You wanted to know. Now you do. It's the only movie I ever walked out on. I hate it. It's stupid and not even fun stupid. Not one single laugh was generated by the easiest of easy source material to mock. Damn Mel, what happened to you? Don't get me started on the stupid Robin Hood movie he made around the same time.
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12 comments:
For me it's "Starship Troopers" or "Battlefield Earth" I am not qualified to comment on comedy since I always see it in inappropriate places.
Battlefield Earth is racid. But Space Balls should be full of comedy...not wincing.
"Spaceballs" is an odd duck to say the least. Rotten Tomatoes has it in at a wishy-washy 50% and it clearly was the first steps towards Mel Brooks decline throughout the following decade.
When I first heard you hated this movie, I watched some clips on YouTube to help reacquainted myself with it. I got a couple chuckles out of some of the cheesy puns or giggled at a line that was just so stupid that you just can't help it. I doubt I'd get much out of sitting through the whole thing, since its offering are peanuts at best.
If I need a sci-fi comedy itch scratched, I'll probably just put on my copy of "Galaxy Quest" instead.
Or if you want a better "Star Wars" centric comedy, trying watching any of the Star Wars Rifftrax:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il9bGkYHeQk
or the Emerald City Comic Con Star Wars Radio Play:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBzRmWeC6Ds
I don't care all that much for it, although I've seen it several times (what can I say -- my kids loved it -- I guess that gives you an idea of what age level the humor was geared towards). It's not as bad as Brooks' later films: Men in Tights and his all time worst, Life Stinks (Life Stinks and so does this movie!).
Spaceballs is a mediocre Mel Brooks movie, but the inclusion of John Candy (one of the most overrated comedians in the movies) takes it down into dismal territory.
I do have to wonder what executive approved a title like "Life Stinks". While I'm sure Mel Brooks still carried some credibility at the time, reading the synopsis on Wikipedia, I can't help but think "who thought this was a good idea?"
He also did a terrific version of TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT with his wife Anne Bancroft that is a gem that few people have actually seen. It's a remake of a terrific black and white movie from the 40s.
Thankfully, someone other than myself has a healthy contempt for Spaceballs.
Kal, not to correct you on your own blog, but since I seem to be making a habit of doing that today, you mean "To Be or Not to Be," not "To Have and Have Not." One of Mel Brooks' best films made in the 1980s and incidentally, the FIRST Hollywood movie to mention Hitler's persecution of LGBTQ people. I love Mel Brooks' line about why the artistic community had a duty to oppose Hitler and his concentration camps: "Without Jews, fags and gypsies, there IS no theatre!"
You are right of course. I am going to watch the Jack Benny original and the Brooks version which I have good memories of.
It's one of those cult classics that so many seem to love. I never cared for it as a kid, though I do have to disagree with you, there is one joke in there I always found funny and still do.
I can take or leave Spaceballs, but I can't let Robin Hood: Men in Tights go undefended. it's stupid and immature, certainly, but that's Mel Brooks. If you watch it as a parody of the Kevin Coster Robin Hood, as it's meant to be, it. Points out some pretty glaring flaws with that film. Men in Tights has one of the best casts of Mel Brooks films: Cary Elwes, Dave Chappelle, Tracy Ullman, Patrick Stewart...I love seeing all these guys in the same movie. It's mindless, good fun.
Wasn't Cosner's Robin Hood enough of a spoof for one generation?
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