Spaceballs – Nearly as good when you’re old

I remember going to see ‘Spaceballs’ when it came out in the cinema (a building with a massive TWO screens and is no longer there any more).  I think I was about 11 at the time.  Back then I didn’t really know who Mel Brookes was, or anything about his other films.  I just liked ‘Star Wars’ and that was all I needed to know.  And, based on that most flimsy of reasons to see a film - I loved it!  It’s a parody of ‘Star Wars’ (and the occasional other sci-fi gag) which follows the original’s plot reasonably accurately, i.e. rougish smuggler must rescue a princess from a black-helmetted space dictator.  Now, nearly three decades later I thought I would watch it again and, I didn’t love it… so much.

I guess it’s one of those films where you have to be young to really laugh at every single joke.  I now feel that, although much of the time I was at least smiling a bit, it’s not quite as funny as when I used to laugh at simpler things.  It’s a decent enough watch and it’s nice seeing John Candy clearly enjoying himself as the ‘Chewbacca-type’ creature (unsubtly named) ‘Barf.’ Now I look at it again I can’t help thinking that Mel Brooks is trying a little too hard to be everywhere, as he casts himself as basically the lead (and a couple other roles) and now I see it through adult eyes, he seems a little too full of himself, even if he does play a complete idiot.

I mentioned John Candy as the stand-out role, but the others are good, too.  Bill Pullman is functional as the ‘hero,’ but it’s Rick Moranis who steals every scene as the completely incompetent ‘Darth Vader’ rip-off, now known as ‘Dark Helmet.’ There’s a great ‘Alien’ cameo too by John Hurt and some other nods to a few famous franchises, so you’ll probably need to know all movies in the genre to appreciate everything.

I may be sounding a little harsh overall, but I did enjoy it again, even after all this time.  I’ll probably watch it again in another ten years, but next time I’ll know not to expect it to be the same as when I was a kid.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that