2018 Blind Spot Series: Spaceballs

Still battling my way through my 2018 Blind Spot list. I'm ALMOST there. Well, actually, I am there. The question, Sofia our host from Returning Videotapes, is will I get them all posted before the clock strikes midnight on this year, or will I finish it after that? Hmmm...

If nothing else, I have this one done, so let's get to it.

Why did I pick it? I've always loved a good spoof. Over the last ten years or so, I've come to appreciate them even more than I did as a youngster. It takes talent to not only skewer something, but to simultaneously become the very thing you're poking fun at and be a good version of it. Having made two of my favorite spoofs of all-time, Young Frankenstein, and Blazing Saddles, I regard Mel Brooks as a master of these types of films. Of course, he directed Spaceballs. It's not enough to just be funny, a good spoof has to also display a love for the thing it's spoofing. Both of my aforementioned favorites do this. It also helps if the viewer has a love for and a sense of humor about the very same thing. I've got that base covered since I'm a big Star Wars fan and don't mind seeing it ripped. All of this begs the question, why haven't I already seen this. I don't know. It's just one of those things that kept eluding me over the years for one reason or another. I figured it's high time I got with the program.

Just like in Star Wars, we start with an opening crawl to set up the story. In this case, we're told this takes place "Once upon a time warp. . . .In a galaxy very, very, very, very, far away." We're told of a "ruthless" race of people known, oddly enough, as Spaceballs who live on Planet Spaceball. To complete the first of many digs at its inspiration, and most hilariously, we're told that this is "Chapter Eleven." In case you're somehow unaware, the joke is that the original Star Wars is actually chapter four of the saga, not chapter 1. Anyhoo, the Spaceballs are our stand-in for the Empire. In place of Darth Vader, we get Moranis as Dark Helmet. Bill Pullman plays Lone Starr, and stands in for both Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. Daphne Zuniga holds down Princess Leia duties as Princess Vespa. John Candy's Barf, a giant talking dog, takes the place of Chewbacca while Joan Rivers gives us Dot Matrix, this movie's verion of C-3PO. The plot is a bit convoluted for this movie's purposes, but here it goes. The Spaceballs have ruined the ozone layer on their own planet leaving them with no air to breathe. They seek to steal the air from some other planet. Princess Vespa skips out on her arranged marriage at the last minute. Finally, Lone Starr and Barf are on the run from Pizza the Hutt (Dom DeLuise), whom they owe a million space dollars. So, more or less, we're cramming all the plots of the original Star Wars trilogy into one movie.

And for the record, Pizza the Hutt is one of the most disgusting creatures I've ever laid eyes on. And I've watched some gruesome movies. Thank all that is holy he only appears in one scene. Let's move on.

Mel Brooks shows why he is considered a master of the spoof. Spaceballs includes a neverending string of gags aimed at its source material and other things popular in the mid to late 80s. Funny and unfunny ones run about even. That's not a bad ratio considering the sheer volume of jokes. We laugh, then we don't laugh, but before we can be too put off, we laugh again. By the end of the movie, we've had a nice, steady chuckle most of the way through. His cast is a great aid in this. Moranis, Pullman, Candy, and Brooks himself are responsible for making a number of jokes funnier than they should be by their sheer talent. The jokes that don't work tend to have similar problems. The biggest problem is that this movie is flat out loaded with dick jokes. They get old pretty quickly. The other problem is that the actors, as talented as they are, play it way-too self aware. One of the things that makes Young Frankenstein work as well as it does is that the cast mostly plays it straight (between fourth wall breaks, of course). The cast in Blazing Saddles played it more as a comedy, but the script was pretty subtle with its self-awareness until the famous final shot of the movie. Spaceballs relentlessly whacks you over the head with the fact that you are watching a movie and that they know this is a movie. I'm on record as a lover of self-aware films, but there is a line between a nice wink and nod to the audience and bludgeoning that audience to death. This movie criss-crosses that line repeatedly. However, there one place where the film does self-aware to perfection. The characters themselves start watching the movie they are making. It's one of the funniest fourth wall breaks of all-time.

My other issue with Spaceballs is that the story tries to do so much that it winds up doing nothing. The best spoofs don't just make us laugh. They also tell compelling stories within the genre they're making fun of. Spaceballs doesn't do this. Instead, it bites off way more than it can chew by tackling three Star Wars movies, plus a few other films, all at once. Rather than building a story and creating characters we care about, it just continually touches upon one aspect or another of its source material. I know it's generally considered bad form to keep bringing up a different movie in a review, but I have to mention Young Frankenstein again. What makes it a towering achievement of the genre is not just the gags. It's that Victor Frankenstein is an original character and a fascinating man in an interesting predicament who has an intriguing arc. Lone Starr, Dark Helmet, nor Princess Vespa offer this. They're just dime store versions of other characters only meant to do the broadest impersonations of who they represent. This ensures that the film is never anything more than an exercise in skimming across the surface. I understand no one is coming into Spaceballs for a deep exploration of the human condition, but this missing piece could take the film from just being funny to being great.

By now, you might have the impression that I dislike this film. That's not the case. My experience with it was more positive than negative because it did the one thing a comedy must. It made me laugh. Humor makes up for a lot of sins. This movie has a ton of it. The consistent rate of laughter ensured I was never bored with it. My love for Star Wars probably helps. In most cases, I can instantly recall the moment that's being made fun of. If you don't have that same relationship with Star Wars, you might not get as much out of it. I got a good deal. The references all hit their mark and enough of the jokes work. I just wish it wasn't all so weightless.

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