Robin Hood: Men in Tights

“Robin Hood: Men in Tights,” released in 1993, is a nice return to the crazy, radical scatological comedies that made Mel Brooks a household name everywhere. It is a film for his loyal fans and for younger audiences who only know Mel Brooks from name. Leonard Klady said in his review, “Virtually a primer of all the familiar visual and literal jokes in his bag of tricks, the film is a paean to the obvious that is more delight than retread. It should sail through the summer on steady business aimed at the funny bone like no other film in the market place.”

Brooks’ loving the residents of Sherwood Forest is honest if hard to see. Klady noted, “In 1975 he covered the basic territory in the television series “When Things Were Rotten.”” On top of that, he really pulled together a classic that it basically looked like his largest success, “Blazing Saddles.” Even classicists will find that one a classic comedy.

The basic story is about nobleman Robin of Loxley, played by Cary Elwes, who journeys with King Richard to the Crusades. He escapes and returns to England, where he finds the kingdom in a terrible shape thanks to Prince John (Richard Lewis) and his evil partner renamed here the Sheriff of Rottingham (Roger Rees). Picking up criminal habits, Robin joins the good country people to help him get rid of the kingdom of the bane. He also falls in love with Maid Marian, played by Amy Yasbeck.

With Brooks in charge, there are so many satires taken on the famous tale. Friar Tuck has been redone by Brooks by renaming him Rabbi Tuckman, and the cast of characters includes a black foreign-exchange student, played by Dave Chappelle, and plenty of anachronistic modern references.

Klady mentioned, “The manic ensemble is grounded by Elwes’ virtually straight-faced interpretation of Robin with a glib assuredness that hits the target dead center. Rather slier is Yasbeck’s Marian, who gets great comic effect from being the girl too good to be true.”

The supporting cast includes a long list of Brooks’ regulars. Best of all are the hilarious crying of Rees’ Sheriff and the ugly old woman Latrine as played by Tracey Ullman.

Klady said, “Taste, never a factor to be considered seriously in the filmmaker’s work, is appropriately questionable. There is tremendous glee to be derived from the spontaneity of his outrageous antics. It’s blunted only when he steals shamelessly from past successes.”

One size of “Tights” won’t be everyone’s, but Mel Brooks stays a brilliance whose audience is always open and willing to see what he comes up with next.

As you might have guessed, I actually had a great time laughing at this movie. If you love all of Mel Brooks’ comedies, this one is for you, especially if you have seen Disney’s “Robin Hood” and “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” which it mainly spoofs. This got bad reviews, but I think it’s not as bad as the critics made it out to be. Give it a watch and don’t listen to any of the bad reviews.

Alright everyone, this concludes “Parody Month.” I hope all of you enjoyed this month, as I finally got around to talking about a few of my favorite comedies/parodies. Look out next month to see what I have in store for everyone.

Hot Shots!

An expert fighter pilot scarred by the memory of his father’s failure is enlisted to take on a mission into Iraq hoping that his insecurity will be the horrible failure and allow a weapons maker to receive a huge contract for new fighter jets.

The time before Charlie Sheen was obsessed with tiger’s blood and Adonis DNA due to the drugs he takes. “Hot Shots!” released in 1991, is directed by Jim Abrahams, who directed spoofs like “Airplane!” “Top Secret!” and “Ruthless People.” He also helped write the screenplay along with Pat Proft, who had done great comedies like “Police Academy” and “The Naked Gun: From the Flies of Police Squad!” It looked like Abrahams seems to be excited to work together since many of the comedy titles end with an exclamation point. The basic story is about a talented pilot named Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen), who has been living on a Native America area because of being haunted by a problem where his father Buzz Harley’s (Bill Irwin) had died, ‘Mailman’ (Ryan Stiles, who you might remember from “The Drew Carey Show,” “Drew Carey Improv-a-ganza” and currently “Whose Line is it Anyway?”). Lt. Commander Block, played by Kevin Dunn, finds Topper and asks him to join the ongoing war in Iraq. What Topper doesn’t know is that Block has other plans and enlisted Topper not because of his skills, but because of his insecurity. Block has made a deal with a weapons dealer that will guarantee mission failure to that his arms dealer can convince the government to buy new fighter jets.

Lolo said in their review, “Spoofs are almost always outrageous, ridiculous, and downright dumb. What separates the good ones from the bad is their ability to make you laugh, and "Hot Shots!" (1991) is all of those things and simultaneously hilarious.” This great comedy is mostly a parody of “Top Gun,” but it also has other references from “9½ Weeks,” “An Officer and a Gentleman,” “Rocky” and “The Fabulous Baker Boys.” Lolo said, “More often than not when we watch this movie, we find ourselves saying, "wow, that was so stupid," but we're usually laughing when we say it, so that's a win-win in our book. "Hot Shots!" (1991) relies heavily on physical comedy and sight gags, though not all of the humor works. The most consistent source of hilarity comes from Lloyd Bridges's character Admiral Benson, a career military man who has a constant string of physical ailments and an oblivious nature that gets him into some zany situations. Though it's Bridges that shines the brightest, the rest of the cast gets their chance to produce an occasional laugh as well. Charlie Sheen was a very charming actor when he was younger, and he had a terrific knack for sharp, deadpan delivery. He does a great job mimicking a Tom Cruise type of flyboy who thinks his poop doesn't stink.” The main problem when re-watching movie like this is how dated many of the references are. “Hot Shots!” is very much a product of its time, and people who didn’t grow up in the 90s and/or aren’t familiar with many of the political and movie references may not think this is funny than those who were born in the 80s and seen what happened then.

If this film may not be as successful as some of the other 90s spoofs that came out, “Hot Shots!” is still a good one to see at least once for Lloyd Bridges’ hilarious performance mainly. Some movies completely have silly fun, and this is definitely one of them. I think this is one of the funniest spoofs ever.

The sequel, “Hot Shots! Part Deux,” released in 1993, Topper Harley is sent to save some prisoners from evil Middle Eastern villains but on the mission he encounters the girl that got away, played by the great, talented and beautiful, Valeria Golino.

Seeing how I thought “Hot Shots!” was a hilarious “Top Gun” parody, I really liked seeing “Airplane!” and “Naked Gun” partner Jim Abrahams back in spoof form with this much funnier sequel where Sheen’s Topper Harley is thrown back in action with huge muscles, shaved chest and headband as a spoof on Rambo.

His mission is to “save the men who went in to get the men who went in to get the men” following a failed hostage rescue “somewhere in the Middle East.” Angie Errigo said in her review, “His commander-in-chief: US President Tug Benson (Bridges), even more gaga than Reaganbush.” Also in the film is Richard Crenna to reprise Trautman from Rambo.

Errigo said, “Naturally Abrahams and co-jokester Pat Proft are not content just to send up the Stallone action man cycle and plunder everything from The Wizard Of Oz to Star Wars, T2, Basic Instinct, No Way Out and Robin Hood : Prince Of Thieves.” In one scene (a flashback to a better time and a romantic dinner for two in an Italian restaurant) there are references to The Godfather, Casablanca and Lady and the Tramp, highlighting that the best laughs are dependent on the support of a great audience.

Errigo noted, “And as always with Abrahams, what's glimpsed going on in the background is often as funny as what's notionally happening immediately in front of the camera — just check out those saffron-robed monks while Topper is being recruited from his monastery retreat.” Best part: an “Apocalypse Now” reference guaranteed to really excite people. Errigo said, “Shamelessly artless, silly beyond absurd and truly juvenile.” When Charlie Sheen was on “Inside the Actors Studio,” he said that Martin Sheen agreed to have that nod to “Apocalypse Now,” where Martin Sheen’s team was sailing on their mission while Charlie Sheen and his team are sailing towards their destination, if they agreed to donate the salary amount of his choice to the charity of his choice. Charlie Sheen admitted that since he couldn’t keep the lie he’s lived with for a long time that he filled in the missing amount of money since they couldn’t come up with the amount Martin Sheen wanted. What I really found funny about that scene was when both father and son simultaneously say “I loved you in 'Wall Street'.” In case you don't know, they both starred in “Wall Street,” which I'll get to one day.

To end off: this is one of those rare things where a sequel is funnier and more successful. I seriously think everyone should check these two spoof movies out. They are funny and some of the best spoof films out there and I think everyone will have a great, hilarious time watching them, especially when they catch the other film references in them.

Alright, look out next week when I finish off “Parody Month.”

Spaceballs

Mel Brooks has done everything. He made Frankenstein’s monster into a song number (“Young Frankenstein”), really brought the attention of tight-wearing weaklings of fairy tale (“Robin Hood: Men in Tights”), and even showed the West for its extreme political unsuitability (“Blazing Saddles”). It sounded exactly the right choice that he would make his well-deserved satire at the only film genre he has not spoofed at, science fiction, with the hit-and-miss 1987 comedy, “Spaceballs.” A film that gets just as many things right as it does wrong, “Spaceballs” is definitely not Brooks’ greatest work to date, but it has got to be his most famous, thanks to an eccentric cast of comedy actors, an incredible cult following, and most importantly: Merchandising!

As we see in the scrolling introduction similar to “Star Wars,” the planet Druidia is going to be extinct due to the work of the evil Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) and the Spaceballs when they kidnap King Roland’s (Dick Van Patten) daughter Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) and hold her hostage in order to get all of the planet’s clean air. Vespa has run from her wedding to Prince Valium (Jim J. Bullock) with her C-3P0 hybrid, Dot Matrix (Lorene Yarnell but voiced by the late Joan Rivers). Desperate to ask for help to save his daughter, the King asks the help of famous space rouge Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his half-man/half-dog partner Barf (the late John Candy) to travel across space, rescue his daughter and save the planet’s special air supply. This hilarious duo of incompetent protagonists happily accept the mission for the unknown amount of space money, a debt owed to the infamous Pizza the Hut (Dom DeLuise), but they first must find the mysterious Yogurt (Mel Brooks) and learn the secrets behind the powers of The Schwartz before Dark Helmet takes over space.

Jason Zingale said in his review, “The main premise of the film (both its plot and characters) is mostly influenced by George Lucas’s sci-fi trilogy “Star Wars,” but Brooks borrows from the likes of nearly every popular sci-fi franchise, including “Star Trek,” “Aliens,” “Planet of the Apes,” and even the not-so-science-fiction tale “The Wizard of Oz.” Brooks includes a good collection of quality gags throughout, but it’s Moranis’ crowd-pleasing re-creation of Darth Vader that ultimately wins in the film’s internal battle for absolute absurdity. Other notable performances include Bill Pullman’s early work as the Han Solo/Luke Skywalker hero character and John Candy as the hybrid wookie. With enough memorable characters and quotes to validate the film as a bona-fide cult classic, “Spaceballs” is one of the few screwball comedies that everyone must experience at least once.” To paraphrase what Dark Helmet would say, “You’d be an idiot if you didn’t.” That’s right; I edited out what he would actually say because this blog is swear free.

I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but this is one of my absolute favorite comedies. I love the spoof it did on “Star Wars” at a time when spoof movies were actually done the right way. If you haven’t seen this movie, don’t read this review, go find this movie and watch it because it’s one of those comedies that is an absolute must to watch. You will be missing out on a lot of jokes and memes if you don’t see this right now. There are just so many good jokes and quotes that it would take up so much of this blog if I were to list them right now. That’s why I say you need to watch this to know and laugh while getting all of the references to all these great movies, mainly “Star Wars.”

Now that I have reviewed this great spoof, look out next week when I look at two other great spoofs done by a team of great spoof masters in “Parody Month.”

Blazing Saddles

For the month of June, I’m going to look at the classic spoof movies, back when spoof movies used to be smart and funny. To start off this month, let’s take a look at the classic by the great Mel Brooks, “Blazing Saddles,” released in 1974.

Mel Brooks has made his most hysterical comedy right now in the smartly funny “Blazing Saddles,” a Mel Brooks Film for Warner Bros release, produced by Michael Hertzberg.

Right after setting the amazingly disrespectful tone with a hilarious parody in the title song (music by John Morris, lyrics by Brooks), sung by Frankie Laine, Brooks then quickly goes to satirize every Western made, up to and including “Zachariah.” Ron Pennington said in his review, “Unfortunately, he has overindulged himself in the broad comedy of the final scenes and lessens the effect of the film somewhat by allowing the climactic fight to spread throughout Burbank Studios, onto a soundstage where a musical production number is being rehearsed, into the commissary and ending in the forecourt of the Chinese Theatre. It's a funny slapstick bit but it also distracts from the main portion of the film.”

The story partly centers a story by a greedy land thief (Harvey Korman) to rid the citizens out of the town of Rock Ridge by sending them a black sheriff (Cleavon Little). With his stylish resourcefulness and the help of an alcoholic gunman, played by the late Gene Wilder, however, he is able to win against the villains and win the respect, if not really the respect, as said by Pennington, “of the local backward citizenry.”

The screenplay by Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Berman, Richard Pryor and Alan Uger (from a story by Bergman) is completely mocking, never missing a moment to point out a cliché and offending everyone throughout the runtime. The language is meant for R-rated movies but it never becomes offensive. Pennington said, “In fact, the incongruous pairing of the language and the characters accounts for a great deal of the boisterous humor.”

Pennington continued, “Brooks' fast-paced direction is a masterpiece of comedy detail, filled with delightful and perfectly timed sight gags. The predominant style is one of the extremely broad burlesque but the film is also packed with more subtle touches, especially in Morey Hoffman's clever set decoration and in Peter Wooley's production design.”

Pennington noted, “The performances are all comedy gems, with Korman especially delightful as Hedley Lamarr, scheming and plotting with all the finesse of a precocious brat. Little plays the sheriff with just the right amount of bemused superiority, with a shy grin and a sly twinkle in his eyes, and Wilder presents a perfect parody of the gunslinger, with heavily lidded and steely blue eyes and a lethargic self-assurance.”

Madeline Kahn continues to show her amazing comedic flexibility here as a Marlene Dietrich-type dance hall performer with an accent that is somewhere between German and Looney Tunes. Her I’m Tired song is all the reason to see the movie. Brooks also makes two cameo appearances in the film, as the funny Governor Lepetomane and as an Indian Chief. The other supporting cast is equally perfect with the right physical looks including Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, Liam Dunn, Claude E. Starrett Jr., David Huddleston, John Hillerman, Carol Arthur, Robyn Hildon and Dom DeLuise.

Pennington said, “The technical credits are all excellent, with Joseph Biroc's Panavision cameras giving attractive scope and dimension and capturing the visual humor in perfect setups.” The editing by John C. Howard and Danford Greene keeps the action going at a great pace.

This is definitely one of the funniest comedies ever made. Granted, watching today may make it look like its really offensive, but I guess that was part of the joke. However, I still think this is one that shouldn’t be skipped because this will make you laugh from beginning to end. Give it a watch and have yourself an enjoyably fun time. Also, sorry for posting this late, I completely forgot about my posting for today.

Look out next week when we look at one of the funniest parodies ever made in “Parody Month.”