Tag: Mel Brooks

Blazing Saddles

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Blazing Saddles

dir. Mel Brooks (1974)

Film poster: “Blazing Saddles” dir. Mel Brooks (1974)

Brooks crafts a comedy layered with tasteless caricatures; over-the-top expectation gags; cringingly, affectedly b-grade acting (Gene Wilder proving the exception); brash, almost surreal anachronisms; and flights of lunacy that blast beyond the fourth wall. Uproarious in parts, baffling and indefensible in others.

Spaceballs

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Spaceballs

dir. Mel Brooks (1987)

Brooks_Spaceballs

The ultimate Star Wars spoof, corny beyond belief but laugh-out-loud funny in places and well worth watching every thirty years or so. Most of the highlights come courtesy of Rick Moranis, who surpasses genre as the nefarious if vertically challenged Dark Helmet.