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I'm surprised that Mel Brook's Spaceballs seems generally disliked.

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G

Grisby

Member
AwesomeMeat said:
This has to be one of the worst movies made.

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Was so ready to just pounce. Well played.
 
J

jb1234

Member
I rewatched it for the first time as a kid a year ago. It hasn't held up that well. Just too many gags that don't land.
 
D

DirtyManos

Member
"Listen! We're not just doing this for money!.........We're doing it for a SHIT LOAD of money!" is still one of my most used phrases in life.
 
K

Kas

Member
If I hadn't seen The Producers, I'd say it's the best Mel Brooks movie I've ever seen. I'm a huge Star Wars nerd, and at 12 I absolutely loved it.
 
P

peakish

Member
I probably should rewatch it, haven't seen it in like a decade. I loved the movie as a kid but that last time I was mostly groaning at many of the jokes and was disappointed in how cheap they could be.

B1G_A1AN said:
Loved it from the first time I watched it when I was a youngster.

My fave part was When Will Then Be Now?.
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This at least is a great scene. I also love the Keep firing, Assholes scene. So probably Rick Moranis makes the movie. Well, him and Sergeant Jones from Police Academy. There's probably a few other highlights in there, too.
 
highrider

highrider

Banned
It had some laughs, but not in the same class as Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein, or even History of the World.
 
N

Nail

Member
Soooo I'm too lazy to do the math but, just glancing through this thread I'd say the RT rating of 54% is pretty accurate XD
 
P

Poodlestrike

Banned
Okay, look, Mel Brook's BEST movie is The Producers, no question. Then Blazing Saddles, then Young Frankenstein. But Spaceballs is still up there.
 
H

HassanJamal

Member
I liked it cause it was funny. I also will forever hate it for making me feel disgusted about pizza thanks to Pizza The Hut. There's even a gif of him in this thread that makes me wanna vomit.

Still eat pizza but feel disgusted looking at pizza at times so thanks Spaceballs for that.
 
C

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
Buzzati said:
Mel Brooks movies are awful. I don't understand how this guy got famous for his comedy. Try sitting through Robin Hood Men in Tights again - it's like a 6th grader doing stand up comedy for 2 hours at his school talent show. The conventional opinion is that his movies are classics, but I'm old enough to have actually sat through several films of those films when they were released - they all fucking suck.
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I would say Young Frankenstein and a few others are genuine comedy gems, but overall I agree with the general sentiment
 
Randomizer

Randomizer

Member
Buzzati said:
Mel Brooks movies are awful. I don't understand how this guy got famous for his comedy. Try sitting through Robin Hood Men in Tights again - it's like a 6th grader doing stand up comedy for 2 hours at his school talent show. The conventional opinion is that his movies are classics, but I'm old enough to have actually sat through several films of those films when they were released - they all fucking suck.
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The Producers, Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles are outright classics. Incredibly influential and genuinely great films. Space Balls is fun and some of the jokes are outdated or outright childish but it still has some funny moments.
 
N

not psycho

Member
It's decent. Better than Young Frankenstein, not as good as Blazing Saddles.

The Twelve Chairs is great though, easily the best Mel Brooks movie.
 
LoveCake

LoveCake

Member
fastmower said:
The humor has not aged well, unfortunately.
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I agree, some has but what has done is now so overused it's no longer that funny/good.

Spaceballs is really a film of its time, if you watched it when it first came out or a number of years after, you were most likely a Star Wars fan, "so you got it" and still "get it today" but if watching now for the first time it's no good unless you are already something of a diehard Star Wars fan.

I watched this a couple of years after it came out, I got the video, so I still love the film fondly, is it good, it's ok, but as I "get it" I still find some parts funny.

I think that the day's of this t type of film are very hard to make now and also to actually pull off, I think everything just fell into place and was just the right fit in this, even the cast is spot on.
 
R

Rymuth

Member
I love Dracula Dead and Loving it but SpaceBalls....it's just flat. I think I smirked a few times but no lol moments out of me.
 
V

vocab

Member
A lot of my favorite movies have terrible or average reviews. Same with some games I like. With movies, the fun comedy/spoof movies get trashed by movie snobs the most.

Spaceballs does have some issues, mainly pacing. I was kind of obsessed with it as a kid but as I got older I always got bored when they got to the desert.
 
T

tomtom94

Member
It's really good and it's designed to be beloved by sci-fi nerds. However, there's a lot of jokes that are fairly cheap shots by Mel Brooks' standards and there's some stuff that's clearly thrown in with little regard for the overall structure (i.e. the whole business with John Hurt)
 
S

SalvaPot

Member
The movie is a classic. Watched it recently in preparation for Episode 7 and I had a blast, some of the jokes are still pretty clever, while others have been parroted by others so they seem dated now, but the movie still holds.

I can't wait for Spaceballs 2: The search for more money.


Also:
nBeCo.gif
 
Rentahamster

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
I can't readily recall Spaceballs jokes that have been reused by other movies or TV shows. Someone be a kind soul and refresh my memory. I'm sure there's lots.
 
P

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Men in Tights was the bad one...

Literally the only movie I have ever walked out on due to being so damned bad.
 
L

Linkyn

Member
I think 'hate' might be a strong word, but I certainly don't love the movie, either. It has it's moments, but imo it's too inconsistent in the quality of its jokes to really stand out (even if you get the references).
 
X

XANDER CAGE

Member
There are some great gags but it's probably my least favorite of the well-known Mel Brooks comedies. The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and History of the World Part 1 all beat it easily imo.

That said it's still a classic Moranis performance, so.
 
R

Rell

Member
I don't know, I haven't seen the movie in a very long time, but my past self thought Spaceballs was a pile of shit parody film on the level of modern-times "X-Movie" and "Meet the Spartans" type stuff.

But I seriously probably haven't seen the film in ten years.

I also really dislike Airplane and Galaxy Quest; two tonally similar movies which everyone seems to love.

I've seen Galaxy Quest recently and I still dislike the film. But I haven't seen Airplane probably since I saw Spaceballs.

I'm not willing to argue any of these stances (other than Galaxy Quest I guess) because of the amount of time it has been since I've actually viewed the film.

But I typically like goofy or stupid movies; I really like UHF. But even though UHF is more farce than parody, I still dislike Zoolander.

Maybe I have bad taste. The constant wink-wink-nudge-nudge style humor of these parody films really rubs me the wrong way as a viewer.
 
Rentahamster

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Rell said:
I don't know, I haven't seen the movie in a very long time, but my past self thought Spaceballs was a pile of shit parody film on the level of modern-times "X-Movie" and "Meet the Spartans" type stuff.

But I seriously probably haven't seen the film in ten years.

I also really dislike Airplane and Galaxy Quest; two tonally similar movies which everyone seems to love.

I've seen Galaxy Quest recently and I still dislike the film. But I haven't seen Airplane probably since I saw Spaceballs.

I'm not willing to argue any of these stances (other than Galaxy Quest I guess) because of the amount of time it has been since I've actually viewed the film.

But I typically like goofy or stupid movies; I really like UHF. But even though UHF is more farce than parody, I still dislike Zoolander.

Maybe I have bad taste. The constant wink-wink-nudge-nudge style humor of these parody films really rubs me the wrong way as a viewer.
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D:
 
O

Onlinehero

Member
I get the impression that it's lazy and shallow, as if Brooks didn't care enough about the material he was parodying to go beyond the most basic layers. When I first saw it I just remember it being unsatisfying.

Now Sleeper on the other hand, that's a quality sci-fi parody.
 
T

theusedversion

Member
I dislike all "stupid" comedies including this one. Leslie Nielsen movies were the worst. I'd rather pour salt into an open wound than watch that crap.
 
N

Nyx

Member
The ''Jam the radar'' and ''Comb the desert'' jokes have stayed with me ever since I first watched this movie back in the 80s.
 
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