CHRISTIAN TOTO: Is Mel Brooks Torching His Legacy in Real Time?
Quick, what was your favorite scene from “History of the World, Part II?”
Don’t have one? Never saw it? Wasn’t even aware such a project existed?
You’re not alone. Hulu’s ill-fated attempt to revive Mel Brooks’ 1981 comedy didn’t rock the culture. Reviewers were mostly kind, but the streaming series came and went without much fuss.
Blame a crowded marketplace or the fact that it’s hard to duplicate Brooks’ brand of silliness even when he served as an executive producer on the miniseries.
Looking back, it was funnier to leave a film like “History of the World, Part I” as is. The title is part of the joke, no?
Now, Brooks is back. Twice. Is it wise to dust off his comedy classics to appease an industry desperate for IPs?
Will new, inferior Brooks titles diminish his canon?
He just announced a belated sequel to “Spaceballs,” his intermittently funny “Star Wars” spoof from 1987. The original isn’t a classic like “The Producers,” “Young Frankenstein” or “Blazing Saddles,” but it gently skewered George Lucas’ franchise in memorable ways.
Spaceballs isn’t that good as a film, but it’s become much loved because Brooks was one of the first to parody the sci-fi genre, doing for the Star Wars franchise what Blazing Saddles did for westerns and Young Frankenstein did for the 1930s Universal monster movies. But most of Brooks’ post-Young Frankenstein movies failed to work at that same level of excellence, but because of the titles that Toto mentions above, Brooks’ cinematic immortality as a comedic director is assured, no matter how bad the latest product that trades on his goodwill and small involvement turns out to be.