This past weekend, I headed up to the AFI Silver Theater for a showing of Spaceballs. That's right, Spaceballs. It was the crown jewel of their Awesome 80s series, and I was delighted to get to see such a classic on the big screen. I expected to find maybe 20 or 30 people when I arrived. Imagine my surprise to see a crowd of hundreds.
Apparently it was the 25th anniversary of Spaceballs (25 years?!) and the theater was hosting a huge event. There was a raffle for copies of the anniversary Blu-ray, an Imperial Death Star Officer cap, and a couple of sweet lightsabers, none of which I won. Alas.
It was really cool to be in a crowded theater of people who were all yelling in unison, "What's the matter Colonel Sandurz? CHICKEN?"
They were also handing out lightsaber lollipops at the door which they encouraged us to light up and wave around at key moments in the film, such as the famous Schwartz battle between Dark Helmet and Lone Starr. James, you shoulda been there.
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| My lightsaber lollipop. I chose Vader red over Skywalker green . |
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| And it lights up. For tiny battles. |
Now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb.
7 comments:
Now this is awesome.
What on earth is this movie I've never heard of that clearly heavily references Star Wars?! James, you dropped the ball in my upbringing.
You know, I introduced James to this movie one year when were kids, when everyone was home. We were watching it in Grandma's living room (she had the HBO) and your dad walked in behind us. The movie has some salty language and after Uncle Giz heard a few choice phrases, he said, "James, one more swear word and you're outta here." It didn't take long for one of the characters to drop the S word, and James was removed from the room.
I assume he was able to complete his viewing at a later date, but I just remember thinking, "Oh, good thing my dad wasn't here to yank me away from this awesome movie."
Wait, how young were you? I wasn't allowed to watch anything with "salty language" till I was like 19. And yet I'm sure James was far younger, and don't even get me started on Neck Pillow.
Well, the movie came out in 1987. I would have discovered it in 1988 when it premiered on HBO, and I remember having already memorized it when I told James about it (and thus I knew that a swear word was only moments away when Giz delivered his ultimatum), so that probably would have been around 1989. So, I was about 12 and he was about 11. Sorry about that.
I was expecting you to say that Giz followed you into the living room and watched the movie on the floor while laughing hysterically!
That does seem more like him.
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