The movie starts by making fun of the Star Wars opening, where hugs letters scroll upwards to tell the tale. Then a huge ship comes into view, a ship that seemingly goes on forever. The story involves planet Spaceball's reckless abuse of the atmosphere. Without air, the planet needs to steal someone else's air, and they choose planet Druidia, a peaceful planet that is surrounded by an air shield. The shield can only be opened by a combination, so the plan is to kidnap Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) and hold her ransom. The bad guys are all clones of their Star Wars counterparts. There's Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) and President Skroob (Mel Brooks).

The story is never taken seriously throughout the film. There are even jokes to imply that the characters know they are in a movie. One funny scene has the bad guys capturing the stunt doubles of the heroes. Brooks has ventured into this territory before, as in Blazing Saddles (1974), where a huge fight at the end spilled off the set and into the studio. That joke didn't work for me in that movie, and a joke here involving a light saber battle between Dark Helmet and Lone Starr (Bill Pullman), which results in a cameraman being killed, didn't work either.

The movie progresses as Lone Starr and his friend Barf (John Candy), rescue the princess and her droid Dot Matrix (voice of Joan Rivers). After being stranded on a desert planet, they meet Yogurt (Brooks again), who teaches Lone Starr the ways of the schwartz. The rest of the plot involves another rescue, the destruction of a giant maid and more jokes. The movie is thinly plotted, but that only left Brooks with the opportunity to cram in as many jokes as he could. The fun of watching Spaceballs is to see how Brooks can send up his inspirations. The names of certain characters, like Prince Valium and Pizza the Hutt, are not only reflective of the personalities, but of the looks of each character. The only thing that can save a movie like this is whether the jokes work or not. Most of the time, they do. During the 1990s, the parody has met with almost no success. Attitude is everything in a movie like this, and without a gleam of intelligence, the result always falls flat on screen. Films like Spy Hard (1996) and Wrongfully Accused (1998) tank at the box office because they are basically a bunch of gags which are clumsily strung together. In Spaceballs, nearly every joke seems to flow naturally from the material. Even the jokes that don't work manage to not disrupt the flow.

Spaceballs manages to find the right rhythm, and for the most part, stays with it until the end. The special effects are rather weak, especially when considering that the movie was made well after its inspirations were released. Some characters are underdeveloped, and others seem to change radically from one scene to the next. Of course, no one watches a movie like this to examine the characters. The only question to ask yourself is, "does the movie deliver the laughs?" It does.

Director - Mel Brooks
Screenplay - Mel Brooks, Ronny Graham and Thomas Meehan
Producer - Mel Brooks

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