Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Mel Brooks, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Bill Pullman
Have I Seen it Before: Yeah. And I’ve never really cared for it. While the majority of the human race immediately proceeds to tune out of this website forever, let me say that I’ve always liked some of his other movies—chiefly Young Frankenstein (1974)—far more.
Did I Like It: But this time was going to be different! Perhaps I’m too precious about the science fiction genre to see it spoofed. I managed to even find flaws with Galaxy Quest (1999) when everyone else on the planet thinks it’s the best thing since 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). I’m fully willing to admit that I may be the problem, and if I can just get out of my own head, I’ll enjoy the film as much as you do.
No such luck.
The film just doesn’t work for me. Many of the film’s Brooks mocks in his work are timeless, even if they are very much part of the age they were made in. Every time “Spaceballs” by the Spinners is needle dropped in the third act, it is impossible to think of this film as anything other than something made in 1987.
Funny actors like Candy and Moranis are largely stiff (Candy more than Moranis) when they should be given free (or at least more free) reign to play to their heart’s content. This saps the film of many of the laughs it by all rights should have. I’m not saying the film is completely without laughs, but I didn’t laugh more than I did when we’re waylaid by the kind of exposition the serious versions of these films tend to insist on, and Moranis turns to the camera and barks, “Everyone got all that?”
Why do things not come together here? I think it can absolutely be a byproduct of the fact that Brooks has no real feelings for the Star Wars or Star Trek (or any of the other sprawling sci-fi epics of the age). He loved the James Whale Universal Horror films. That’s why Frankenstein is his best film. He loved Hitchcock movies, that’s why High Anxiety (1977) connects. He loves westerns. Hence, Blazing Saddles (1974)*. Here, I imagine that his kid loves sci-fi movies, and he has a mild fascination with them. That’s it. And so, the experience here is far more hollow then many of us want to admit.
*I’ve said it in other reviews, but no matter what my feelings about this film are, the fact that he was able to do both Frankenstein and Saddles within a year makes him an unassailable legend.