Spaceballs (1987)

DVD, Seattle, WA

September 11, 2007

*** / ****

The Mel Brooks brand of comedy, satiric, slapstick, silly, and repetitive has been a Hollywood hallmark for four decades. During that time, as writer, producer, director, and actor Brooks has churned out a variety of genre spoofs that either hit the mark or bore you to tears, depending on your taste for savvy parody and crude innuendo and the genre in question. Some of his earliest flicks, The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein are now regarded as comedy masterpieces. Many of his other efforts, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, The History of the World: Part I, and Silent Movie are cult curiosities whose comedy doesn’t work as often as it does. Falling somewhere in between is Spaceballs, the 1987 Star Wars knock-off produced at least five years too late but nonetheless a memorably ridiculous science-fiction spoof extraordinaire.

Spaceballs: The Plot begins with the kidnapping of prima donna Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) by a pint-sized bully in an oversized helmet, appropriately named Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis). Snatched as ransom to persuade King Roland (Dick Van Patten) to reveal the combination to his planet’s atmospheric shield, the princess is intercepted by gruff Han Solo wannabe Lone Star (Bill Pullman) and his half-man, half-dog co-pilot (“I’m my own best friend!”), Barf (John Candy), going on the lam to a nondescript dessert planet.

Fueled by his one-better, the canned air snorting commander-in-chief of planet Spaceball, known simply as The President (Mel Brooks), Helmet tracks the runaways to the mysterious hide-out of Yogurt (Mel Brooks in green grease paint), a shrunken green Yoda look-a-like with a penchant for mystical power The Schwartz and a marketing know-how that begins and ends with this here Spaceballs film. Eventually, all plays out as it must: Pizza the Hutt eats himself to death, the good guys triumph, robot sidekick Dot Matrix (Joan Rivers) loses her virgin alarm, and everyone lives happily ever after, including a tiny alien who high kicks his way across a diner lunch counter.

Not Brooks’ best and certainly not his worst, Spaceballs entertains thoroughly as it pokes fun at the most obviously ripe targets. It does, however, go beyond the easy Star Wars guffaws by parodying Snow White, Alien, Star Trek, The Wizard of Oz, and surely a handful of other classic films. Running gags which accurately target the marketing mania that began with Star Wars are spot on and even a bit ahead of their time, as well the cheeky self-awareness that easily could have proven tacky and boring. But Mel Brooks is a master, so even when his jokes fall flat you only have to wait a few seconds before another one grasps for your attention. And grasp does Spaceballs ever shaking us for giggles as it stands on sure-footed comedy ground, a late ‘80s touchstone for sci-fi fan boys and goofy giggle meisters everywhere.