DAVID BIANCULLI

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SPACEBALLS
June 24, 2017  | By David Bianculli

Encore, 7:21 p.m. ET

 

It’s been 40 years since George Lucas made his first Star Wars movie, now called Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. That’s the one that, in 1977, introduced Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, and Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia – icons all, along with other memorable characters like C-3PO, R2-D2, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader. And it’s now been 30 years since Mel Brooks spoofed that movie, its imagined universe and its many colorful characters in 1987’s Spaceballs. Since then, somewhat surprisingly, Spaceballs has become Brooks’ most lucrative and popular movie of all, even more than Blazing Saddles, The Producers, and Young Frankenstein. Revisit it and see why: It’s as loving and smart a parody, in its way, as Young Frankenstein, which is as good, and as brilliant, as cinematic spoofs get. A young Bill Pullman stars as the Han Solo-like Lone Starr, with Daphne Zuniga as Princess Vespa, John Candy as Barf (the giant canine equivalent of Chewbacca), and Rick Moranis as Dark Helmet.

 
 
 
 
 
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