150 Word Reviews: 'Spaceballs' (1987)
I see your Schwartz is as big as mine
This isn't Blazing Saddles, writer-director Mel Brook's 1974 joyfully anarchic skewering of American racial politics. But Spaceballs is still hilarious, sillier than Blazing Saddles or his other classic, Young Frankenstein, and both are very silly.
Spaceballs is a MAD Magazine-style lampooning of Star Wars, years before the prequels, sequels, and streaming shows. Brooks spends his big budget on spaceships and an elaborate Planet of the Apes gag, but the best jokes mock Lucas' convoluted fairy tale as a cynical excuse to sell toys. This is one of Brooks's more family-friendly offerings, but there are multiple genital jokes.
John Candy is a loveable man-dog, and Bill Pullman is a knock-off Han Solo. Jabba the Hutt is Pizza the Hutt. Rick Moranis is in peak form as nerdy Dark Helmet. The meta-comedy still works: Dark Helmet finds runaway Princess Vespa, a fussy Daphne Zuniga, by fast-forwarding through a VHS copy of Spaceballs.
there was a time when I could virtually recite this film.