Spaceballs (1987) Review

Jews in Space

Spaceballs (1987): 7 out of 10: For Spaceballs Mel Brooks puts Star Wars in his crosshairs. The plot is pure parody: the evil Planet Spaceball has squandered all its air and now plans to steal the atmosphere from the peaceful Planet Druidia. (Star Wars returns the favor somewhat by stealing Druidia’s planet shield for 2016’s Rogue One.)

Enter Dark Helmet (Always a delight to see Rick Moranis), a petulant, helmet-wearing villain who’s less Darth Vader and more neurotic middle manager with delusions of grandeur. His mission? Kidnap Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) and force her royal father to hand over Druidia’s air supply code. (He threatens to use a plastic surgeon to restore her old nose.)

Standing in his way is Lone Starr (Bill Pullman), a Han Solo knockoff with a flying Winnebago and a heart of gold. Alongside his trusty half-man, half-dog sidekick Barf (John Candy), Lone Starr sets off to rescue the princess, outwit the Spaceballs, and maybe find out his true purpose in life.

Throw in a sentient robot maid named Dot Matrix (irritatingly voiced by Joan Rivers) and a wise, Yoda-like guru called Yogurt (gratingly played by Brooks), and you’ve got a ragtag band of misfits careening through a universe.

“Spaceballs” sometimes shines as a fourth-wall-breaking farce that throws in gags about merchandising, outdated special effects, and the absurdity of franchise bloat years before Hollywood started churning out sequels and remakes by the dozen.

Spaceballs is mostly dumb humor (with some funny site gags like “combing the desert”), but it can also be sneakily clever, with Brooks lampooning not just sci-fi tropes but the whole movie industry itself. The result is a film that knows exactly how silly it is and is most successful when it leans into that silliness hard.

The Good

The Good: If there is one thing that saves Spaceballs it is Daphne Zuniga. She has surprisingly great chemistry with Bill Pullman almost to the point I wouldn’t have mind seeing them in a straight movie.

Daphne looks great in a designer wedding dress. She has a fine baritone singing voice, and she plays both the spoiled princess and a kick ass warrior in the same movie. Daphne also has the best stunt double ever.

As inferred above, Bill Pullman is fine as the Han Solo type and John Candy does more with his silly half man half dog character than really could have been expected. (Much better half dog/ half man than Channing Tatum). Rounding out the cast, at least on the plus side of the ledger, is Rick Moranis, who also gives an impressive performance as a very short Darth Vader with a very large helmet.

“Spaceballs” also does a couple of things really well. It has some of the best fourth wall breaks I have ever seen in a film. At one point, characters in the film rent the movie to discover the location of other characters they are chasing. In another a lightsaber duel takes out an assistant director.

The Bad

The Bad: Joan Rivers is awful in this. Her jokes simply fail to land repeatedly. While I actually liked Mel Brooks redoing his governor character from Blazing Saddles (Though the Doublemint Twins are a poor substitute for Robyn Hilton) I found his version of Yoda well… he keeps pausing as if we are supposed to laugh. Were we?

The Ugly

The Ugly: Let me quote the great Roger Ebert’s Guide to Practical Filmgoing “First Law of Funny Names: No names are funny unless used by W.C. Fields or Groucho Marx. Funny names, in general, are a sign of desperation at the screenplay level.” Now I will allow a funny name here or there. Biggus Dickus from Monty Python’s Life of Brian will never not be funny. And Spaceballs has a funny gag or two about names (I knew it. I’m surrounded by assholes!). But good lord, there are cringe “jokes” are everywhere. If every name is funny, then unfortunately the result is no name is funny.

In Conclusion

In Conclusion: By the time Dark Helmet and company do a tribute to Planet of the Apes and the Winnebago rides off into the stars, Spaceballs has done its job. Daphne Zuniga and Bill Pullman make a surprisingly engaging couple and any movie with an alien chestburster dancing to “Hello, My Baby” is going to get at least a tepid recommendation from me.

For every funny gag, there seem to be ten that simply just sit there. Though the ones that work are often really clever (Or so wonderfully dumb to be somehow smart). I just wish Spaceballs was more consistently funny and also it seems to really try too hard.

“Spaceballs” really is uneven in a lot of spots. Nostalgia glasses aside, I have to grudgingly admit it has aged surprisingly well. The bear stealing the escape pod will never grow old for me any more than combing the desert.