S.O.S. - Tem um Louco Solto no Espaço

They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery. It's the 1980's and the Star Wars trilogy is a mega success as was Michael Jackson. With a movie franchise that successful and a pop artist that successful you must parody the two. Enter Mel Brooks and Weird Al Yankovich, but this review isn't about the song "Eat it."

Spaceballs was truly funny. In fact, it is a parody that other parodies should model themselves after. Many parodies overdo it and exaggerate things so much that it's not funny but just awkward. Spaceballs had a nice mix of slapstick humor and funny characters. The casting was supreme with Rick Moranis playing Dark Helmet, John Candy playing Barf, and even Mel Brooks as Yogurt. This was a spoof that George Lucas had to laugh at.

Brisk parody of "Star Wars" and other great science fiction films pits Bill Pullman and his man-dog/dog-man partner John Candy against Rick Moranis and Mel Brooks as they try to rescue Princess Daphne Zuniga from the clutches of the evil Space-Balls.

The cast are clearly enjoying themselves and there's a gag almost every minute, mostly notably the Star Wars gags. Some of the best are -

1) Pizza the Hutt

2) The 'Alien' Diner scene with John Hurt ("Oh no... not again!")

3) Yogurt the Yoda clone (also Mel Brooks; "Please, I'm just plain Yogurt.")

4) Dot's "Virgin Alarm" ("Designed to go off before you do.")

5) A pot shot at "Lawrence of Arabia"

6) The 'combing the desert' sequence

7) Rick Moranis 'playing with his toys'

8) The Statue of Liberty Transformer

9) The Planet of the Apes sequence

10) The light saber schwartz duel

11) The guard instructing Bill Pullman on how to properly do the Vulcan nerve pinch.

12) Accidentally capturing the stunt doubles.

13) The quote unquote "sexual tension" between Bill and Daphne.

And many more. Keep an eye out for this one.

"Where're you from?" - Daphne Zuniga

"I don't know. Somewhere in the Ford Galaxy." - Bill Pullman

"Spaceballs" is one of my favorite Mel Brooks comedies. Brooks has made some of the funniest movies of our time ("The Producers", "Brazing Saddles", "High Anxiety", etc.) and I think "Spaceballs" is up there in the same league. This film spoofs the "Star Wars" movies in general, but there's also references to "Star Trek", "Alien", and "Planet of the Apes" just to name a few. The actors are all very funny, with Brooks in two roles: President Skroob and Yogurt (his version of Yoda); the late John Candy as Barf the mawg (half man, half dog); Rick Moranis as the Darth Vader clone Dark Helmet; Bill Pullman as Lone Starr, the Luke Skywalker takeoff; Daphne Zuniga as Princess Vespa, similar to Princess Leia; and Dot Matrix, the robot with the voice of Joan Rivers who's obviously in the C-3P0 role. There's plenty of silly gags throughout "Spaceballs", and I laughed most of the time. Very funny, entertaining sci-fi comedy from one of the great comedic filmmakers of all time.

***1/2 (out of four)

A classic remnant from the tail end of Mel Brooks's manic, pun-drenched peak. It may not be as smart as The Producers or as complete as Blazing Saddles, but it's every bit as funny as anything he's ever made and that's saying something. Its light-handed approach to storytelling, where the jokes come first and the plot developments are a distant second, is actually very similar to 1981's History of the World, Part I - which should be no surprise, as they're back-to-back in his sequential catalog. Rick Moranis, Bill Pullman and John Candy really come to life in their roles as not-so-subtle parodies of Darth Vader, Han Solo and Chewbacca, respectively, with Moranis in particular somehow getting deep laughs out of lines so cheesy a Taco Bell nacho would flinch. As dumb comedies go it's a heavyweight champion, so infinitely quotable that my buddies and I had to enforce a strict "one Spaceballs reference per day" policy back in school to keep things from getting out of hand. Absurdly stupid fun.

Spaceballs is one of the funniest movies ever. In the tradition of Airplane it spoofs nearly all modern SciFi including: Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Return Of The Jedi, Alien, Star Trek, and Planet Of The Apes. Mel Brook's has had some funny movies but this takes the cake. Rick Moranis is inarguably his second best role after Strange Brew. John Candy has one of his better performances. Bill Pullman (a long way from Independence Day) is the central character Lone Star, a combination Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. Sight gags and classic memorable lines are present here from beginning to end. Just looking at Dark Helmet is enough to induce laughter. Spaceballs is a truly great film. Let's see how well you handle it!