As Vampires Suck arrives in the UK, spare a thought for the spoof movies that time is in danger of forgetting…
This week, Vampires Suck arrives in the UK, the latest in a line of spoof movies from the creators of the likes of Epic Movie, Date Movie and Meet The Spartans. The spoof, however, is edging towards being something of a forgotten art, too often substituting visual references for anything that genuinely offers some lampooning.
It's with this in mind that we uncovered a collection of spoof movies that still, for some reason, don't get the love they deserve. So, without further ado...
Top Secret
The daddy of forgotten spoof movies, Top Secret is the film that the Zucker Brothers and Jim Abrahams made between Airplane! and The Naked Gun, and it's arguably the equal of both.
Providing a first film role for Val Kilmer, it's a desperately funny spoof of war movies, but it throws in a fair array of very successful references to other movies, too, not least the pastiche of The Blue Lagoon.
It offers a perfect example of how you lampoon a moment, rather than recreate it, too. As it ticks off the war movie clichés, there's a marvellous bit where, to save those around him, one man courageously dives on a grenade. The problem? All around him blow up, and he's the only survivor.
There's so much more to commend about the film, that it only seems right we point you in the direction of our piece on the movie right here.
Police Squad!
Appreciating that it's not a movie, Police Squad! nonetheless formed the basis for the three Naked Gun films, and introduced Lt Frank Drebin to the world. While the cast changed slightly between the short-lived, six-episode TV show and the big screen outings (the casting of OJ Simpson as Nordberg being the main difference), there are as many belly laughs in the TV show as there are in the Naked Gun flicks. In fact, Naked Gun 2 ½, in particular, seems to liberally borrow little bits and bobs from its television forerunner.
What I love about Police Squad! is that it delights in its silliness, and, as with all good spoofs, it plays things dead straight. Leslie Nielsen is rightly regarded as the acting king of the genre, in spite of the catalogue of, er, ‘less impressive titles' that followed in the wake of the Airplane! and Naked Gun films. And Police Squad! finds him in rich form.
Galaxy Quest
We ran a piece on this recently, which you can find here, yet it continues to surprise us that Galaxy Quest doesn't generate more love. Because love is at the heart of what's been put together here. It's a love of the science fiction genre, of its conventions, and of Star Trek, in particular, that actually manages to pack in some far from shoddy effects work too.
Look out for Tim Allen, channelling William Shatner in the lead role. And do consider giving the film a whirl if you haven't already. Majestic spoofing lies within it.
BASEketball
A film starring Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and one that didn't involve puppets or animation (Team America could arguably be added to this list, too). Instead, BASEketball has a whale of a time ripping shreds out of sports movies, and sport in general, as our two heroes invent a brand new sport - including the quite wonderful psyche-outs - and watch it catch on in a really big way.
BASEketball is a wickedly funny film, that's every bit as immature as you'd want it to be on the surface. However, dig a little deeper, and it's aiming more than a few lampooning darts with laser accuracy.
National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1
Mel Gibson, when he first heard of Loaded Weapon, was reported to have said something along the lines of how can you parody a parody? And to a point, he was right. Loaded Weapon is taking aim primarily at a Lethal Weapon series, that itself was quite subversive and leg-pulling towards the action movie genre as a whole.
That doesn't mean it's without merit, though. For, in the midst of a collection of generally middling gags, there's a solid spoof movie here, and a fine, sparring double act from Samuel L Jackson and Emilio Estevez. William Shatner turns up here, too, as he did in Airplane II: The Sequel.
Hit and miss is the best way to describe Loaded Weapon 1, but its success rate is still far higher than the likes of every Scary Movie after the second, Spy Hard, Robin Hood: Men In Tights and lots of spoof movies since...
Vampires Suck arrives in UK cinemas today...