Spaceballs (1987)

Directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Bill Pullman, Daphne Zuniga, Rick Moranis, John Candy, Mel Brooks, George Wyner, Lorene Yarnell, Dick Van Patten, (voice) Joan Rivers. [PG]

Some complained that Mel Brooks’ parody of the Star Wars saga came too late…as if the early Universal Frankenstein pictures were still fresh on everyone’s minds when Young Frankenstein landed in 1974? Well, they were dumb, which also happens to be what good is, and hence why evil always triumphs. (Rearranged) lines like that are why this spoof has ended up being nearly as timeless as the movies it sends up—sure, sight gags like Pizza the Hutt and a gigantic spaceship crawling across the screen for the better part of two minutes are much funnier with a little context, but the combination an idiot would use for their luggage and “These are not them…you’ve captured their stunt doubles!” require no such knowledge. Greedy President Skroob wants to steal all the oxygen from Planet Druidia, space cowboy Lone Starr rescues a Druish princess (“Funny, she doesn’t look Druish”), Dark Helmet orders Spaceball One to jump to Ludicrous Speed, yada yada yada, who cares? It’s Brooks’ funniest film since that super-timely one he shot in black & white (I’m telling you, in 1974, it was all Karloff-this, “It’s alive!”-that), with a hit-to-miss ratio on par with the best of that era’s New Kids on the Parody Block, Zucker-Abraham-Zucker (Airplane!, The Naked Gun, etc.). Well-cast and surprisingly polished effects-wise, with a dopey-catchy theme song containing a hook that sounds suspiciously like one from a certain Ray Parker Jr. anthem (coincidentally, Parker passed on an offer to produce a song for the movie). Look for a hilarious surprise cameo at a diner near the end.

81/100