'Spaceballs' turns 25!

In his recent review of the legendary movie disaster Howard the Duck (1986), film reviewer SF Debris noted that Spaceballs became more and more beloved over the years because, unlike Howard, it is actually funny.

This made me realize that this year marks the silver anniversary of the Mel Brooks comedy. Brooks had already memorable parodied westerns with Blazing Saddles (1974) and Frankenstein pictures with Young Frankenstein (1974), so a Star Wars (1977) parody was inevitable.

Fittingly, Spaceballs was released on the 10th anniversary of George Lucas’s legendary space opera.

Luke Skywalker/Han Solo hybrid Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his sidekick Barf (John Candy) must rescue feisty Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) and her droid Dot Matrix (Joan Rivers) from evil Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis).

Some of the jokes are a bit gross, most notably Pizza the Hutt (Dom DeLuise), but, happily, the gross factor is not overdone here as it is in other comedies.

Brooks appears as Yogurt, who teaches Lone Starr the ways of the Schwartz, and President Skroob (who, I guess, is supposed to represent the Emperor, even though he does not appear to have any Schwartz power).

This may also have been Brooks’s last truly enjoyable film as none of his subsequent outings have really scored as highly on the laugh-o-meter.

May the Schwartz be with you!