Movie Log: Spaceballs

Spaceballs was last week's Family Friday Movie, and I have a bit of warning for anyone else thinking to show this to their young'uns. I remembered all of the dick jokes, and didn't mind them -- it's a Mel Brooks movie; you have to expect that -- but I didn't remember how much swearing there is in Spaceballs. (It's a PG movie, but from 1987, when the standards were very different.) There's one muttered "fuck," a barrage of "assholes" in one scene, an array of other "asses," quite a lot of "shit," several "bitches," and probably a few more I have blocked from memory. (It may be necessary to have a talk with the Things soon about appropriate and inappropriate words, but I hope not -- they mostly won't say "suck" and chastise me when I say "damn." They're really awfully suburban white boys, come to think of it.)

On the other hand, they laughed a lot at Spaceballs and kept it around for another week to re-watch their favorite scenes (ludicrous speed, watching the videotape of Spaceballs, capturing the stunt doubles, "your schwartz is as big as mine," merchandising -- that sort of thing), which is a sign that they really liked it.

Spaceballs is a minor Mel Brooks movie -- everyone knew that at the time, and the two decades since it came out haven't made it any better. It's a parody of the first Star Wars trilogy -- and, along the way, of whatever other SF movies Brooks had seen -- and not a particularly good or coherent one. It is funny though -- there's a good laugh every couple of minutes at least, and a number of really fun scenes. And, really, that's enough for a comedy like this.