SPACEBALLS

US, 1987, 96 minutes, Colour.
Mel Brooks, Rick Moranis, Bill Pullman, Daphne Zuniga, John Candy, John Hurt, Joan Rivers.
Directed by Mel Brooks.

Spaceballs is Mel Brooks at it again. After successfully satirising Broadway success and failure in The Producers, he went on in the '70s to satirise film genres; westerns in Blazing Saddles, horror in Young Frankenstein, Hitchcock in High Anxiety. After the success of his remake of To Be Or Not To Be, he returned to spoofing space adventures, especially the plot outline of Star Wars as well as some aspects of Star Trek. There are amusing jokes sending up aspects of Planet of the Apes and John Hurt reappears in a guest role, and once more an alien bursts out of him as he says wearily, 'Not again'.

Brooks co-wrote the film, appears as the President as well as a send-up of Yoda, Plain Yoghurt. Rick Moranis (Little Shop of Horrors) is Dark Helmet, a send-up of Darth Vader (whose assistant is Colonel Sandurz). There is a princess who gets more upset when her hair is shot at; there is a robot whose voice is supplied by Joan Rivers. There is also a monstrous send-up of Jabba the Hutt as Pizza the Hut (with voice supplied by Dom Deluise). John Candy appears in a send-up of the strange animals on the Star Wars planets.

The humour, as always, is hit and miss. There is also a crass tone often to Brooks's humour. However, there are some very funny sequences, some humorous lines as well as the parody. Brooks has shots at many contemporary films of the '80s and also has a lot of sending up of the marketing of films with all kinds of toys, domestic appliances and even videos. The even watch the video of Spaceballs the Movie in the middle of the movie!

1. An enjoyable spoof? Its impact? Ten years after Star Wars?

2. The comedy of Mel Brooks, his writing, spoofing, his own acting and parodies? Subtle, unsubtle? Broad and crass? Witty?

3. The use of the material from Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, The Planet of the Apes?

4. Visual humour, verbal humour, skits, parody, spoof? The humour of sending up the marketing of films e.g. Spaceballs - the Sheets!

5. The situation in the galaxies (and the usual Star Wars opening)? The need for air, Dark Helmet and Colonel Sandurz, the President, the King and the Princess, Lone Star and Barf, the kidnap, the battles, the desert, the siphoning of the air (and the huge galactic vacuum cleaner and the Statue of Liberty)? The happy resolution?

6. The President and his self-centredness, his phone, the images, sex, advice, plans, the end and his escape, the bear, the Statue of Liberty and the Planet of the Apes?

7. Dark Helmet and Rick Moranis, parody? the Star Wars parallels, pettiness, the video, the Star Trek journeyings, moving through space, the capture of the Princess, the chases, the torture, the battle with
Lone Star, the Statue of Liberty and the suction, the end? The sparring between himself and Colonel Sandurz? The various soldiers on the battleship?

8. Lone Star and Han Solo? Travelling with Barf? The galactic mercenary? Encounter with the Princess, the rescue, the fights, the desert, the visit to yoghurt, the Schwarz and his exercising of it, the escapes, the sword, the battle with Dark Helmet? Barf and his mixture of human and animal, assistant? John Candy comedy?

9. The King and his fairytale kingdom, Prince Valium - and the parody of Prince Valiant? The lively Princess? Her escape, the wedding ceremony, the minister? The robot and the escape with the Princess? Flying through space, Lone Star, the adventures, the visit to yoghurt, the torture, the fighting and the Princess's hair, the threat to her nose? The final wedding and the happy ending?

10. The parody of the bar with the odd range of characters? John Hurt and the repetition of Alien?

11. The ending and the Planet of the Apes?

12. Parody, clever and corny, the contemporary movies and illusions, crude and functional, verbal humour? A Mel Brooks film?