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Spaceballs (1987)

tomatometer

29

Average Rating: 6.1/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 5

No consensus yet.

audience

80

liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 405,540

My Rating

Movie Info

A space bum helps rescue a princess from an evil overlord with the help of a benevolent elder in this Star Wars send-up written and directed by Mel Brooks. Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his half-man, half-dog co-pilot, Barf the Mawg (John Candy), are content to scour the galaxy living the easy life. But they reluctantly come to the rescue when Druish Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) is threatened by the evil Lord Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis), who wants to steal all of the air from her planet,

PG,

Science Fiction & Fantasy, Comedy

Mel Brooks, RONNY GRAHAM

May 2, 2000

MGM

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Cast

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All Critics (35) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (21) | Rotten (19) | DVD (28)

The crew flings itself energetically through space in search of laughs, but it will never penetrate the galaxy where Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein traced their giddy orbits.

January 18, 2011 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comments (3)
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The film's low-tech styling is roughly the cardboard inversion of the cinematic machines it parodies, and Brooks seems less inclined than usual to push the overkill urges too far.

January 18, 2011 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
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Mel Brooks will do anything for a laugh. Unfortunately, what he does in Spaceballs, a misguided parody of the Star Wars adventures, isn't very funny.

March 26, 2009 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment (1)
Variety
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Typically, the best conceits end in pratfalls, and non-Brooks fans may find that the gravitational pull towards the thumpingly obvious outweighs the wit.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
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If it isn't likely to generate what Mr. Brooks himself refers to as 'Spaceballs II: The Search for More Money, neither is it anything less than gentle, harmless satire that occasionally has real bite.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

How do you review a movie like this, anyway? I guess by saying whether you laughed or not. I did laugh, but not enough to recommend the film.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comments (7)
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The jokes about the more calculating aspects of George Lucas's franchise are particularly telling. Remember, the Schwartz will be with you always.

January 18, 2011 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

Unforgiveable then, unforgiveable now.

January 18, 2011 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment (1)
Empire Magazine

It's mostly forced humor all the way, a movie that rarely measures up to adequate kitsch.

January 18, 2011 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment (1)
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Goofy parody mocks the Star Wars series.

January 2, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media

Ainda que não consiga recapturar a acidez e a inteligência de seus esforços da primeira fase da carreira, Brooks consegue divertir graças a algumas belas sacadas e ao simples conceito de Moranis como Dark Helmet.

January 23, 2010
Cinema em Cena

This is possibly the last great film that Mel Brooks directed

August 19, 2009 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | Comment (1)
7M Pictures

Despite the dirty jokes hidden in plain sight ('Never underestimate the power of the Schwartz!'), Spaceballs is a PG-rated comedy that makes silliness sublime. [Blu-ray]

June 28, 2009 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews
Groucho Reviews

Mel Brooks trashes Star Wars; very funny

March 14, 2007
Atlantic City Weekly

One of the few screwball comedies that everyone must experience at least once.

July 5, 2005 Full Review Source: Bullz-Eye.com
Bullz-Eye.com

Most jokes have a forced quality, but there's something gleefully self-aware about them, like the vaudeville comedian whose act consists of telling bad jokes and laughing at them, but doing it all with exquisite timing.

May 22, 2005 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid
Combustible Celluloid

A satiric and proudly low-brow salute to science fiction...

May 12, 2005 Full Review Source: Now Playing Magazine

Because the Star Wars and Star Trek mythologies are such potent forces in our pop culture, Brooks' scattershot spoof has endeared itself to a whole generation.

May 10, 2005 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis
Movie Metropolis

Audience Reviews for Spaceballs

It's just great. The unique movie which you see John Candy, Rick Moranis, Mel Brooks and John Hurt! A great Star Wars spoof.
May 11, 2011
Lucas Martins

Super Reviewer

[img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img]

Spaceballs is downright bad filmmaking, but it's OK because it's a parody, right? Well, it's certainly not as funny as the Mel Brooks classic range which includes films as witty and downright hilarious as "Blazing Saddles". Therefore, I sadly noticed the flaws with the direction, writing, acting and production values of this nostalgic parody following the eye rolling mishaps going on in a galaxy far far away. What really depresses me about Spaceballs is how desperate it is, there are many jokes in the film that are repeated supposedly because Brooks ran out of ideas. The talented comedian Rick Moranis plays a knock off of Darth Vader with an unnaturally enormous helmet, named Dark Helmet. The central gag with the parody of Vader is that he struggles to maneuver with the helmet on. Funny the first time, yes, funny any other time, not really. Also if this is parodying "Star Wars", why wasn't their much parody? I think it's down to the fact it just wishes to be a delightfully goofy slapstick comedy and nothing more, that just happens to have an all star cast and a massive budget. Which brings me to the most mind boggling aspect of watching this film, all the way through I thought to myself why the film looked so cheap. After all, it was made 10 years after the original "Star Wars" film, and also had 3 times the budget. Why the special effects were worse and the set designs more cardboard, i'll never know. Perhaps because the money went into the writing and convincing John Candy to get in a fur-suit. I personally find that hilarious, and especially the opening, but as a whole it could have been funnier, and should have been another Mel Brooks classic. I am sad to report that it isn't, but it's undeniably fun, if quite tiresome. Only by the inch of it's life does it carry just about enough material for a generic parody. However a cast this talented should have been able to pull off something a little better than this.
March 11, 2013
Directors Cat
Directors Cat

Super Reviewer

    1. Col. Sandurz: Lord Helmet!
    2. Lord Dark Helmet: What?
    3. Col. Sandurz: We need you sir!
    4. Lord Dark Helmet: Knock on my door next time!
    5. Col. Sandurz: Yes sir!
    6. Lord Dark Helmet: Did you see anything?
    7. Col. Sandurz: No sir, I didn't see you playing with your dolls again!
    8. Lord Dark Helmet: Good!
    – Submitted by Hunter H (47 days ago)
    1. Lord Dark Helmet: Keep firing, assholes!
    – Submitted by Jarryd R (4 months ago)
    1. Lord Dark Helmet: [just as Spaceball One goes into Ludicrous Speed mode] WHAT HAVE I DONE? MY BRAINS... ARE GOING INTO MY FEET!
    – Submitted by David E (5 months ago)
    1. Col. Sandurz: Are you playing with your dolls again?
    – Submitted by Yotam D (6 months ago)
    1. Lone Starr Space Bum: But Yogurt, what if I never see you again?
    2. Yogurt: Don't worry about it! We'll meet again in Spaceballs 2: The Quest for More Money.
    – Submitted by Andrew D (7 months ago)
    1. Lord Dark Helmet: I can't breathe in this thing!
    – Submitted by Jared B (8 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • La Folle Histoire de l'espace (FR)
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