Credit: www.impawards.com
Director:
Mel Brooks
Cast:
Mel Brooks……….President Skroob/Yogurt
Rick Moranis……….Dark Helmet
Bill Pullman……….Lone Starr
Daphne Zuniga……….Princess Vespa
John Candy……….Barfolemew ‘Barf’
George Wyner……….Colonel Sandurz
Joan Rivers……….Dot Matrix (voice)
Dick Van Patten……….King Roland
Michael Winslow……….Radar Technician
Lorene Yarnell……….Dot Matrix
John Hurt……….Kane
Sal Viscuso……….Radio Operator
Ronny Graham……….Minister
JM J. Bullock……….Prince Valium
Leslie Bevis……….Commanderette Zircon
The Movie
For every great science fiction movie that has been made, there are certain parts and sequences that can easily be turned comic if given the right motivation. From Alien to the holy trinity of science fiction (Star Wars), if it can be thought of it can be spoofed.
Mel Brooks took this principle to a whole other level with 1987’s Spaceballs. Spoofing science fiction movies in general and Star Wars in particular, Brooks legacy for comedy at this point included the immortal Blazing Saddles, cult classic Young Frankenstein, high school history teacher favorite History of the World Part I and the swashbuckling spoof Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
The satire is inherent from the beginning. The hero, Lone Starr (Bill Pullman), is a combination of Buck Rogers, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. John Candy is his whacky sidekick Barf. Throw in Rick Moranis as Dark Helmet, a Darth Vader knockoff complete with an over-sized head, Daphne Zuniga as a wise-cracking princess in the vein of Princess Leia, Joan Rivers as the voice of the female spoof of C3PO in Dot Matrix and Brooks himself voicing a Yoda knockoff in Yogurt (who uses the Schwartz) as well as the main villain in President Skroob and you have all of the necessary characters needed to satire George Lucas’ masterpiece trilogy.
Planet Spaceball is running out of air and the combination of Dark Helmet and Skroob take their spaceship to Planet Druidia to steal theirs. Their plan of kidnapping Princess Vespa (Zuniga), who is herself on the run from a wedding to a man she doesn’t want to marry (Jim J. Bullock as Prince Valium). King Roland (Dick Van Patten) dispatches Lone Star to go find his daughter and bring her back for an outrageous sum of money; he’s in debt to Pizza the Hut (gee, wonder whose being spoofed on that one) and needs the money to ostensibly pay him back. This all leads into a plot spoof of all three Star Wars movies as Brooks mixes and matches various plot elements together from George Lucas’ trilogy as well as inserting spoofs from other staples of the science fiction genre, Star Trek, Alien and Buck Rogers amongst the most noticeable, into a satire that runs out of steam after the second act.
The movie is rip-roaring funny for the first hour, as Brooks uses almost all of his best gags early on, and the movie slowly loses steam after the first hour or so. His nods to certain moments in Star Wars are obscenely funny in the beginning but in his quest to continue the spoof Brooks runs out of material relatively quickly. The humor at the end of the movie isn’t funny at all, actually, and the relatively easy to predict grand finale of humor falls flat.
But the first hour, though, is just ruthless in both comedic effect and in satire. Brooks gives his cast lots of material to work with and lets them work some real comedy magic. Brooks does have a knack for comedy and it’s on display for large portions of the movie. From a spaceship turning into a gigantic maid to the final showdown between Helmet and Lone Starr, there are a lot of comedic gold scattered throughout the movie. The best scenes occur whenever Rick Moranis is on screen.
Moranis is the true star of this movie; his Dark Helmet is just ridiculously funny every time he is one the screen. In many ways it is the best part of the overall satire of Star Wars, as Lucas’ ultimate evil henchman is perfectly spoofed as a wimpy neurotic coffee-spilling nightmare. Both are compelling characters; Vader is the ultimate sense of evil and darkness, owning the screen by just the sheer power of his look. Helmet owns the screen by taking this image of the baddest man in the universe and turning him into the ultimate parody of it. Vader is in control, Helmet can’t even control how fast he drinks coffee.
Nearly 20 years after unleashing Spaceballs upon the world, Mel Brooks’ comedy still holds up all these years later as a funny movie that hits the cusp of greatness and doesn’t quite achieve the sort of epic scope that the movie it spoofed achieved.
Score : 7.5 / 10
The Video
With a new release of an older film, the studio generally tends to clean up the picture to make it the absolute best it can be. Spaceballs: Collector’s Edition is no exception to that rule as the picture is cleaned up quite impressively. The picture is much cleaner from both the prior edition on DVD and the VHS edition with a much cleaner and more vivid picture than before. The colors are much more diverse and separated than before. It’s much better than before but at the same time it is much like the movie: really good but not great.
Score : 8.5/10
The Audio
They upped the ante with the audio, giving it Dolby 5.1 to start with (an upgrade from the previous release with 2.0). The audio is crisp and clear, giving a good sound. The audio gives a steady, but not overwhelmingly spectacular, sound. Everything is clearer than before and is much better than before, but it never hits that cusp of superb Dolby 5.1 can provide.
Score : 7/10
The Extras
Since this is a two disc edition, the extras are all over the place. On the first disc (besides the restored version of the movie) is:
Audio commentary with Mel Brooks
Brooks sits down for the 96 minutes of movie and provides his insights into the project. Brooks has some pretty interesting thoughts about the movie and the cast interspersed with some hit or miss attempts at humor. Its’ nothing that generally isn’t in every other commentary track (everyone was wonderful, the movie is great, etc) but there are certain historical facts that only he can provide that make it an interesting listen.
Watch the Film in Ludicrous Speed
If you really want to watch the entire film in less than 10 seconds than this feature is for you. It’s a spoof of a part of the movie and is worth watching, if only to see almost 100 minutes of film fast-forwarded faster than the director’s cut of Alone in the Dark.
The real treat, however, is the second disc just loaded with extras. it includes:
Spaceballs: The Documentary
This is basically a mission statement from Mel Brooks on why he made this movie. All of the principles are here (except John Candy, who has been deceased for quite some time), nearly 20 years after the picture was released, to reflect upon the movie. “You only spoof the things you love.” he is famous for saying and this documentary is basically his explanation for why he did the things he did in the movie and in others. But it also shows his passion from his craft and reveals his passion for movie-making, creating top-notch special effects and revealing the reasons for his casting the people he did. Brooks and the principles talk about how they were found for their parts as well as how Brooks talked them into taking their parts. And its’ not just the actors that get involved as the main crew personnel are also involved throughout this.
John Candy: Comic Spirit featurette
This is a loving tribute to John Candy and the legacy of comedic brilliance he left behind upon his death. It’s quick glance at his career, from his early days on SCTV to his Hollywood career, spliced in with anecdotes from the principles of Spaceballs about working with Candy. You can tell the true affection for the man from his colleagues, as they speak about him in glowing terms that you can’t fake. It isn’t nearly long enough to give more than a cursory look at his career but it is a warm tribute that touches upon the high points and most noted roles.
In Conversation: Mel Brooks & Thomas Meehan featurette
This is a conversation between Meehan and Brooks about the movie itself. It’s full of information and anecdotes surrounding the very beginnings of the movie (like trying to think of a name) to trying to figure out just how to exactly spoof science fiction. It doesn’t shed any more light on the subject than has previously been said in the rest of the documentaries and in the commentary, to be honest, but its’ more of an oral history about the making of this particular movie from the perspective of two friends reflecting upon a collaberation. The friendship really shows through as they have a genuine and warm chemistry with one another. It is pretty funny as well to hear some of the back story about the movie from the two men largely responsible for its’ creation.
Storyboards to film featurette
This is a quick comparison of the actual storyboard for the desert scene, amongst others, compared to the actual film. The art itself is hilarious as it is really poorly drawn, I admit, but it is interesting to see how the movie was conceptualized and then how it turned out. It also shows just how impressive of a job the special effects crew did with the movie as the finished product looks just fantastic compared to how poorly its drawn out.
Spacequotes
All of the best one-liners throughout the movie are collected in one area so that you don’t have to wait for them in the movie. It’s set up like a roulette wheel so you can go through each character and find their best one-liner from the movie. But the problem is that each character is only given one line when there are a lot of really funny lines from all of them and the best ones aren’t chosen.
Behind-the-scenes photographs, Spaceballs: The Costume Gallery, Spaceballs: The Art Gallery
These are three collections of still shots involving the movie. The first is a collection of photographs from the film, roughly 40 in all, of personal style photographs taken during the principle photography. Up next are sketches of all the costumes and alternate looks for the main characters, and we finish with a small collection of conceptual art for the movie.
Theatrical trailers
Score : 9/10
