Spaceballs (1987)

"There is only one man who would dare give me the raspberry: Lone Star!"

There was bound to be a proper Star Wars spoof sooner or later, and always a fair chance that it would be Mel Brooks who did it. It's a fairly straight spoof, really, with counterparts for every major character aside from Luke Skywalker. But then Luke Skywalker is incredibly boring, so who cares?

The characters generally pass muster; Bill Pullman makes a good Harrison Ford and a good star. It's fun to see Rick Moranis as the Darth Vader character, and even more eyebrow-raising to see Joan Rivers, of all people, as the C-3PO equivalent. There are lots of amusing digs at the original movies, of course- we get a gangster called Pizza the Hut and an amusing sight gag at the start as the camera pans across a long, long, long Star Destroyer. Still, these things are funny, but this is no Airplane.

I liked the metatextual bits, mind: Barf comments on a "nice dissolve" at one pont, and I love the moment where the Spaceballs reach into their home video collection (all Mel Brooks movies, naturally) to play the movie they're currently making, in real time. There are loads of little touches like this (I love the moment where Dark Helmet accidentally kills a cameraman during the lightsabre fight!), and they're my favourite thing about the film. There are some nice pop culture references, too, including a Transformer(!) and a cameo from John Hurt reprising that scene from Alien. And I loved the name "Prince Valium". Although not as much as "Colonel Sanders"…

I was perpetually amused at how similar to Earth this far, far, far, far away galaxy was; on Druidia they even conduct their weddings to a blast of Wagner's Wedding March, apparently. They have bumper stickers in the future. The telephones, videotapes and headphones are all very '80s, and characters are heard playing Bon Jovi and Berlin. They even have Jewish humour and loads of it- the Schwarz is Yiddish slang for, well, er, what gets implied at the start of the lightsabre fight. And we get lines about a "Druish princes" and how "she doesn't look Druish". Still, I'm sure there was a lot more of this that went right over my head.

Spaceballs might not be the greatest comedy ever made, but it's a fun way to spend an hour and a half. It's a deceptively clever spoof with a lot to say about the media and how merchandising is taking over popular cinema, to the point of Dark Helmet playing with Kenner action figures. I enjoyed it a lot, and I intend to do some more Mel Brooks stuff soon. I haven't seen any for ages.

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

"Don't tell me you got tied up?"

"No, just handcuffed a little…"

I don't really know a lot about musicals. In fact, my knowledge of the format is pretty much entirely limited to The Rocky Horror Show, a certain episode of Buffy and a certain Doctor Who stage play, starring your actual Jon Pertwee, which I saw at Birmingham in 1989. So you'll have to forgive my total ignorance of whatever the tropes are and how the format is supposed to work. I'm usually a bit wary of the musical format for the usual predictable objection that characters suddenly breaking into song during a narrative can be a bit of a problem for me, and I won't dent there's a bit of that here. It isn't that I have a problem with the lack of realism. Suspension of disbelief and realism can go hang- let's go and do some violence to that fourth wall! But the songs can slow things down, and leave me drumming my fingers until stuff can start happening again.

 I enjoyed the songs here, though. For a start, they're good. There are lots of different styles, and some really great ideas. The Motown-style Greek chorus is a masterstroke, and the decision to make Steve Martin's manic, sadistic dentist into a leather-jacketed rock 'n' roller means he gets his very own '50s rock 'n' roll song- in fact, he reminds me of the similar character from the Rocky Horror Show. The best songs, of course, are from the mean, green mother from outer space itself, voiced by Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops. The star-studded cast is fantastic, and (obviously, as the film can afford much better performers from the Saturday Night Live stable) much, much better than in the original film. Aside from Rick Moranis, Steve Martin and Bill Murray, we get cameos from the likes of John Candy and his Christopher Guest from This is Spinal Tap (who rather surreally happens to be the 5th Baron Haden-Guest). Even the extras include none other than a young Danny John-Jules. The only part which I thought was better portrayed in the original was Wilbur Force (Arthur Denton in the remake). Bill Murray is superb, but Jack Nicholson is better with his more darkly humorous portrayal.

It's also superbly shot by Frank Oz, taking full advantage of the much bigger budget to produce a much more visually exciting experience. The highlight, of course, is Audrey II itself, which simply looks amazing, and moves amazingly, too. There's a very real sense of the poverty of Skid Row which the studio-bound original simply couldn't convey.

One thing which really surprises me, though, are the massive changes which have been made to the plot (spoilers follow). There's a happy ending and there are far fewer murders- in fact, there are only two deaths as opposed to, I think, five in the original. One character survives who originally died, and another prominent character survives who originally died. The whole plot is much, much more streamlined to incorporate the songs. The storytelling is much, much slicker, but there's a more sentimental tone, which loses a lot of both the deeply macabre, dark humour of the original and also the absurdist silliness. I think the remake is on balance the better film, but the original is still the better script. Both films are well worth watching, though, and for someone who doesn't do musicals I enjoyed this hugely.