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Spaceballs

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 14 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 12 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Sci-fi
Written by:
Mel Brooks
Thomas Meehan
Ronny Graham
Directed by: Mel Brooks
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 24, 1987
DVD: April 25, 2000
Running Time: 96 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG for adult language
Starring Bill Pullman, Daphne Zuniga, Rick Moranis, Mel Brooks, John Candy, Dick Van Patten, Joan Rivers, and John Hurt
When the evil Dark Helmet attempts to steal all the air from planet Druidia, a determined Druish Princess, a clueless rogue and a half-man/half-dog creature who's his own best friend set out to stop him! But with the forces of darkness closing in on them at ludicrous speed, they'll need the help of a wise imp named Yogurt and the mystical power of "The Schwartz" to bring peace - and merchandising rights - to the entire galaxy! (MGM)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: The Producers (re-release)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Boston Globe Jay Carr
Spaceballs has the happy air of a comic enterprise that knows it's going right. It just keeps spritzing the gags at us, Borscht Belt-style, confidently and rightly sensing that if we don't laugh at this one, we'll laugh at the next. And so we do. After a long dry spell, Brooks is back on the money with Spaceballs. [24 Jun 1987, p.33]
Los Angeles Times Michael Wilmington
If Spaceballs disappoints you, it isn't because it's unfunny or not entertaining. Brooks at medium pressure is still more amusing than most movie makers. [25 Jun 1987, p.1]
USA Today Mike Clark
Full of love, Spaceballs is full of laughs; after 13 years of screen disappointments, Brooks has almost delivered another Young Frankenstein. May the box office be with it. [24 Jun 1987, p.1D]
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The movie's dialogue is constructed out of funny names, puns and old jokes. Sometimes it's painfully juvenile. But there are some great visual gags in the movie, and the best is Pizza the Hutt, a creature who roars and cajoles while cheese melts off its forehead and big hunks of pepperoni slide down its jowls.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Janet Maslin
Mr. Brooks's vision of ''Star Wars'' and its underlying silliness cannot help but wear thin. But Spaceballs has none of the aggressively unfunny humor that has marred some of Mr. Brooks's other recent efforts, and its spirits remain consistently high.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Pat Graham
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. Small compensations, I guess, but at least it's not the total washout you'd expect.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Schickel
A lot of the gags are pretty good. It's not that Star Wars is less worthy of satire than horse opera or gothic horror. It's not that Mel Brooks has lost his cunning, though he does need a freedom of speech not to be found under a PG rating. What's missing is that zany old gang of his. There is simply nobody like them on this trip. [13 July 1987, p.68]
TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)
It's mostly forced humor all the way, a movie that rarely measures up to adequate kitsch. Aimed at younger audiences, Spaceballs misses its mark.
Read Full Review >Empire Staff (Not Credited)
Subtlety had never been Brooks’ thing, but even blunt blows need to be well aimed, and while Spaceballs doesn’t exactly miss its targets, it certainly bounces off them embarrassingly.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Candy and Moranis are real talents, but they're completely wasted, like everyone else here, sacrificed to the grade-school inanities of that self-indulgent script. [26 Jun 1987, p.D6]
Chicago Tribune Dave Kehr
Brooks' own timing as a director doesn't seem up to its usual snuff. Light-years stretch out between the set-up of a gag and its payoff, and for a director who has always depended on the quantity of his jokes rather than the quality, the gap is fatal. When a character is introduced as "Pizza the Hut," and then shown as a melting mass of mozzarella and tomato sauce, the result is to turn a fairly clever pun into something thuddingly obvious and vaguely nauseating. [24 Jun 1987, p.3]
San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego
Somehow, the funny stuff gets sucked into a kind of black hole in the center of the satire, along with all the comic debris. What should have been a surreal flight to the planet Lucas crumbles into a harmless collection of cosmic dustballs. [24 Jun 1987, p.52]
Variety Staff (Not Credited)
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.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Hal Hinson
Spaceballs is actually a kind of comic black hole. All in all, the movie is about as funny as having coffee spilled in your lap. Except that there's no burn -- just that slightly embarrassing, uncomfortable, all-wet feeling.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Alex G gave it a3:
A quite poor spoof in terms of the jokes you can put on star wars, breaking the fourth wall often works in spoofs but in this case, no.....it's a shame because the film was funny to begin with until dark helmet appeared.
Billy H. gave it a1:
If, before my time is come, i don't see "Super Mario Brothers," then "Spaceballs" is my Worst Movie Ever. I will make my explination brief: Mel Brooks made a Star Wars spoof 10 years following its release (and 8 or 9 after the time was appropriate). he spun a yarn about unintimidating people-looking aliens, commandeered by Rick Moranis and Mel himself, that wanted to steal another planet's air, the princess of which was getting married. She runs away with her dumpy-looking feminist robot and escapes with a loner in a Winnebago and his uninspired Mawg; parts man and canine. stuff about Yogurt, Semitic master of the Schwartz and cynical marketing, is said; we see a repulsive pizza-resembling monster; Mel shows his lack of faith in the material with riffs of other sci-fi (and, in the one gag saving this from a goose egg rating, Michigan J. Frog), the production value is rock-bottom; the whole thing is unfunny and ends with a twist I didn't care enough about to see coming; for the time being, Star Wars was dead, and Mel Brooks was holding the smoking lightsaber.
[Anonymous] gave it an8:
Frickin funny, but History of the World and Blazing Saddles.
David H. gave it a2:
Charmless, boring and unfunny. It's ninety minute running time feels like two and a half hours. The only memorably amusing moment was the "virgin alarm".
Alex C. gave it a10:
This is one of the funniest movies of all time. A true classic. I do not know what critics think, but they are truly wrong about this one. Funny all the way through, and even a little action. A little romance, but mostly comedy. Not one joke is too over the top, and not one joke isn't funny. Simply my favorite comedy yet.
Jared B. gave it a9:
First, let me say that I am a huge Mel Brooks fan. Movies like "Spaceballs" are the reason why. from the time the movie began all the way up until the final credits rolled, I did nothing but laugh hysterically. Some of the jokes do border on crudeness, but, that doesn't stop them from being an absolute scream. The best performance in this movie comes from the late, great John Candy as Barf, an obvious takeoff on Chewbacca. Rick Moranis is also very funny as a short Darth Vader-like character. The movie tends to lose a little momentum near the end. But, because of a very funny script and some great actors, I am willing to forgive this one minor flaw. For anyone who likes a good, cheap laugh, I highly recommend "Spaceballs."
