Spaceballs

Picking up on the phenomenon of Star Wars, Mel Brooks draws from a cleverly comical take on the starboard fantasy. Spaceballs goes above and beyond the lazy parody films of the 2000's and truly figures out where the deepest cuts and jokes could come from. Over 35 years since its release, although they don't all land, most of the jokes can still crack up a crowd and bury themselves deep in your brain to be endlessly quoted. With an incredibly endearing cast, it's hard to pin down a favorite character as they all wonderfully fill their roles. Delightfully charming, ridiculously quotable, and remarkably clever, Spaceballs delivers one of the most memorable parody films.

Spaceballs is one of the funniest movies ever. In the tradition of Airplane it spoofs nearly all modern SciFi including: Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Return Of The Jedi, Alien, Star Trek, and Planet Of The Apes. Mel Brook's has had some funny movies but this takes the cake. Rick Moranis is inarguably his second best role after Strange Brew. John Candy has one of his better performances. Bill Pullman (a long way from Independence Day) is the central character Lone Star, a combination Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. Sight gags and classic memorable lines are present here from beginning to end. Just looking at Dark Helmet is enough to induce laughter. Spaceballs is a truly great film. Let's see how well you handle it!

Spaceballs strikes me as how a parody should be made. It's not overbearing, the jokes are spot on, the pastiche references are quite memorable, as most of the quotes from this film. With a seemingly ridiculous plot because of its burlesque nature, it doesn't interfere with the comedic purposes, so plot and humour go wonderfully hand in hand. Rick Moranis as Dark Helmet (sometimes the simplest humour is where it's at) is incredibly funny as well as John Candy as Barf (the names alone makes one giggle). The great Mel Brooks makes his grand appearance too and he acts accordingly as expected, the man is a comedy genious and proves it movie after movie and graces us with his hilarious participations.

Undoubtedly the laugh star in this is Rick Moranis, I mean the mightiest villain of all time is absolutely the opposite of what you would expect and that makes it an excellent situation for comedy which was perfectly executed. Every little detail counts for comedy, you'll notice many nuances and obscure references to other films once you have watched it a couple of times, and believe me it gets better after each viewing, Spaceballs absolutely deserves it.

The duel scene between Dark Helmet and Lone Starr and the spoof on the classic "I am your father!" moment is comedy gold. And of course one of the things I absolutely treasure about Mel Brooks' films is their exhilarating self-awareness, that always gets me; the more absurd they make it, the better! The example of this film is when Colonel Sandurz is browsing through some VHS tapes and puts the tape of Spaceballs, the very same film which they are making at the moment, and then they watch themselves on the screen, that is just ridiculously funny.

Spaceballs is a classic in my book, watch it and make it on your own.

There are some that say Mel Brooks's best satire is Spaceballs. Personally I like The Producers, but I'd never argue with anyone who holds out for this gut splitting comedy which uses both subtle satire and heavy bellylaughs drilled into the viewer with the skill and speed of one writing with light saber pen.

The main object of the satire is the original Star Wars movie, but during the course of the film Brooks took a shot at The Wizard Of Oz, The Bridge On The River Kwai, Lawrence Of Arabia, Planet Of The Apes and Alien and a few others I could name if I thought about it. The man does know his film history.

All is happy on the planet Druidia where King Dick Van Patten is eagerly awaiting the wedding of his daughter Princess Daphne Zuniga to her intended bridegroom, the eager Prince Valium played by Jim J. Bullock. But evil forces in the galaxy are afoot, the planet Spaceballs has a permanently polluted atmosphere and its President Skroob and his aides Colonel Sanders and Dark Helmet played respectively by Mel Brooks, George Wyner, and Rick Moranis have hatched a scheme to kidnap the princess and suck the atmosphere out of Druidia and take it back to Spaceballs.

They look like they just might succeed, but a Han Solo like character Lonestar (Bill Pullman)and his faithful half man, half dog companion John Candy pull off a rescue, but they are hunted people now throughout the galaxy. All seems lost, but fate has directed them to a desert like planet where they meet up with Yoda who acquaints them with the most potent force in the universe, the all powerful Schwartz.

The gags come so fast and furious that if you pop a kernel of popcorn in your mouth you could miss a gem. The performances are letter perfect and Brooks gives everyone in the cast his own bit or two. I forgot to mention Joan Rivers who is the voice of a C3PO character called Dot Matrix, companion to Zuniga the Druish princess complete with virgin alarm. And watch out if you mess with Zuniga's hair.

If I had to name a favorite it would be Rick Moranis playing Dark Helmet. When the helmet is down it's a James Earl Jones like voice that emerges, deep and sinister. When the helmet comes up all you see is Rick Moranis and it looks like it wasn't just the kids that got shrunk.

Spaceballs is a film that can be enjoyed by folks who love good comedy and for science fiction fans who don't take themselves too seriously. For someone like Mel Brooks to please both those crowds is really something.

This movie can be absolutely hilarious, if you are in the right mood for it. If you didn't liked this movie, then you probably weren't in the right mood, because there is no way you can dislike and find this movie unfunny.

Most fun thing about the movie is Rick Moranis as Dark Helmet who is the complete opposite in every way of the ultimate bad guy from the entire universe; Darth Vader, especially in size. Like almost every other Mel Brook's movie this movie has some extreme hits and some extreme misses, by seriously it all is just a matter of taste. What might seem funny for some is unfunny to others and vice versa.

The acting is over the top and quite bad actually especially Bill Pullman and Daphne Zuniga. Thank goodness that the sidekicks are the better and funnier characters in this movie, characters with poetic names such as Barf, Colonel Sandurz, Major Asshole, Yogurt and Pizza the Hutt.

The movie suffers from some horrible eighties songs, the curse of almost every eighties movies these days, other than that, there isn't much negative to say about his movie even though it is far from Brook's best.

7/10

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