Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his trusty sidekick Barf (John Candy) must rescue Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) from the clutches of Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) and the evil Spaceballs led by President Skroob (Mel Brooks).

Released in 1987, Spaceballs is the definitive Star Wars parody film from the mind of one of the absolute greats of the genre, Mel Brooks. Some of his other parody works include Blazing Saddles (westerns), Young Frankenstein (horror) and High Anxiety (Alfred Hitchcock movies). But whilst Star Wars and the space opera move is the main target for hilarity there is a huge array of other films that are subject for comedy including The Wizard of Oz, Transformers, Indiana Jones, Jaws, Star Trek, Alien (which even gets a special cameo) and The Planet of the Apes.

The plot reimagines Princess Leia as a spoiled rotten ‘Druish’ princess who runs away from home rather than get married to a boring prince. Alongside her is her trusty robot Dot Matrix (Joan Rivers) who bears a striking resemblance to C-3PO. Pursuing her is the evil Dark Helmet, unequivocally the funniest character in the movie played by the genius Rick Moranis. And trying to save her whilst refusing to fall in love with someone so spoiled is Lone Starr, our Han Solo stand in. Alongside him is perhaps the next funniest character in the movie, Barf. Played by the legendary John Candy he is introduced to us with a scene featuring Bon Jovi’s ‘Raise Your Hands’ in what is perhaps peak 1980’s film but nevertheless something this reviewer never fails to grin ear to ear when watching. Barf of course is the substitute Chewbacca in this story.

The plot is a simple rescue and evade mission that throws in a parody of the force known as ‘The Schwarz’ and lets Mel Brooks play both the evil, but dumb President and a Yoda parody named Yogurt (think the American pronunciation of the word for ultimate laughs). The gags along the way are utterly genius.

Favourite scenes include Dark Helmet asking for their ship to go to ‘Ludicrous Speed’ (it seems Elon Musk was inspired by both the film and perhaps the president in the movie?), the crew members names on board Helmet’s ship and the many times Rick Moranis breaks the fourth wall.

The whole film is generally inspired and sits alongside the likes of Airplane as one of the greats of the genre. Perhaps the only warning to be made to the younger generation would be one of those content warnings that explains that some jokes were very much the norm in the era it was made but perhaps would never get past the first draft of a script today.

Brooks is celebrating his ninety-ninth birthday on the day I publish this article and he has announced that he intends to release a sequel to Spaceballs sometime in 2027 so his creative energy seems to be in no danger of slowing any time soon.