Film Review - Spaceballs (1987)

Spaceballs is from the comedy icon Mel Brooks and this time he turns his attention to the Star Wars Trilogy with the Planet Spaceball and its inhabitants wanting the fresh air of the nearby planet Druidia, to do this they send their most fearsome agent Dark Helmet played by Rick Moranis, meanwhile on Druidia King Roland played by Dick van Patten wants to marry off his daughter Princess Vespa played by Daphne Zuniga. but she runs away and flees the planet, which gives Helmet an idea to kidnap her to get the air from her planet, but to succeed he'll have to deal with Lone Star played by Bill Pullman and his companion Barf played by John Candy.

Now, I remember first seeing this movie a few years back and loving it to death, the parody of Star Wars to me felt spot on and I laughed my head off for the most part, but recently I felt compelled to revisit it after having not seen it since then, has it held up?

Sadly no, mainly for two reasons, the first being that I just didn't laugh all that much, don't get me wrong I smiled and chuckled a little bit at some of the gags and riffs on characters from the Star Wars movies but the first time I really laughed was at the 40 minute mark which can be death in a comedy and even then there were only a few laughs after that.

Which leads me onto my next reason: It's Boring, yes folks I was bored throughout large chunks of this film and as if that wasn't enough, it's a slow comedy, why wasn't was some zing added to this movie, a sense of pace and movement, I mean a year after this movie came out the Naked Gun hit cinemas and that is an example of a great comedy that moves along, piles jokes onto each other and does its riffs very well, this in comparison just plods along to its tedious end.

But I do have to sound out the main positive and that is some of the cast, Moranis, Pullman and Zuniga give it their all and try to do their best but in the end like many actors before and since they just become lost in the material which doesn't do them justice and in the case of Moranis well quite frankly he is wasted in this film and that is a real shame as he is a talented actor.

So in closing, the Force just isn't with this comedy and yet Brooks would later make Robin Hood: Men in Tights which was funny, but as I said this isn't and its tedious and slow, I can't recommend this film, 1.5 out of 5.