Sci-Fi Pick: Spaceballs
I’ve never been a fan of the concept that all sci-fi has to have some hard elements. I also don’t believe that the genre has to be serious all the time. So for this week’s Netflix recommendation, I’ve picked a film that is neither of those things: Mel Brook’s 1987 intergalactic parody Spaceballs.
Spaceballs is first and foremost a parody of Star Wars, but it also draws from other sci-fi franchises such as Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, and Alien. Brooks wanted his movie to resemble Star Wars as closely as possible and even went as far as to have George Lucas’ company do the post-production. It’s rumored that Lucas sent Brooks a note saying that he loved Spaceballs so much that he nearly bust a gut from laughing. Us too George, us too.
The characters alone are great. Instead of Chewie, you’ve got Barf (John Candy). For a villain, you can choose either the Darth Vader lookalike Dark Helmet or the much tastier Pizza the Hut (which almost makes me want to never eat at the red-roofed chain again).
The plot pulls some things from Star Wars, but features a few different elements. Planet Spaceball has used up all its air, so they set out to steal air from planet Drudia. They want to do this by kidnapping Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga), but she goes runaway bride and the wedding is off. Spaceball President Skroob sends Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) to track her down, but Lone Star is contacted by King Roland to do the same. Lone Star agrees, but only because he’s in pretty significant debt to Pizza. He gets to the Princess before Helmet can, they crash on a moon, Vespa and Lone Star begin to fall in love, and the rest is history.
If you want hard cerebral sci-fi, then why are you still reading about a Mel Brooks movie? If you want to bust a gut laughing, go with Spaceballs.
That’s it for today, but be sure to tune in next week though for another edition of We Got Netflix Covered! Also, be sure to leave a comment and let us know if you enjoyed any of these picks.