Director: Mel Brooks
Year Released: 1987
Rating: 3.0
Mel Brooks' cult classic - and a shamefully guilty pleasure of mine - spoofs Lucas' Star Wars and other aspects of 80's culture, with Bill Pullman playing Han Solo and Rick Moranis doing a ludicrous impersonation of Dark Vader. I first saw this when I was about ten years old (!) and watched it an uncountable number of times since then (thanks to my ownership of Spaceballs: The VHS Tape and having read and re-read Spaceballs: The Book) to the point where I know many of the lines by heart (and have a habit of reciting several of them in everyday life). Naturally, a critical examination today reveals much of this to be juvenile and corny (in fact, the perfect movie for a pre-teen) - though charming in an innocent, infantile way - but how can I legitimately grumble about a comedy that's actually stayed with me for so long? Sometimes movies bypass 'taste' and 'discretion' and stay with you - today's teens are being raised on vulgarity like Superbad and Waiting…, so I suppose this is a more 'quaint' alternative.
