Throwback Thursday - Spaceballs (1987)
Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, we've talked about Star Wars quite a lot on this blog. Heck, the first part of December 2019 was dedicated to reviewing all of the live-action Star Wars movies leading up to the release of The Rise of Skywalker. But, there is one pat of Star Wars we haven't discussed yet, and that is the following question: What if the mad genius behind comedy classics like Young Frankenstein, History of the World Part 1, and, of course, Blazing Saddles made a film that satirized not just, Star Wars, but all of the sci-fi greats including Star Trek and Planet of the Apes? Well, you'd get Mel Brooks' 1987 sci-fi comedy classic: Spaceballs.
The movie opens with a Star Wars style opening crawl that establishes the basic plot of the movie: the evil Spaceballs, who come from the planet Spaceball, have squandered their own atmosphere, and are now looking to steal all of the fresh air from the peaceful planet Druidia. Their plan to do so includes kidnapping Princess Vespa, and holding her for ransom to get the combination to Druidia's air shield from her father, King Roland. On board Spaceball 1, Col. Sandurz and Dark Helmet look on as Princess Vespa's astro car flies off, and after a series of warning shots, Vespa, along with her droid companion Dot Matrix, are caught in a tractor beam. Meanwhile, King Roland calls in Lone Starr, a cosmic roughneck in debt to vile gangster Pizza the Hutt, to save Vespa in exchange for one million space bucks. After jamming Spaceball 1's radar, which leads to a very hilarious scene with Michael Winslow (the man of 10,000 sound effects), Lone Starr and his buddy, Barf the Mawg (half-man and half-dog), rescue Vespa and Dot, bringing them aboard Eagle 5, which is a Winnebago with wings. Once the Spaceballs are onto them, Lone Starr and Barf enter into hyperspace, after which Spaceball 1 goes to Ludicrous Speed (okay, here's the line: "They've gone to plaid."). After overshooting their target by miles and miles, Spaceball 1 comes to a complete stop, and Helmet and Sandurz now look to find where Lone Starr and co. ended up, even down to completely obliterating the 4th wall by watching a VHS of the movie Spaceballs, even while in the middle of making the film.
Meanwhile, Lone Starr and co. crash on the desert moon of Vega, where, after passing out of exhaustion and dehydration, they are rescued by little creatures called the Dinks, who take them to the underground home of the everlasting know-it-all: Yogurt. Yogurt, who is a keeper of a powerful magic called the Schwartz, is also in the business of merchandising. Okay, this is one of the funniest moments of the movie, as we se that they literally put the film's name on everything, with stuff like Spaceballs the T-Shirt, Spaceballs the Coloring Book, Spaceballs the Lunch Box, Spaceballs the Breakfast Cereal, Spaceballs the Flame Thrower (hilariously marked as "a children's toy"), the list goes on. In fact, they continue this joke throughout the rest of the movie, with stuff like Spaceballs the Sheet. Spaceballs the Shaving Cream, and so on. After quite literally combing the desert, Dark Helmet realizes that Lone Starr, Vespa, and the others are with Yogurt, and Dark Helmet uses the power of illusion to appear and sound like King Roland, tricks Vespa outside, and takes her, along with Dot, onto his ship, where they depart for Planet Spaceball. Yogurt fills up Eagle 5 with fuel, and gives Lone Starr the Schwartz ring, which Lone Starr was training with under Yogurt's guidance, and a fortune cookie (with a reminder to open it before eating it). Lone Starr and Barf depart to rescue Vespa and Dot from the Spaceballs.
Okay, it's at this point that I'm going to mention the leader of the Spaceballs, President Skroob. Yes, Skroob. Earlier scenes with him in the movie include a scene where a teleporter makes it so his head is on backwards, and makes him see how big his ass is, and a scene where he is in bed with twins Marlene and Sharlene. At this point in the movie, Skroob is informed that Dark Helmet has arrives with Vespa. After a scene where Dark Helmet threatens to undo the nose job that Vespa had as a "Sweet 16" present, King Roland caves and gives the Spaceballs the air shield combination: 1-2-3-4-5, which Dark Helmet comments is the stupidest combination ever, and calls it something "only an idiot would have on his luggage." After ending the call to King Roland, and accidentally turning off the whole movie at the same time, President Skroob arrives and when Sandurz recites the air shield combination, Skroob comments that he has the same combination on his luggage. Skroob, Sandurz, and Dark Helmet take off on board Spaceball 1, with Helmet getting his helmet caught in the closing door. As a matter of fact, there is a running gag in this movie about his helmet, and it's still pretty funny. Meanwhile, Lone Starr and Barf recue Vespa and Dot, and the Spaceballs catch them, only to realize that it was only their stunt doubles that were caught (again, Mel Brooks and that damn 4th wall). The four escape, and head to Druidia to stop the Spaceballs from stealing the planet's air.
After seeing Spaceball 1 transform into Mega Maid, a gigantic maid with a Statue of Liberty head and vacuum cleaner, and witnessing the air getting sucked out by the vacuum, Lone Starr uses the Schwartz to reverse the process. After the famous "Do Something" scene, which has been used for joke purposes by several reviewers on YouTube, Lone Starr heads inside through the ears, and enters through a hatch to locate the self-destruct button. After a pseudo lightsaber duel with Dark Helmet, which results in the death of one of the film's camera crew (again, Mel Brooks and that damn 4th wall), Lone Starr loses the Schwartz ring, but is still able to use the Schwartz to stop Helmet and forces Helmet back towards the self-destruct button. After all of the escape pods are taken, including Dark Helmet's by the bearded lady (which results in my favorite quote of the movie: "Come back you fat bearded bitch!"), Lone Starr returns to Eagle 5 and makes his escape, all while Skroob, Sandurz, and Helmet are still inside of the head of Mega Maid as it is destroyed. En route to Druidia, a news report reveals that Pizza the Hutt got trapped in his car and ate himself to death, which means that Lone Starr no longer owes Pizza the million space bucks. Lone Starr returns Vespa to her father, and departs with Barf to a gas station/diner, where another patron has a chestburster from Alien burst out of him, only to dance and sing the song "Hello, Ma Baby!" from the Looney Tunes cartoon One Froggy Evening. Meanwhile, on a planet of intelligent apes, the head and arm of Mega Maid land on a beach, and Skroob, Helmet, and Sandurz exit out through the nose, and one of the apes, after seeing the three Spaceballs, comments "Oh shit, there goes the planet."
Back on Eagle 5, Lone Starr opens his fortune cookie, which contains a message from Yogurt, who tells him that the medallion he was wearing is a royal birth certificate, making Lone Starr a bonafide prince. After using Liquid Schwartz to make a quick turnaround, Lone Starr and Barf arrive at Druidia in time to interrupt Vespa's wedding to the ever-drowsy Prince Valium, where Lone Starr reveals that he himself is a prince, and he and Vespa are married and live happily ever after. The movie then ends with Eagle 5 taking off, leaving behind the following message: "May the Schwartz be with you."
While not financially successful at the time, Spaceballs is remembered today as a comedy classic, and a lot of that has to do with the brilliant writing and directing from Mel Brooks. This was, in fact, the first Mel Brooks film I ever watched. Years later, I've watched both Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, but it's really Spaceballs that made me a Mel Brooks fan, to the point that I picked up a Blu-ray set called "The Mel Brooks Collection," which includes Blazing Saddles, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Young Frankenstein, and Spaceballs. I also admire the cast of the film, outside of Brooks himself, who pulls double duty as both President Skroob and Yogurt. Rick Moranis, John Candy, Daphne Zuniga, Bill Pullman, George Wyner, Dick Van Patten, and so forth are all hysterical. Joan Rivers was terrific as the voice of Dot Matrix, and is still the one Joan Rivers performance I really enjoy to this day. Another great voice performance in the movie was by Dom DeLuise as Pizza the Hutt, a gangster who is said to be "Half-man, half-pizza," and is hilarious in the one scene the character appears in. I also admire how Mel Brooks, when making the movie as a spoof of Star Wars, actually took time and dedication to make sure that it was as much its own thing as much as it was a spoof of Star Wars. I mean, you can't look at the props and spaceships used in the film and not instantly think of Spaceballs. Now, I should point out that there was no merchandise made for the film, as Star Wars creator, George Lucas, gave his blessing for Mel to make the film, but with a condition that no toys be made, as George said "they would look like mine." So, instead of making merchandise to sell from the movie, Mel hilariously put all of the merchandise into the movie itself, which is hilarious. Now, we can't talk about a Mel Brooks film without addressing Mel's tendency to break the 4th wall. Every film he's done, from Blazing Saddles to Young Frankenstein to even Spaceballs, Mel frequently breaks, scratch that, decimates the 4th wall. Sorry X-Men fans, but Deadpool has nothing on Mel Brooks when it comes to breaking the 4th wall. Now, while my favorite Mel Brooks 4th wall break is from Blazing Saddles, and we'll look at that film another time, the 4th wall breaks in Spaceballs are really funny, with my favorite being with Sandurz and Helmet watching the movie Spaceballs on VHS while in the middle of making the movie.
All in all, Spaceballs is a sci-fi comedy classic. Every time I watch it, I find myself busting my guts out laughing my ass off. I recently watched a behind-the-scenes documentary, where Mel said that kids everywhere love the film, and even though the satirical aspects go over their heads, the kids love it because of the story and characters, and I feel that that's why I found it to be fun the first time I watched it. As a teen, I found the story and characters to be hysterical, and now as an adult, I find the meta-humor and satirical elements to be funny as hell. I'm going to go ahead and give Spaceballs a rating of 5/5. This is Chuck signing off. See you guys next time.
The movie opens with a Star Wars style opening crawl that establishes the basic plot of the movie: the evil Spaceballs, who come from the planet Spaceball, have squandered their own atmosphere, and are now looking to steal all of the fresh air from the peaceful planet Druidia. Their plan to do so includes kidnapping Princess Vespa, and holding her for ransom to get the combination to Druidia's air shield from her father, King Roland. On board Spaceball 1, Col. Sandurz and Dark Helmet look on as Princess Vespa's astro car flies off, and after a series of warning shots, Vespa, along with her droid companion Dot Matrix, are caught in a tractor beam. Meanwhile, King Roland calls in Lone Starr, a cosmic roughneck in debt to vile gangster Pizza the Hutt, to save Vespa in exchange for one million space bucks. After jamming Spaceball 1's radar, which leads to a very hilarious scene with Michael Winslow (the man of 10,000 sound effects), Lone Starr and his buddy, Barf the Mawg (half-man and half-dog), rescue Vespa and Dot, bringing them aboard Eagle 5, which is a Winnebago with wings. Once the Spaceballs are onto them, Lone Starr and Barf enter into hyperspace, after which Spaceball 1 goes to Ludicrous Speed (okay, here's the line: "They've gone to plaid."). After overshooting their target by miles and miles, Spaceball 1 comes to a complete stop, and Helmet and Sandurz now look to find where Lone Starr and co. ended up, even down to completely obliterating the 4th wall by watching a VHS of the movie Spaceballs, even while in the middle of making the film.
Meanwhile, Lone Starr and co. crash on the desert moon of Vega, where, after passing out of exhaustion and dehydration, they are rescued by little creatures called the Dinks, who take them to the underground home of the everlasting know-it-all: Yogurt. Yogurt, who is a keeper of a powerful magic called the Schwartz, is also in the business of merchandising. Okay, this is one of the funniest moments of the movie, as we se that they literally put the film's name on everything, with stuff like Spaceballs the T-Shirt, Spaceballs the Coloring Book, Spaceballs the Lunch Box, Spaceballs the Breakfast Cereal, Spaceballs the Flame Thrower (hilariously marked as "a children's toy"), the list goes on. In fact, they continue this joke throughout the rest of the movie, with stuff like Spaceballs the Sheet. Spaceballs the Shaving Cream, and so on. After quite literally combing the desert, Dark Helmet realizes that Lone Starr, Vespa, and the others are with Yogurt, and Dark Helmet uses the power of illusion to appear and sound like King Roland, tricks Vespa outside, and takes her, along with Dot, onto his ship, where they depart for Planet Spaceball. Yogurt fills up Eagle 5 with fuel, and gives Lone Starr the Schwartz ring, which Lone Starr was training with under Yogurt's guidance, and a fortune cookie (with a reminder to open it before eating it). Lone Starr and Barf depart to rescue Vespa and Dot from the Spaceballs.
Okay, it's at this point that I'm going to mention the leader of the Spaceballs, President Skroob. Yes, Skroob. Earlier scenes with him in the movie include a scene where a teleporter makes it so his head is on backwards, and makes him see how big his ass is, and a scene where he is in bed with twins Marlene and Sharlene. At this point in the movie, Skroob is informed that Dark Helmet has arrives with Vespa. After a scene where Dark Helmet threatens to undo the nose job that Vespa had as a "Sweet 16" present, King Roland caves and gives the Spaceballs the air shield combination: 1-2-3-4-5, which Dark Helmet comments is the stupidest combination ever, and calls it something "only an idiot would have on his luggage." After ending the call to King Roland, and accidentally turning off the whole movie at the same time, President Skroob arrives and when Sandurz recites the air shield combination, Skroob comments that he has the same combination on his luggage. Skroob, Sandurz, and Dark Helmet take off on board Spaceball 1, with Helmet getting his helmet caught in the closing door. As a matter of fact, there is a running gag in this movie about his helmet, and it's still pretty funny. Meanwhile, Lone Starr and Barf recue Vespa and Dot, and the Spaceballs catch them, only to realize that it was only their stunt doubles that were caught (again, Mel Brooks and that damn 4th wall). The four escape, and head to Druidia to stop the Spaceballs from stealing the planet's air.
After seeing Spaceball 1 transform into Mega Maid, a gigantic maid with a Statue of Liberty head and vacuum cleaner, and witnessing the air getting sucked out by the vacuum, Lone Starr uses the Schwartz to reverse the process. After the famous "Do Something" scene, which has been used for joke purposes by several reviewers on YouTube, Lone Starr heads inside through the ears, and enters through a hatch to locate the self-destruct button. After a pseudo lightsaber duel with Dark Helmet, which results in the death of one of the film's camera crew (again, Mel Brooks and that damn 4th wall), Lone Starr loses the Schwartz ring, but is still able to use the Schwartz to stop Helmet and forces Helmet back towards the self-destruct button. After all of the escape pods are taken, including Dark Helmet's by the bearded lady (which results in my favorite quote of the movie: "Come back you fat bearded bitch!"), Lone Starr returns to Eagle 5 and makes his escape, all while Skroob, Sandurz, and Helmet are still inside of the head of Mega Maid as it is destroyed. En route to Druidia, a news report reveals that Pizza the Hutt got trapped in his car and ate himself to death, which means that Lone Starr no longer owes Pizza the million space bucks. Lone Starr returns Vespa to her father, and departs with Barf to a gas station/diner, where another patron has a chestburster from Alien burst out of him, only to dance and sing the song "Hello, Ma Baby!" from the Looney Tunes cartoon One Froggy Evening. Meanwhile, on a planet of intelligent apes, the head and arm of Mega Maid land on a beach, and Skroob, Helmet, and Sandurz exit out through the nose, and one of the apes, after seeing the three Spaceballs, comments "Oh shit, there goes the planet."
Back on Eagle 5, Lone Starr opens his fortune cookie, which contains a message from Yogurt, who tells him that the medallion he was wearing is a royal birth certificate, making Lone Starr a bonafide prince. After using Liquid Schwartz to make a quick turnaround, Lone Starr and Barf arrive at Druidia in time to interrupt Vespa's wedding to the ever-drowsy Prince Valium, where Lone Starr reveals that he himself is a prince, and he and Vespa are married and live happily ever after. The movie then ends with Eagle 5 taking off, leaving behind the following message: "May the Schwartz be with you."
While not financially successful at the time, Spaceballs is remembered today as a comedy classic, and a lot of that has to do with the brilliant writing and directing from Mel Brooks. This was, in fact, the first Mel Brooks film I ever watched. Years later, I've watched both Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, but it's really Spaceballs that made me a Mel Brooks fan, to the point that I picked up a Blu-ray set called "The Mel Brooks Collection," which includes Blazing Saddles, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Young Frankenstein, and Spaceballs. I also admire the cast of the film, outside of Brooks himself, who pulls double duty as both President Skroob and Yogurt. Rick Moranis, John Candy, Daphne Zuniga, Bill Pullman, George Wyner, Dick Van Patten, and so forth are all hysterical. Joan Rivers was terrific as the voice of Dot Matrix, and is still the one Joan Rivers performance I really enjoy to this day. Another great voice performance in the movie was by Dom DeLuise as Pizza the Hutt, a gangster who is said to be "Half-man, half-pizza," and is hilarious in the one scene the character appears in. I also admire how Mel Brooks, when making the movie as a spoof of Star Wars, actually took time and dedication to make sure that it was as much its own thing as much as it was a spoof of Star Wars. I mean, you can't look at the props and spaceships used in the film and not instantly think of Spaceballs. Now, I should point out that there was no merchandise made for the film, as Star Wars creator, George Lucas, gave his blessing for Mel to make the film, but with a condition that no toys be made, as George said "they would look like mine." So, instead of making merchandise to sell from the movie, Mel hilariously put all of the merchandise into the movie itself, which is hilarious. Now, we can't talk about a Mel Brooks film without addressing Mel's tendency to break the 4th wall. Every film he's done, from Blazing Saddles to Young Frankenstein to even Spaceballs, Mel frequently breaks, scratch that, decimates the 4th wall. Sorry X-Men fans, but Deadpool has nothing on Mel Brooks when it comes to breaking the 4th wall. Now, while my favorite Mel Brooks 4th wall break is from Blazing Saddles, and we'll look at that film another time, the 4th wall breaks in Spaceballs are really funny, with my favorite being with Sandurz and Helmet watching the movie Spaceballs on VHS while in the middle of making the movie.
All in all, Spaceballs is a sci-fi comedy classic. Every time I watch it, I find myself busting my guts out laughing my ass off. I recently watched a behind-the-scenes documentary, where Mel said that kids everywhere love the film, and even though the satirical aspects go over their heads, the kids love it because of the story and characters, and I feel that that's why I found it to be fun the first time I watched it. As a teen, I found the story and characters to be hysterical, and now as an adult, I find the meta-humor and satirical elements to be funny as hell. I'm going to go ahead and give Spaceballs a rating of 5/5. This is Chuck signing off. See you guys next time.
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