Spaceballs

• Title:  Spaceballs
• Director:  Mel Brooks
• Date:  1987
• Studio:  MGM
• Genre:  Comedy
• Cast:  Bill Pullman, Daphne Zuniga, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Mel Brooks, Dick Van Patten,  George Wyner, Joan Rivers
• Format:  Color, Widescreen
• DVD Format:  R1, NTSC

"You idiots!  These are not them!  You've captured their stunt doubles!" -- Spaceball Officer

"Preparing ship for Metamorphosis, sir."  -- Col. Sanders
"Good, get on with it."  -- President Skroob
"Ready, Kafka." -- Dark Helmet

Spaceballs is a bit disappointing for a Mel Brooks film.  The best moments are the tiny references to other classic films, and most of the Star Wars references don't quite work.  There's also a lot of juvenile humor in the film.  One of  the more successful things in the film is the use of music, for example when the extremely long Spaceballs ship is first seen at the beginning of the film, the Jaws theme is heard. Later, when Lone Star and company crashland in the desert, the theme to Lawrence of Arabia is heard.

The film opens with the Spaceballs plotting to steal the air from the peaceful planet of  Druidia.  Over population, huge city complexes, and the complete destruction of nature and industrialization of the planet have used up the air on Planet Spaceball.  Meanwhile, on Druidia, Princess Vespa is to be married to Prince Valium, who is as boring as his name suggests.  Vespa, wisely runs away from her own wedding.

Vespa is caught by the Spaceballs, and King Roland, her father, offers to pay one million Spacebucks to Lone Star.  Lone Star needs the money to pay off Pizza the Hutt, a notorious gangster.  Pizza the Hutt is a disgusting character.  Lone Star flies through space in his Winnebago, with his best friend, Barf, a "Mog", half-man/half-dog character played by John Candy.

Lone Star succeeds in rescuing the princess and escaping the Spaceballs, but runs out of gas and crash lands on a desert planet.  They are rescued by "Dinks" who appear to the Seven Dwarfs music from Snow White. The dinks bring Lone Star, Dot Matrix (the princess's personal droid), Princess Vespa, and Barf to a secret temple, where they meet Yogurt, practitioner of  The Swartz.  The scene where the four approach the huge statute of Yogurt, terrified, is reminiscent of  The Wizard of Oz.

The transformed Spaceballs ship, which had turned into a gigantic maid, starts to remove the air from Druidia, but Lone Star uses the power of  the Swartz to reverse the air flow, then he flies into the ship, finds the self-destruct and destroys it.  The head and arm land on another planet, where two apes on horses are disgusted by the Spaceballs claiming out of  it's nose.  Yes, it's a reference to the original Planet of  The Apes.

Soon, Lone Star takes Vespa and Dot back to planet Druidia.  Once again, Vespa is ready to be married.  She, however, has doubts when she's told by her father than Lone Star turned down the one million spacebucks.  At the last minute, Lone Star arrives and he and Vespa are married.

A constant joke throughout the film pokes fun at Star Wars merchandise, as nearly everything is "Spaceballs the _____ blank", where blank is the actual item, such as "Spaceballs the towel", etc.  This joke gets old quickly and is over used.  Another slightly funnier joke, that's still used a lot, is not only is there a "Mr. Coffee" but also a "Mr. RADAR", etc.  And several characters, especially among the Spaceballs, talk to the audience and break the fourth wall.

Overall, not the best of  Brooks' films by a long shot, but it still has some very funny moments.  If  the leads had been Gene Wilder and Madeline Kahn the film may have been much more funny, but that wasn't possible.

Recommendation:  Eh, see or not, doesn't much matter
Rating:  3 out of 5 Stars
Next Film:  Spider-man