, I wanted to see what other movies it takes the mick of, besides Star Wars, and it made sense to watch it on its 30th anniversary, directed by Mel Brooks (The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein). Basically planet Spaceball has squandered all of its fresh air, leader President Skroob (Mel Brooks) schemes to kidnap Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga), daughter of King Roland (Dick Van Patten) of the neighbouring planet Druidia, to force him to give him the code to allow them to steal all their air. Vespa meanwhile is abandoning her pre-arranged wedding to the narcoleptic Prince Valium (Jim J. Bullock), fleeing the planet in her Mercedes spaceship with her droid of honour, Dot Matrix (Lorene Yarnell Jansson, voiced by Joan Rivers). The villainous Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) was sent by Skroob to kidnap her, he travels in the impossibly huge ship Spaceball One, helmed by Colonel Sandurz (George Wyner). Mercenary Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his mog (half-human, half-dog) Barf (John Candy) are contracted by Roland, with the offer of a lucrative reward, to retrieve Vespa before she is captured, Lone Starr has a major debt with the gangster Pizza the Hutt (Dom DeLuise) and readily accepts. Travelling in their Winnebago space ship the Eagle 5, Lone Starr and Barf are able to reach Vespa before Spaceball One, they rescue both her and Dot, and escape, Spaceball One tries to follow, but Dark Helmet's foolish order to go to "ludicrous speed" causes them to overshoot to a large distance. Lone Starr is forced to crash-land the ship when it runs out of fuel, the escapees land on the nearby "desert moon of Vega", they pass out walking in the blazing sun, they are found by a group of diminutive red-clad aliens called the Dinks, and are taken to a cave occupied by the old and wise Yogurt (Mel Brooks). Lone Star is introduced by Yogurt to the "The Schwartz", a metaphysical power similar to the Force, Yogurt also introduces the audience to the film's merchandising campaign, Starr and Vespa begin flirting, but she insists she can only marry a prince. Helmet and Sandurz break the fourth wall and use a VHS of the movie Spaceballs to locate Princess Vespa, they then travel to the moon, capture Vespa and Dot, and return with them to the planet Spaceball. The captors threaten to reverse Vespa's nose job, forcing Roland to give over the code to the shield protecting Druidia, Helmet and Sandurz take Spaceball One to Druidia, while Lone Starr and Barf rescue Vespa and Dot from the prison complex on Spaceball. On Druida, the ship Spaceball One transforms into Mega Maid, a giant robotic maid with a vacuum cleaner, the vacuum is switched on and sucks the air out of the planet, but Starr uses the Schwartz to reverse the vacuum, blowing the air back. The air is successfully returned to Druida, Lone Starr and the allies enter Mega Maid in an attempt to destroy it, Starr and Helmet fight with lightsaber-like "Schwartz rings", Starr manages to defeat Helmet, and cause him to unintentionally the ship's self-destruct button. Lone Starr and his friends manage to escape, while Skroob, Helmet, and Sandurz cannot reverse the self-destruct, and do not reach any escape pods in time, they are trapped as the ship explodes, the head and arm of the Mega Maid subsequently lands on the nearby planet, much to the concern of the Ape-like population. The debt to Pizza the Hutt is nullified when it is reported that the gangster has died, Vespa and Roland are returned home, Starr only takes enough money to cover expenses. After lunch in a diner, where John Hurt has an Alien burst out of his chest, Starr discovers from Yogurt that he is in fact a prince, thus eligible to marry Vespa, he reaches Druida in time to halt her wedding to Prince Valium, he announces his lineage, he and Vespa are married. Also starring Michael Winslow as Radar Technician, Ronny Graham as Minister, Jim Jackman as Major Asshole, Sandy Helberg as Dr. Schlotkin, Stephen Tobolowsky as Captain of the Guard, Jack Riley as TV Newsman, Tony Cox as Dink, Phil Hartman as a Dink voice, Tress MacNeille as a Dink voice and Michael York as an Ape. Moranis, Candy and Winslow just about do what they do best, but the scripting of this is rather lazy, it may have the right amount of recognisable mocks of Star Wars, as well as Alien, Flash Gordon, Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, and Jaws, but they are limp visuals and verbal jokes, there is no wit, I only tittered in moments, a disappointing science-fiction spoof comedy. Adequate!

Probably the worst movie I've ever seen. It's an hour and a half of terrible puns. Barf? Yogurt? Pizza the hut? comb the desert? Jam the radar? awful. I love Mel Brooks, but if this was his first movie, he would have never worked again. Sorry, but this film is Un-watchable. Even the great John Candy could not redeem this atrocity.

"I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate". "What does that make us?" "Nothing. Which is exactly what you're about to become"This is from the climactic fight scene between Dark Helmet and Lone Starr, echoing the iconic confrontation between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in "The Empire Strikes Back": also this is a joke viewers could see coming from a mile, but I'll use it to point out the main problem with "Spaceballs". Basically, the film is saying "I'm the official parody of the "Star Wars" saga". What does that make it? Well, not nothing, but not anything more than being the… official parody of the "Star Wars" saga.That's how we all remember "Spaceballs" and there are worse reputations, but it's very revealing when the funniest gags have nothing to do with "Star Wars". Take that hilarious moment when Helmet's right-hand man uses a VHS of the film to spot where the good guys are, they pause the film at the present time so that we see on the TV what happens in real time during the movie. It's just the most vertiginous and dizzying 'mise en abime' process ever used in a film, and the funniest too with a dialogue using the word 'now' like the famous 'Who's on first?' routine. It's for moments like these that "Spaceballs" should be appreciated. It's a shame that there are more smile-inducing little gags than creative hilarious bits like this. And I feel almost guilty to write that, because I used to love the film. Well, in fact, my history with "Spaceballs" was is in three acts.Act One: I'm eight, I discover the film on a Saturday afternoon, I can't stop laughing at Dark Helmet's antics and I really, really enjoy the film. My cinematic knowledge wasn't as extended as today, for what it's worth, and I don't even think I was familiar with the original "Star Wars", because when the real film was aired a few weeks later, I thought it was actually copying "Spaceballs", in an uglier way. Yup, "Spaceballs" introduced me to the "Star Wars" saga. And it was one of my favorite comedies. Act Two: I'm sixteen. I'm a comic-book nerd, I love Tex Avery cartoons and I adore parodies. I'm discovering the Zucker Abrahams Zucker movies and I'm looking for "Spaceballs". There was no Internet, no way for me to remember the title, so it's only by pure luck that I find the VHS in the video store. I finally discover Mel Brooks (although I was familiar with many of his films). I see the film with excitement, alone, in a dark room, expecting to have a Madeleine Proust sensation. I find the film enjoyable, amusing with some funny parts I didn't even get as kid, notably the Virginity alarm and the Valium yawning Prince. I realize this was John Candy as Barf, that Melrose Place girl (Daphne Zuniga) as Princess Vespa, Rick Moranis from "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" and good old President Bill Pullmann as Lone Starr. Overall, the rediscovery adds to the enjoyment.Act Three: I'm thirty-four. I watch the film. I like it, but the pleasure relies more on the nostalgic effect. The film is as much about the 80's as "Star Wars" actually, no CGI, good old miniatures, even though a little cheap-looking. Of course, some parts have aged better, most of the good stuff involves Dark Helmet and his crew. But overall, you get some amusing jokes, that are so innocent and fun you don't feel like criticizing them. So, what exactly lacks in the film? I don't know, it's droll and funny but it has the appeal of TV sketches and never really tries to transcend its material, the film only exists for the sole mission of making as many references as possible to "Star Wars" and the Sci-fi genre.This is typical of Mel Brooks, either he tries to make a unique original film and you get "The Producers", "Young Frankenstein" or "Silent Movie" or it's a matter of parodying classics by the book and you get "Blazing Saddles", "High Anxiety" and "Spaceballs", funny movies that work because they know what they should remind you of, all the time. This is the problem with "Spaceballs", once you know "Star Wars", apart from a few original bits like Pizza the Hutt or the 'One Froggy Evening' homage, it's routine humor that makes you want to go directly on Youtube and check the best parts rather than see the whole film. The film has this biting Brooksian humor with the character of Yogurt whose main occupation is to work on the merchandising but that bit had already been used in the 'now' scene. And I guess Brooks might have sinned by being too confident that his film would be a sure hit and overestimated people's interest for "Star Wars" four years after the final opus. But this obsession for parody made the director lose his way, and the disastrous "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" proved that he was already slipping and the popularity of "Spaceballs" had more to do with the actors' performances, Moranis, Candy, and even Brooks himself as Yogurt and President Skroob. There was some potential for satire in this film, but it's so busy retelling the "Star Wars" story that it loses its time on cute gags, and some supposed to sound funny but, for some reason, don't really make you laugh. All right, "may the Schwartz be with you". Ha-ha.The saddest thing is that the parody genre stil had brighter days to come. One year later, ZAZ brothers' "Naked Gun" would make the box-office Top 10, and you know why it worked? Because it copied a genre, archetypes and situations, but not a specific target, so it could stand alone as a movie, and a classic. Sadly, "Spaceballs" comes across as a SNL sketch of epic proportions.