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Spaceballs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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n a galaxy very, very, very, very far away, the Spaceballs close in on Planet Druidia, whose king, Roland (Dick van Patten), they plan to blackmail for the code to their air shield. Simultaneously, on the planet's surface, the king attempts to reassure his daughter, Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga), that her arranged marriage to Prince Valium (JM J. Bullock) will end happily ever after. Fleeing the altar with her handmaiden, Dot Matrix (Joan Rivers), in tow, Vespa takes off for the safety of space but inadvertently places herself right in the path of the scheming Spaceballs.
Meanwhile, rough-and-tumble rogue Lone Star (Bill Pullman) and his best pal, Barf (Candy), lackadaisically traverse the galaxy in their tricked-out Winnebago, looking for adventure and whatever comes their way, which hopefully does not include the corpulent Pizza the Hutt. King Roland offers them a reward for rescuing Vespa and Dot, and they move in just in time to help the pair out of their futuristic Mercedes and into Lone Star's dingy Winnebago. Though they're relieved to be saved, Vespa's privileged upbringing immediately clashes with Lone Star's low-rent lifestyle, and they are soon locked in some opposites-attract-style chemistry.
Spaceballs leader Dark Helmet (Moranis) is righteously angered by Lone Star's impudence and follows his ship halfway across the galaxy (traveling at ludicrous speed, no less) to reclaim the princess and destroy his nemesis once and for all. But before Helmet can have his revenge, Lone Star meets Yogurt (Brooks), a diminutive alien who offers to teach him the ways of the Schwartz, a mystical power that is hundreds of years old. When Helmet uses his own powers to lure the princess into his clutches, Lone Star, Barf and Dot embark on a last-ditch effort to rescue her, unleashing Lone Star's potential as wielder of the Schwartz and hopefully ridding the galaxy of Spaceballs forever.
Funny in an '80s kind of way
Following in the estimable tradition of his previous parodies, Mel Brooks' send-up of Star Wars resonates almost as deeply today as it did in 1987 upon its initial release, not the least of which because George Lucas continues to tinker with his own unironic space saga. Brooks, working with writers Thomas Meehan and Ronny Graham, assembles a surprisingly effective compendium of sight gags and in-jokes to properly lampoon '70s and '80s science fiction, and throws in much of his trademark Jewish humor as well for good measure.
The recently released collector's-edition DVD provides much more background information about the production than any Spaceballs fan could possibly ask for, including commentary tracks, featurettes, deleted scenes and even an exhibitor trailer introduced by Brooks himself ("Where's the balls?" he asks angrily when the word "SPACE" looms large on screen). All of the extras are interesting, but perhaps less necessary than, say, the bonus features on Blazing Saddles, which had more significant cultural and ethnic underpinnings than this literal flight of fancy. That said, however, Spaceballs: The Documentary provides an insightful look at the production of the film and recruits almost all of the film's major players (except for the late John Candy and the mysteriously absent Rick Moranis) to wax poetic about their experiences.
Spaceballs is a movie I loved as a kid, as much for its genuine SF elements as its efforts to make fun of its predecessors, and it holds up about two-thirds as well as I would have expected. This DVD adds a lot of extras that previous versions of the home video release didn't—including deleted scenes, gaffes and some interesting promotional materials—but unless you're a die-hard fan of the film, there's probably not much need to run out and replace your older copy. Nevertheless, I appreciated the attention to detail, including stealing the template for the Star Wars DVD menus.
My only question is—why Brooks didn't see fit to revisit the film and add a bunch of CGI nonsense, just as Lucas did with his source material? —Todd
Also in this issue: Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist and The Life & Times of Juniper Lee
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