Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Spaceballs: A Classic Review

I think it's no surprise that we love spoofs. Cuz we're goofs. I'm the rhyme-masta, yo. Anyways, in all seriousness (not really) we love movies that make us feel good, that make us laugh, and basically poke fun at the world.

So naturally, Mel Brooks is our hero. (Call us, Mel, we have so many ideas!) We've posted tons of delectible tidbits from his films, and of course some from Spaceballs (1987), like this, and this! But it's now time to go in depth about the comedic treasure that is this film.

The year is 1992... home video has become quite popular. Daddy Cin-Ob comes home one Friday night with a rented video for the entire family. He looks down at curly-headed 6-year-old Angie and big sis 9-year-old Chanty and says, "Hey Liki... hey Gonzale... I have a movie I think you'll like." (nicknames to be explained at a later date)

So he pops the vhs into the TOP-LOADING VCR, the MGM lion roars and the crawl begins...

... aaaand we're hooked. We're enthralled. We're fascinated. Now let's keep in mind, 6 and 9-year-old Angie and Chanty have never seen Star Wars. Nothin'. No clue. As we watched the movie with our childlike awe, we saw only a completely independent, science fiction film. We understood no gags, no references to the original, no connections, no similarities.

Yes, may the Schwartz be with you. That's right. We giggled and loved it, but didn't understand it any deeper than Mel Brooks wearing gold paint as Yogurt the wiseman.

The villain, Pizza the Hut. Sure, absolutely. He's a big pizza who ate himself to death. Hilarious!... What? Who's Jabba? Never heard of him.

Dark Helmet (played by Rick Moranis who we had already seen and adored from Honey I Shrunk The Kids (1989). Little guy, big helmet... that's all we needed to know. It's funny.


The sidekick, Barf the Mog (half man, half dog - his own best friend) appealed to our child-love of stuffed animals. Plus... HELLO, it's John Candy! Or to the child-versions of us, Uncle Buck! (Yeah, we were already making those connections in our growing Cin-Ob brains).


Ooooh and Bill Pullman as Lonestar... the hunkiest of all hunky sci-fi hunks. Leather jacket, thick blonde hair, his reckless sense of adventure, expert winnebago piloting skills... oooh shivers... We liked him more than a friend, and oh how we wished we could be Druish Princesses... even though we had no clue what the joke was there...


Ok so this hasn't turned out to be a review at all... but more of a rambling about a movie we loved. Whatever... SUCK IT conventional movie reviews!

So here we have an extremely ferocious fight... a moment in the movie that created great anxiety for us as kids. Also, we never caught on to the peepee innuendo. Oh to be young and naive again...

And here we have a moment of Mel Brooks glory... a taste of his unique sense of humour that STILL makes us chuckle.

So if you've experienced Star Wars, and not Spaceballs, let me tell you something... you've got it all backwards, my friend. Go watch this spoof of all spoofs and get back to us with some feedback.

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