Corinne

When I was a kid, I loved Spaceballs. I think I even saw this movie before I even watched the Star Wars movie for the first time. But I haven’t watched it in a long time since then, so I was happy to rewatch Spaceballs again and see if it still holds up to this day. And I would say that I do think it still holds up, as it’s pretty funny and does a good job satirizing the Star Wars movies. I feel like you can still enjoy this movie without knowing everything about Star Wars. While yes, it satirizes the Star Wars trilogy, I still feel like the story and characters hold up on its own. The characters, while still making fun of the original Star Wars characters like Luke, Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, etc., are still funny and likeable. Even Lord Dark Helmet is one of my favorite characters because while he’s supposed to be the villain, he’s just a loser who’s always getting hurt, so the audience just ends up laughing at him. I also like that the elements of Star Wars movies are parodied too, like the insanely long spaceship shot in the beginning, having “ludicrous speed” instead of hyperspeed, and the Stormtroopers all being related so they’re equally as dumb. It takes all the elements of Star Wars and takes them to the extreme to the point that it’s very funny. I forgot how great this cast was. Of course, we have Rick Moranis as Lord Dark Helmet and Mel Brooks himself as President Skroob and Yogurt. But I forgot that Bill Pullman, John Candy, and Joan Rivers were in this movie as well. They’re some of my favorite actors and comedians, and they contribute to this movie being really funny. There’s some jokes that don’t land for me, but that’s okay, because there were others that did make me laugh. I”m a little concerned about how they’re going to make this sequel without John Candy and Joan Rivers, because I feel like this movie wouldn’t be complete without them. I also find it interesting that Spaceballs in a way predicted how ridiculous mass merchandising would be, not just with Star Wars, but in general. Like it’s just crazy with the amount of Star Wars merch we see, and it keeps getting more and more ridiculous after it was acquired by Disney and we see a lot more merch with each movie or tv show coming out. I wonder how the sequel is going to take the parody of Star Wars even further ever since it was acquired by Disney and is now blowing up more in popularity with The Mandalorian and other Disney+ shows. I hope that Mel Brooks kinda says “fuck you” to George Lucas and finally makes Spaceballs merchandising become a reality since he’s almost 100 years old. Overall, I don’t think this movie is as funny as some of Mel Brooks’s other movies, but it’s still a good movie nonetheless. And this movie really held up well in terms of making fun of how huge of a franchise Star Wars would end up becoming in the future. Star Wars fan or not, I think anyone can enjoy this movie. I’m really curious to see how the Spaceballs sequel is going to go without John Candy and Joan Rivers in it, but I still plan on seeing it when it comes out.

I’ve only seen a few Mel Brooks movies, but I’ve loved each one I’ve seen like Spaceballs and Young Frankenstein. I’ve been hesitant to watch Blazing Saddles because I often hear that while it’s a very funny movie, it’s also very offensive and politically incorrect. So I had very low expectations going into this movie because I was just expecting it to be a product of this time. Instead, this ended up becoming one of the funniest movies I’ve seen and probably one of my favorite movies so far. I think the context of why this movie was made is important. This movie makes fun of and subverts tropes found in Western movies. Usually in Westerns, you usually see a cowboy, usually a white person as a hero, and people of color are just there as racist caricatures. This movie flips the Western, and has a black person be the hero for once. And he’s also witty, charismatic, and resourceful, which causes Hedley Lamarr’s schemes to fail and the people in Rock Ridge to slowly accept him as a sheriff. Meanwhile, almost all of the white characters in this movie are seen as dumb and ignorant. And it’s not just the Lamarr and the railroad people who work for him that are racist, but it’s also the people in Rock Ridge as well, and their characteristics highlight the absurdity of their ignorance. For example, the people in Rock Ridge all have the last name Johnson, which implies that the town in * very * inbred. Another example is that Lamarr hires people who did the worst crimes ever to help him conquer Rock Ridge, and that includes having Nazis and the KKK. The only person originally who was nice to Bart is Jim, and eventually, the town warms up to Jim also, moving away from their ignorance. Eventually, the people in Rock Ridge are able to protect their town from Lamarr by teaming up with the black and Asian railroad workers. Basically, the movie is exposing the issue with racism by mocking and making fun of the bigots. And the jokes are so, so funny. Seriously, there were some points in the movie where I couldn’t stop laughing. A lot of the comedy reminded me of Looney Tunes, where it just dived into the silliness and absurdity. Like I loved how Bart was able to outsmart Mongo by delivering a candygram filled with explosives; it reminds me of something Bugs Bunny would do to Elmer Fudd. I loved the “I’m So Tired” song because the men were hooting over a hollering over a song that is really unsexy. My favorite part is at the end where things really get out of control and the fight between the people in Rock Ridge and Lamarr and his minions break the fourth wall. I was laughing hysterically when it spilled into Warner Brothers studios and infiltrated another movie set and even the cafeteria. Also, I wish that they made an actual movie where they were filming The French Mistake song, because that song is so catchy and I bet that would be a really funny movie also. What I love about this movie is that it balances the silliness with the satire of racism exposed in Western movies, and more broadly, racism in America. I think the reason why people find it offensive is because hearing these slurs in this movie is very off-putting at first, but also people need to realize that Mel Brooks is calling out racism by mocking it, which I think is a gusty movie to do in the 70s. I disagree with people calling it a “product of its time,” because it was pretty ambitious of them to even make a movie like this and I feel like it definitely influenced other movies to try to push boundaries and make their audiences uncomfortable.

I’m a diehard fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race, but I’ve always been very wary when it came to the “acting” part of this show. I hate most of the acting challenges and I don’t think they’re funny at all. So when I found out that World of Wonder studios was making a movie, I got really nervous because I thought it was going to be really bad and really unfunny. It also didn’t help that before the movie came out, there were already discussions about AI use in this movie. So I was a little hesitant seeing this movie in theaters. This movie is definitely an homage to disaster movies, like Airplane! However, usually with these types of movies who try to recreate or pay homage to these disaster movies, it’s usually bad or not funny. This is not the case. What I loved about this movie is that it didn’t feel like it was ripping off Airplane! or other disaster movies. This might be a little bit biased because I was just so disappointed after watching Scary Movie, so watching this movie felt so refreshing. What I loved was that the jokes were simple but just so goofy and silly that they worked. Of course, not every joke landed for me, and that’s okay, because 10 more jokes came after that were funny to me. Honestly, I can’t even remember the last time I laughed this hard in the movie theaters. What also helps is that this movie has a supporting cast of really funny people. They’re all comedians that I love, so I knew that I was going to have a good time seeing them on screen. And I loved that they’re just playing typical people you would see on the train or on the plane in a very exaggerated manner. People might think that’s one note, but isn’t that the case with every character in disaster movies? What I also loved about that movie is that the majority of main and supporting characters were drag queens. Yes, we have a couple of movies centered on drag queens, but I feel like there weren't really any major movies that I could think about where the main and supporting characters are played by actual drag queens. And I liked that it’s not even part of the plot at all and they’re just being regular people. And I feel like we need more of that, because usually when a movie has a drag queen casted, they’re usually a cameo or a one-off role as a side character, so it’s nice to see drag queens front and center for once. And Ginger Minj and Jujubee killed it as Tess and DeeDee. They made their characters so likeable and they did such a good job with balancing comedy with the warm-heartedness of their friendship. I just want to say for the record that I don’t condone the use of AI in the media. But maybe I’m just blind, or I'm probably just a dumb bitch, but I couldn’t tell which parts of the movie had AI. If you would have told me that AI was used in this movie, I wouldn’t be able to tell, because the scenes were so rapid that I couldn’t even stop to think if AI was used in the scene or not. I’m still docking off half a star for the AI usage though, since it would have been just fine as it is if it was regular people editing this movie. Even if you’re not a Drag Race fan, I still think this movie is quite enjoyable. It’s not just a comedy movie, but it’s a comedy movie with heart, and I feel like that’s missing nowadays when it comes to movies in general. I think when it comes to bringing back comedy movies, people just need to go back to basics with just having silly, goofy jokes so that it would make everyone laugh. I enjoyed this movie way more than I expected and I think it will easily become one of my favorite movies of this year so far.

When I was a kid, I loved the Scary Movie franchise, and Scary Movie 3 is my favorite. I loved the cast, and I refuse to even watch Scary Movie 5 when neither the Wayans Brothers, Ana Farris, and Regina Hall were even in it. So I was happy that the Wayans Brothers were coming back with another sequel and they were bringing the entire cast back. However, I was a little wary when they tried to advertise it as being “the most offensive movie ever” and “every line will be crossed,” because no one is really looking for that in movies. Like if that claim was true, then I would want it to be like South Park or be the type of offensive that makes people walk out of the theater. Still, I had some hope that the movie was good and decided to see it in theaters. Were there any good things about this movie? Maybe a few. For once, there were * some * scenes I laughed at, and that was the sight gags. I loved the Final Destination roller coaster in the background and I also liked the part where Ghostface stabbed the person in the poster screamed. Just small dumb details like that made me laugh a bit. And I also liked the reference to White Chicks too during The Substance parody. I also enjoyed the reveal that the Wayans Brothers were the killers and just basically said “fuck you” to the idea of giving the Scary Movie concept to the new generation. With the very few things I enjoyed out of the way, this film had so many problems. This movie is a parody of Scream 5 (a movie that I've seen and ** do not ** care for, by the way) so of course they were going to have more focus on a “new cast,” but I did not care for anyone in that new cast, except for that one actress who played Cindy’s daughter, because she had a really good Anna Faris impression. Luckily the last 10 minutes says “fuck you” to this idea, but it’s too little too late. Basically the whole cast gets underutilized, and that’s a shame because I really wanted this movie to have more Cindy and Brenda. In fact, I was really annoyed that this movie didn’t have enough Cindy and Brenda. Even Ray was underutilized and was just there for the gay jokes. On the other side of that, there was * too much * Shorty in this movie as it felt like he had to carry the majority of the jokes. And the Wayans Brothers said that they were bringing almost every character back, but even * they * were very underutilized in the movie also. I was under the impression that they were going to have bigger roles, but they just felt like cameos. Basically you’re just forced to deal with the “next generation” and when the original characters show up, you’re relieved to see them. I didn’t even think this movie was that funny compared to the previous movies. Sure, I laughed at a few jokes, but like that’s 3 or 4 jokes throughout the entire movie. And it’s very easy to make me laugh, so I was surprised that I wasn’t laughing a lot during this entire movie. And for a movie trying to be “the most offensive ever,” it sure doesn't do a good job at doing that. These jokes were either the most basic form of offensive, or jokes that we’ve already seen before. The pronouns bit is ** tired ** and I’m surprised we’re still making those jokes in 2026. That scene where people take turns stabbing Brenda’s woke child? We already saw that with Brenda in Scary Movie. That scene where they hit the Weapons kids with a car and they’re sent flying? We already saw that in Scary Movie 3. That scene where Cindy spins around screaming and then she gets dizzy? That was funny 10 years ago. And that dumb “67” joke already aged like milk so watching this in the future is going to make the joke even more cringey. It’s cottage cheese at this point. The biggest thing I hated about this movie was that the majority of this movie is full of references and not enough plot. At least with the other Scary Movies, they managed to have a coherent plot while parodying other movies. There was barely a plot in this one. It felt like the Wayans Brothers wanted to see how many movie references they could fit. Another thing that annoyed me was the amount of fourth wall breaks and looking/winking into the camera. Some of it’s funny, like when Cindy’s daughter was yelling because the camera was too far away, but they constantly broke the fourth wall. They might as well look at the camera and be like “Remember when that happened? Remember when that happened in the previous Scary Movies?” Even the references to other movies just felt like they were saying “Remember this movie?” It’s like watching a Family Guy episode, but a Family Guy episode has more plot than watching this movie. Even though I had low expectations for this movie, I still ended up being disappointed. There were a lot more misses than hits for me. I don’t think it’s the worst movie I’ve ever seen, and I’m sure a lot of people would love it because I heard a couple of people in the theaters laugh their asses off while watching the movie. But it just wasn’t for me, personally. If they try to continue this series, I’d hope they would go back to what made the first four movies good in the first place.