Bad puns, bad parodies, bad slapstick. This movie is a junk pile compared to Mel Brooks' earlier films, but I like the way it revels in its cheesy, predictable badness. John Candy's self effacing, apologetic Mog with tail always in the way, swatting people in the face, sticking out the back of a bloated spacesuit. Rick Moranis' little doll theater. The pigsty condition of the Winnebago spaceship, off for a road trip with $5 worth of gas in the tank, stopping at an intergalactic diner for a reprise of Alien. Not that much laugh-out-loud humor. Just cheap snickers the whole way through.
I enjoyed the sci-fi parodies Dark Star and Mars Attacks more than Spaceballs, but the cheesiness plays pretty well against the polished franchises it mimics. My mom's reaction to Star Wars when it first came out was "space cowboys", and there's a lot of truth in that. Underneath all the special effects these films are spiffed up remakes of cheesy, predictable 1930's westerns and serials.
I enjoyed the sci-fi parodies Dark Star and Mars Attacks more than Spaceballs, but the cheesiness plays pretty well against the polished franchises it mimics. My mom's reaction to Star Wars when it first came out was "space cowboys", and there's a lot of truth in that. Underneath all the special effects these films are spiffed up remakes of cheesy, predictable 1930's westerns and serials.