"Out of order? FUCK! Even in the future, nothing works!"
Uneven satire (and a few years too late to be timely) but still funny.Spaceballs is a satire/parody/spoof of Star Wars and its sequels.
Well, duh.
It's not horribly original, and there's not a lot of really huge laughs, like there were in Blazing Saddles, The Producers or even Silent Movie. But there's enough smaller jokes to keep you smiling and occasionally laughing steadily. Most of the jokes (as is typical of these types of movies) are verbal: puns, weird names, things like that. Bill Pullman plays Lone Star, a hybrid between Han Solo and Luke Skywalker; John Candy plays Barf, the mog ("Half man, half dog. I'm my own best friend!"), the Chewbacca clone; Daphne Zuniga is Princess Vespa...and so on. It's lighthearted and lightweight. It's...a Mel Brooks movie.
I know it's basically empty, I know it's pretty lame compared to other Mel Brooks movies, but it's better than the last few he's done (Dracula: Dead And Loving It? Robin Hood: Men In Tights?).
Rick Moranis gets the most laughs as Dark Helmet, the sometimes clueless ("I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate," he tells Lone Star before a fight. "What does that make us?" Lone Star asks. "Absolutely nothing!") Darth Vader ripoff. Candy's funny, although you wish he's given more. Pullman, Zuniga and Joan Rivers (as the voice of Vespa's robot assistant) all seem to fall flat. Maybe it's because Rivers isn't funny and the other two are more tuned to serious acting.
Despite that, I still recommend Spaceballs. It's a repeat viewer; it'll grow on you.Jump in the car, and head on down to the local video store. At Ludicrous speed.
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