Mel Brooks is a comedic genius. He knows exactly how to spoof a franchise and do so hilariously. Star Wars is one of the greatest stories ever told but Brooks made Spaceballs into a comedic classic with memorable and quotable lines that fit any situation.
The quality of the film is pretty good. The chemistry of the star studded cast is great. John Candy as Barf was classic John Candy. His ability to have funny moments was never beyond him and it shined in his supporting role.
This is Rick Moranis' second greatest role - behind Ghostbusters - and he did not disappoint. He captured every scene that involved him and was funny. The coffee statement and the line about the assholes should be in comedic history.
While the on-film chemistry was great, the thing I learned from watching documentaries on comedians is the importance of timing in the genre. Jerry Lewis' Bellboy scene is legendary due to its impeccable timing. Moranis, Brooks, (Bill) Pullman, and Candy nail the timing when possible. That is why Spaceballs is so funny to me. It is a slapstick with amazing timing. The only one who rushed the timing sequence was George Wyner as Colonel Sandurz. Maybe Sandurz was a pushy character and Wyner played it great but there were times when I felt Wyner was a step too quick with the line. His sequence with Moranis on the "You're looking at now" bit, however, was pretty great.
The story itself was pretty silly. Ran out of fresh air? That was just dumb but Brooks made it work because while it revolved around the actions of the characters, it was never at the forefront of the film. The comedy, which was spoofing Star Wars and the point of the film, was.
Another great thing about Brooks is his ability to include popular culture in his films. Viewers see the late 1980s throughout Spaceballs. A Winnebago? An actual lunchbox? Spaceballs the cereal! The music and so many others are present in the film that I will not mention but the point is made. Brooks' skill of inclusion is shown.
Now when it comes to comedies, not everyone enjoys the same kind. As with Bobby's pick of In a World..., I had no idea it was a comedy until halfway into the film. With Spaceballs, however, this is clearly a spoof and slapstick comedy. Those are the kind I revel in. To me, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a top ten comedy of all time and with that in mind, Spaceballs gets high marks from me for its comedy. Its story, however, is another thing.
Was Spaceballs a commercial success? Well, it had an estimated budget of $22.7 million and grossed $38.1 million in the U.S. Making more than the budget is always a good thing but what do others think of it? It holds a 7.1 rating on IMDb, which is pretty good, yet RT gives it a 54% but somehow 83% of its audience liked it. Interesting.
All in all, the comedy was great. Memorable and quotable lines with a cast that could do no wrong. The story was disappointing but the comedy drowned it out.
Grade: B
If I would’ve had a veto still, I absolutely would have used it here. Spaceballs has a wildly high barrier of entry here for me. First, it lampoons a franchise I only barely know. I haven’t seen a Star Wars movie since I was 13 (just ballparking the age), and it didn’t leave much of an impression. Second, it’s an older comedy I’ve never seen before. As I discussed in the Major League review, it’s a rare thing to find a comedy that has aged well. Also, as discussed extensively, comedy taste varies wildly from person to person. Third, it’s Mel Brooks. I’ve seen a handful of Mel Brooks movies, and he goes to the same comedic well pretty often. So how did it do with all of this playing against it? Overall, I would give a stamp of “Well, I didn’t totally regret my 90 minutes with it.”
ReplyDeleteBrooks has a pattern with his comedy, and it was on display here in full force. Some of the jokes are pretty hacky if you ask me. The “funny name for a character” joke just doesn’t work on me. When the first joke out of the gate was “Colonel Sanders,” I audibly groaned. It was a “oh it’s gonna be one of these movies” moments. Numerous stupid name jokes followed – Dot Matrix, Yogurt, Dark Helmut, etc etc etc etc. I didn’t include Barf in that list because it wasn’t even a joke. I did appreciate paying off the Colonel Sanders joke by calling him chicken. Beyond that, we got into the “super literal” jokes, like “jamming” the radar or “combing” the desert. The jam one was sold, the comb one was not, so we’ll go hit and miss there. The jokes that work on me every time are the “breaking the fourth wall” stuff. Helmut killing the camera guy and banging into the camera was solid. The entire sequence with the tape was fantastic too, being easily the funniest part of the movie. But like Drew mentioned, “I’m surrounded by assholes!” was a great line period. That’s in the Best Line debate now. The shameless cash grab plugs were fun as well. Some of the worst stuff was slamming in references to other movies. Was the diner scene supposed to be funny? Why have the alien joke there? It was horrible and dragged on too long. The callback to the famous “I am your father” reveal was pointless as well. I think Brooks figured he had to put it in there, but there had to be a better way to do that joke, right?
There isn’t much to say about the acting here other than most everyone did their job as expected. I appreciated Bill Pullman’s absurd over-the-top performance by the end, but it was a really rocky start. Dick Van Patten selling the last breath was pretty great as well. Drew already said, but Moranis shines here as Dark Helmut. He’s great at being feared in a goofy way and is at the center of every good comedy moment. John Candy was his usual charismatic self, but he felt out of place with Pullman, who seemed to be going out of his way to suck at acting. Is that a Star Wars reference I’m missing? Was Harrison Ford or Mark Hamill awful in those movies?
Is there any point in diving into the plot? It was what it was, simply a device to move us from joke to joke.
I really don’t have much else to say other than it’s a Mel-Brooks-Ass-Mel-Brooks movie. I wouldn’t say it does anything wildly different than most of his stuff in this era. So, if you like Mel Brooks a lot, you probably liked Space Balls. A lot of these jokes just aren’t my taste anymore.
+ Some stuff works really well
+ Rick Moranis
+ “I’m surrounded by assholes!”
- Lot of hacky stuff
- Acting was fine, but I wasn’t sure if everyone was going for the same thing
- That diner scene
Grade: C-
Is great bumper sticker humor, which you just don't see enough of any more, enough to propel SpaceBalls above my imaginary B+ ceiling on comedies? In a word: It's not.
ReplyDeleteThis is a solid spoof, but spoofs are probably the lowest of the comedy hanging fruits. I feel like you need to go super dry (Best of Show, This is Spinal Tap) if you're going to succeed in spoofing something. Maybe that's why I loved Pullman and Moranis's characters here. They were pretty dry (though Moranis needs to be commended for his physical comedy. I mean, that tiny tie!).
I wish I had taken notes because I could probably rattle off a dozen lines that made me laugh. I could also add a dozen lines that made me groan (which isn't always a bad thing). So put one-liners in the good column here.
Speaking of one liners, our high school basketball coach once told a player to, "Keep firing, asshole." It kind of became legend. I had no idea it was from this movie. It's a great line. (Also loved the Druidish Princess stuff.)
I think when they were subtle, they nailed some of the aspects of Star Wars movies. I loved how long it took to view the ship in the opening scene. I thought the final line of the text was hilarious, but I can't recall what it was. The development of the love story was pretty great when compared to how it went down in Star Wars.
Bottom line, it's a comedy and it made me laugh.
Bad:
This is just a weak,weak story that has characters do things that don't make much sense. I think even Billy Madison had a more probably plot-line, though it's always bothered me that Eric wasn't only not in jail at the end, but he showed up to Billy's graduation. Why? Just to be sad? Anyway, the plot here makes Eric's decisions seem rational. I mean, the relationship between Helmut and Lonestar is just confusing. Are they prior foes or not?
The not so subtle things just aren't very good. Combing the sand was a fail, though the black Space Ball yelling, "We ain't found shit!" was pretty funny. I feel like you can't do a line like that in movies any more. I also didn't really like the jam scene I suppose. The names of everyone fall into this category. They were distractingly corny.
The lisp drove me nuts. Why did she have it? I don't remember it being brought up at all. Just seemed weird.
John Candy was wasted in this role. Barf wasn't as bad as the fat assistant in Van Helsing, but his lines were pretty predictable and just not funny. Maybe we're spoiled by today's comedies where people get to adlib, but this was John Candy at his most boring.
In the end, I laughed, but I also got annoyed or bored at certain parts. I love Mel Brooks and I think he does smarter stuff than this. I don't need it to be high-brow, just a bit smarter.
C+/B-
The super long reveal on the ship was great, it's such an ominous opening to the original Star Wars then this ship is 5 times the size. The end line of the trail is "If you can read this you don't need glasses
DeleteThat's right. I was expecting a joke that was related to the movie. That one was solid.
DeleteThat was an inside joke for SW fans that flew over my head (see what I did there?)
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ReplyDeleteI haven't seen any of the Star Wars, but I love Blazing Saddles as a comedy. I think this movie falls victim to my high expectations for Mel Brooks and dry humor.
ReplyDeleteMy review might as well be opposite Phil. I thought breaking through the 4th wall was awful. I'm not a fan of self-aware movies. Joan Rivers was irritating, Helmet wasn't well done, the princess was shrill, Colonel Sanders was exhausting. A week prior to this nomination my students were talking about this movie in class - "I'm a mog, my own best friend." This could have been sold and used much, much more. The only funny part of Barf was his ears perking up.
The best scene for me was the princess signing hymns in the jail cell. The escape scene was a close second - the bearded lady and a bear - love it!
Overall, I think the comedy here was too scattered. I'll take dry and weird like the bear escaping and transporting where he could have walked. Even combing the desert was okay. But so much here fell flat and was working too hard - jam the radar, self destruct cancellation out of order, all the Jewish jokes, selling stuff, Prince Valium falling asleep.
The head flying by the screen after destruction of the megamaid was straight out of Transformers: The Movie.
15:1 says most of Jon's review is 1/10 movie, 9/10 Catholic pope.
The first half of this movie was a D and the second half a B-. I'm going C+ to start.
Where are all the reviews? I thought I was late on this one.
This one should've made best review just for the 15:1 wager on Jon.
DeleteThe Prince Valium stuff wasn't funny the first time. Going to the well a few more times was yawn inducing.
DeleteI actually liked colonel sanders. I liked that he kept referencing the circus and then in the end, the circus shows up. He bear was way better than the bearded lady, who was a bit too cliche. Or maybe its just because the bearded lady on Carnivale haunts my dreams.
DeleteSpaceballs is a classic spoof. Wonderful one-liners and the perfect balance of following the source material and branching out.
ReplyDeleteI’ll agree with Phil over Bryan on the 4th wall stuff. I also like the fact that it’s not just spoofing Star Wars but is really spoofing itself with the frequent mentioning of Spaceballs the Movie, whether it’s “you’re looking at now” or “merchandising” or even the president running into the room saying this ship is too big if I walk the movie will be over. It’s not a serious movie it shouldn’t take itself seriously and it doesn’t. My favorite instance of this has always been when the stunt doubles get captured, it’s hilarious to me that the princess is an old trashy guy smoking a cigar. That’s closely followed by Helmut killing a sound operator during his battle with Lonestar. A nice throw away line I think they were well aware was going to go over the majority of the audience head is “prepare for metamorphosis, ready Kafka” they characters pause and look at each other and you can see they know it’s a line that won’t work on most.
Mel Brooks mostly goes to the well the proper number of times in this one. The spaceballs always covering their junk whenever they’re sucking up or agreeing with Dark Helmut, the fact half the jokes are so on the nose they are ridiculous, jam the radar comb the desert. While Phil groaned on comb the desert it allowed for the black guy to be combing with a pick and to get the great, “man we aint found shit” line.
Couple wastes for me are Dot and the Princess are pretty worthless, I guess not everyone can be interesting in a movie. Also Barf was a waste of John Candy’s ability. I know he’s a sidekick but he could’ve been used more.
It’s tough to get above a B+ for this type of movie but B is respectable as hell for a spoof. I give it a B
I think this just settled me on a B-.
ReplyDeleteMan we ain't found shit. I almost woke Geoff up laughing at that one.
Also, I'm a sucker for breaking the 4th wall, as anyone who ever watched any of the Musical Madness I wrote can attest to. God damn, Matt Snodgrass is a great amateur straight man.
I think I bought a copy of Spaceballs in middle school and watched it more than should've been allowed in a household where the Simpsons was still on the evil side of TV shows. Spaceballs is likely the first time my youngest sister heard the word Fuck, though she heard it a lot more once I brought home my Deadwood DVD's from college. I have good memories of it generally, but as I've said before, my teenage self was an idiot, just like all teenage selves. I'm just going to do a list of likes and dislikes, as I've spent far more than the necessary time thinking about Spaceballs over the course of my life.
ReplyDeleteLikes:
- All the pew-pew laser noises in the sound design.
- The Spaceball functionaries have funny helmets. Also, Dark Helmet's tie.
- Moranis is a master of interesting reads and comic timing. The way he twists his face up to say, "You went over my helmet?" is gold.
- "I'm surrounded by assholes" got all the praise, but "Keep firing, assholes" is the better line.
- I love the jamming joke. That whole sequence begins to lose me with Michael Winslow's schtick, but then it got me all the way back again with Helmet throwing the maps off the table.
- One more for Moranis. The sideays look he gives the guard who speaks in German. Fantastic.
- Evil will always triumph because good is dumb.
Dislikes:
- The long opening pan on the spaceship didn't work on me.
- Prince Valium is not a joke. Neither is Pizza the Hutt. Both are, in fact, pure garbage.
- Pullman isn't trying to be bad on purpose. He's just bad. He also very strangely keeps his eyes open on the final kiss.
- There's plenty to spoof with Star Wars. Why bring in Star Trek? Was it just so Brooks could scratch his taint from the front? Not worth it.
- Alien gag is also garbage, though good on John Hurt for actually showing up for it. Adding to the garbage list is everything surrounding Dot Matrix. Why would they give poor Joan Rivers all the worst lines?
- Jew jokes have a very small reservoir of goodwill from me, and this movie exhausted it quickly.
An approximately equal number of good scenes and awful scenes equal a C. I should watch more Mel Brooks stuff besides this and that awful movie adaptation of The Producers.
I didn't mention it, but I liked the Star Trek stuff b/c of how much it annoys Star Wars and Star Trek fans when you mix the two up. I'm fairly certain Brooks was playing on that.
DeleteI also liked the beaming, "Scotty beamed me twice last night" and "why didn't anybody tell me my ass is this big" both earned a laugh
DeleteGene Wilder is the perfect Mel Brooks actor, check Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles if you haven't already.
DeleteTrolling the two fanbases is great.
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