Classic Movie Review: Spaceballs (1987)

Mel Brooks is undeniably the king of parody and his science fiction spoof is definitely his best. In it, he makes fun of everything from Stars Wars and Alien to Planet of the Apes and The Wizard of Oz. This was the first comedy I remember seeing and after all these years, the fourth wall breaking and excellent comedic performances still make me laugh.

Planet Spaceball is facing a crisis from the lack of available oxygen and President Skroob (Mel Brooks) has sent the evil Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) to kidnap Druish Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga). His plan is to hold her hostage and get the ransom of Druidia's clean air supply. King Roland (Dick Van Patten) enlists the rogue Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) to rescue her and save the day. It's actually a very simple plot that even Dark Helmet thinks doesn't really need further explanation.

The lead for me with this movie is more the fact that it breaks the fourth wall so regularly rather than the actual parody element of it. There are constant references to the fact that they know they are in a movie, such as when the bad guys get the videotape of Spaceballs to find out where Lone Starr is or the accidental maiming of a crew member during the final "lightsaber" battle (they use rings). That's not to say that the references aren't funny at all, but in true Mel Brooks style, there's a lot of them. Being a Star Wars parody, the majority of the story revolves around desert planets and huge spaceships and even the Schwartz, it even has specific shots straight out of Star Wars (I mean A New Hope but I'm not going to call it that), but the movie also references so many others and not just sci-fi stuff. Brooks' own Jewish heritage is made fun of more here than in any of his other movies, and while they may have been funny 29 years ago, today only about half of them hit.

The movie's cast is undoubtedly made up of some of the funniest performers of the time. John Candy, Joan Rivers and Mel Brooks are all just fantastic comedy actors and they are just a joy to watch. Especially Brooks as he has the dual role of Skroob and Yogurt (no prizes for guessing who that's a parody of). Long before Bill Pullman was giving famous speeches on the Fourth of July, he was hilarious as a idiotic Han Solo and he really has great comedic chemistry with the legend that was John Candy, but then again Candy worked well with everyone. There are also three cameos that are unforgettable. Dom DeLuise was a veteran of TV and film and was well known for working with Burt Reynolds in many of his movies, but here he lends his voice to the terrific character of Pizza the Hutt. King of sound effects Michael Winslow returns with his magic voice and John Hurt reprises his role from Alien only to be killed all over again.

Spaceballs won't be winning any competitions for it's greatness, but it is a hilarious movie. It's script even led George Lucas to lend a hand with some of the special effects. Don't let his involvement turn you off though, this was before he'd made any bad decisions with his career. Aside from that, it's a great movie to go back and revisit like I did or look at for the first time if you are a fan of sci-fi because there's just so much to look out for.

John Hughes Movie: Home Alone (1990)

I don't understand why this kid's family all hate him so much. Even his own mother. No wonder he's so happy that he gets left behind when his family goes overseas for Christmas.

Eight-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) and his family are set to travel for the holidays, but the night before they go, power in the neighbourhood goes down and they oversleep. In the rush to get ready in the morning, they leave behind Kevin, who quickly adapts to life without them. Operating in the same area are thieves the "wet bandits", Marv (Daniel Stern) and Harry (Joe Pesci). The have targeted the McCallister household after casing the house at the beginning of the movie. Kevin finds this out and sets up a series of deadly Rube Goldberg like traps around the house.

This is probably the weakest of the John Hughes movies I've watched this month. This is mainly due to to the fact that it has aged the most. The timeless feeling that is felt when watching all the other movies on this list. It has the exact feeling of it's early 90s setting.

This was Macaulay Culkin's first big movie role. I feel as though child actors from this time weren't given too much direction. Culkin just runs around either screaming or giggling. Catherine O'Hara, who is a funny actor at the best of times isn't give enough screen time to get some good laughs.

The weight of the acting really falls back to Joe Pesci who isn't really working at to the best of his ability. In fact he is quite restrained here. He is known most for his foul mouth and had to be reminded at many times by director Chris Columbus that this is a family movie.

Verdict: A decent family movie that is worth watching. I think it is probably where my fear of spiders comes from, not to mention that it is pretty much the same movie as Die Hard.

John Hughes Month: Vacation (1983)

After Animal House was released in 1978 (and I promise to review that one of these days because it is hands down the funniest movie ever), there were a bunch of raunchy comedies that came out in the early-1980s. These comedies were influenced a lot by the (just new) sketch show Saturday Night Live. These films included Caddyshack (1980), Stripes (1981) and Porky's (1982) and starred actors like Bill Murray, John Candy and Chevy Chase.

Vacation (or to use it's full title National Lampoon's Vacation) is written by Hughes and based on a story he wrote about his own family's ill-fated road trip to Disneyland. Chevy Chase plays his most memorable role ever; family man Clark Griswold (changed to Griswald in the sequels) who just wants to please his family. This time around he has planned to take them all to Walley World in California.

Hilarious gags and mishaps dog them all the way, including tying a dog to the bumper on the highway, the death of Aunt Edna (Imogene Coca) and getting stuck in downtown St Louis, as well as many, many more, like that creepy incest joke.

In addition to Chevy Chase's wide eyed Clark, Beverly D'Angelo plays his long suffering wife Ellen and his two kids Rusty and Audrey are played by Anthony Michael Hall and Dana Barron. The two other hilarious performances come from Randy Quaid's idiot character Cousin Eddie, who is the biggest redneck ever, and John Candy's ultra-officious Walley World security guard. There are also two great cameos from model Christie Brinkley and future funny man Eugene Levy.

Verdict: Not a traditional John Hughes movie as such, but the more adult oriented vision is fantastic, especially with Harold Ramis' superb direction.