LogFAQs > #972110060

20. Spaceballs (1987)
Directed by Mel Brooks
Score: 172 (Tie)

Poke: 6
Tangy: 12
Vis: 13
Suprak: 13
Gavs: 15
Forty: 18
Karo: 19
Plasma: 23
Mythiot: 24
John: 29

12. Tangy
Spaceballs is an incredibly nostalgic film for me. It was probably the first parody movie I saw and a ton of the jokes have stuck with me ever since. I think what makes this movie so entertaining for me is the titular Spaceballs themselves. President Skroob, Colonel Sandurz and especially Dark Helmet are an absolutely delightful comedic trio and I cant get enough of their scenes. Which is a damn shame, because we also have some protagonists to follow and uh yeah, theyre not great. Sure they occasionally get some fun jokes, but most of the best scenes take place on Spaceball One.

I also want to dedicate a whole paragraph to Rick Moranis Dark Helmet, because he is one of the funniest characters on this list. The fact that he has the emotional intelligence of a child, while holding the power of Darth Vader is absolutely hysterical and is a pretty accurate representation of the Vader we met in the prequels. His scenes are easily the best part of the movie and I try to recite one of his quotes every chance I get.

I also adore the visual gags, especially in relation to the writing. Comb the desert and the radar being jammed are great examples of pretty simple jokes being taken to the extreme and it works so well.

Biggest Laugh: Michael Winslow talking on the radio and Helmet getting pissed off and throwing it.

13. Vis
For a movie thats clearly aping off of Star Wars, I appreciate them taking moments every so often to parody other fantasy-adventure, or sci-fi films and series, just to switch things up a little bit. But overall, this was a fun movie. I think its at its best when its self-aware and poking fun at the fact that its the equivalent of a Star Wars movie, and all of the Hollywood shenanigans that come along with that. Joking about George Lucas shameless merchandising, or the fact that sequels only exist as a quest for more money were both quality gags, as were the random nods to the film being a film in the first place. Randomly capturing stunt doubles, or killing a boom mic operator were fun little gags. But even beyond those, you have plenty of fun quotes from over-the-top characters, and the only real flaw is that, while Bill Pullman works as a rough-and-tumble male lead, he and Princess Vespa arent EXACTLY the most charismatic members of the cast. Still, this is certainly a fun and memorable film that accomplishes EXACTLY what it set out to do.

15. Gavs
Having spoofed several other film genres already, Mel Brooks now turns his attention to the science fiction genre, primarily Star Wars. The result is fairly successful, if not up to the level of classics such as Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein.

Like proper Star Wars, the main cast are a bit blander in comparison to the secondary characters. Dark Helmet is the real star of the show. Reimagining Darth Vader as a loser who desperately tries to seem intimidating despite falling victim to regular physical pratfalls and playing with dolls in his spare time is a fun twist on Darth Vader. Pizza the Hutt makes me nauseous because of how he bubbles and oozes, so I should count myself lucky that hes only in one scene. Yogurt makes the most of his limited screen time, contributing the memorable running gags involving merchandise and the Shwartz.

The biggest hit against this film is that it isnt as focused as Young Frankenstein, which was really dedicated to the Frankenstein mythos and classic horror, spoofing specific scenes and tropes. By comparison, Spaceballs feels more surface level and scattershot, with less passion for the source material. That said, its still funny enough for me to be interested in Spaceballs 3: The Search for Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money, should it ever be made. With two more Star Wars trilogies and roughly 17,463 TV series released in the decades since Spaceballs, theres a lot more material to work with now and just think of all the Baby Yogurt merchandise!

18. Forty
Now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb. Another top contender for most quotable movie on the list, Spaceballs is from a long time ago in a galaxy where there were only three Star Wars movies. There are also some nods to Star Trek, Alien, and Planet of the Apes, so this is definitely the movie for you if you like Sci-Fi and dont take it too seriously. Theres a lot of Mel Brooks schtick, one-liners, and fourth wall breaking here which is mostly a lot of fun but not necessarily laugh out loud funny. Theres no subtlety and the actual plot pretty much gets lost, but thats ok if you just sit back and enjoy the gags and silliness. Its not Mel Brooks' best, but its a definite cult classic and one that Ive enjoyed regularly throughout the years.

19. Karo
About 35 years ago in a galaxy somewhat far away, a space cowboy and furry John Candy must rescue a princess from 1/2 of Darth Vader using their flying vintage camper.
This is your pretty standard Mel Brooks affair, the fourth wall is taken out behind the shed and beaten with horsewhips, and there a few really good lines that are memorable and made me laugh.
The problem is that this film does not as much satirize the elements of the Star Wars series to the degree it just does a straight ripoff of the plot of Star Wars only with everything dumb and silly, and that gets old really fast.
For every great joke like Pizza the Hutt, we get two more in the vein of Chonkerbacca jamming the radar by spreading fruit jelly on the communications array and then I have to turn off the movie so I can go and punch something.
This feels like it should be a movie I would really really like, but I just... don't.

23. Plasma
In a galaxy very very very very very far away, Spaceballs might pass for a good movie, but here on Earth this flick is, at best, an inconsistent mess. There are some genuinely funny gags scattered throughout (Pizza the Hut, Yogurt, the merchandising jokes), but the good stuff is buried in a sandpit of lazy material. I honestly cant believe some of these jokes made it into the final script. The writers seem to grab the low-hanging fruit every chance they get, especially when it comes to sex jokes (I bet she gives good helmet).

Story-wise, this one is agonizingly predictable. Satire Leia ditches her arranged wedding ceremony while Satire Han undergoes a heros journey, and they get married at the end. Thats it. No funny twist, no clever conclusion, nothing. As a gigantic Star Wars fan, I wanted much more out of this. D

24. Mythiot
Im both disappointed and very amused that Mel Brooks decided his piss-take on Star Wars would work best by jettisoning Luke Skywalker entirely and giving his role to Han Solo, or Lone Starr, here. Admittedly, Spaceballs suffers quite a bit from feeling like Brooks wasnt quite as affectionate for the source material as his other spoofs and is more annoyed by its omnipresence then anything. Nevertheless, its still quite a bit of fun and filled with delightfully stupid gags.

29. John
I'll be completely honest, I've just never really found Spaceballs funny. Like I know it's got so much nostalgia for Star Wars fans and Mel Brooks fans and general 80s pop culture fans, but I just don't get the appeal. There's a few good scenes in a film that is otherwise mostly just corny in the lamest kind of way. I love Blazing Saddles and I enjoy Young Frankenstein a good bit as well, but this just doesn't click with me at all.