We left the spoof movie at the end of the 80's, having journeyed from the genre's golden age in the 70's (Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein) through to the trail-blazing 80's (Airplane!, Naked Gun). But, the genre was about to suffer a terrible time in the 90's...
Leslie Nielsen, now considered a comedy actor thanks to his roles in Airplane! and Naked Gun, starred in Repossessed in 1990, with Linda Blair reprising her infamous childhood role as a girl possessed by demonic forces in The Exorcist. But, while Repossessed does contain a few good moments, the targets it aims for are very outdated.
David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker (ZAZ) parted company after Naked Gun 2 1/2 The Smell Of Fear (1991), and Jim Abrahams branched off with spoof writer Pat Proft to create Hot Shots! (1991), a pastiche of Top Gun with Charlie Sheen. Hot Shots! is now considered a minor classic of the genre and also confirmed Lloyd Bridges (Airplane!) as another aging actor given a career boost akin to Nielsen...
1993 saw Hot Shots! spawn a sequel, Hot Shots: Part Deux. Abrahams and Proft again reteamed to parody more action movies, this time focusing on the Rambo franchise. Unlike Airplane's sequel, Hot Shots Part Deux is a great follow-up, with many people prefering it to the original. Interestingly, it is the first spoof to directly parody current events (the Gulf War) which added topical hilarity...The year would become quite a hot spot for spoofs, driven by the huge success of the Naked Gun and Hot Shots! series. National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 parodied Lethal Weapon, with a pre-Pulp Fiction Samuel L. Jackson and Emilio Estevez, to amusing effect; Fatal Instinct parodied Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction to lesser success; and the old master Mel Brooks returned with Robin Hood: Men In Tights. Sadly, his Robin Hood performed even more dismally than Spaceballs at the box-office, thanks to its schoolboy humour.
But it was Dracula Dead & Loving It (1995) that put the nail in Brooks' spoof comedy coffin, with Leslie Nielsen struggling to win laughs through a weak interpretation of the Dracula legend. It should have emulated Young Frankenstein, but the weak knockabout humour of Robin Hood took precedence, to even less effect.
Nielsen again returned in a below-par spoof entitled Spy Hard (1996). The less said about that, the better. Also that same year, Tim Burton spoofed classic alien invasion pics with Mars Attacks!, while Jon Lovitz spoofed the high school movie in High School High.
With dozens of weak imitators clogging the pipeline in the 90's, a ray of hope was offered by comedian Mike Myers with Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery (1997). A sly parody of James Bond and spy movies in general, Austin Powers was actually a box-office dud that only later became a phenomenon on DVD and earned itself two ludicrously successful sequels (1999's The Spy Who Shagged Me and 2003's Goldmember). Interestingly, Myers' creation moved away from the Airplane!-style gaggery and instead took its influence from Mel Brooks' early movies -- having a self-contained story that spoofed genre conventions and cliches to earn its laughs.In 1997 the cheap spoofs returned in force with Silence Of The Hams and Wrongfully Accused (1998), again with Leslie Nielsen in a latecoming spoof of The Fugitive. By now, Nielsen's name had become synonomous with spoofs -- even all the crass 90's upstarts, sadly...
With Mel Brooks languishing in the wayside, it was now the turn of the "modern masters" who had reinvigorated the genre with Airplane! Jim Abrahams, one third of ZAZ, returned after Hot Shots: Part Deux, with the ill-fated Mafia! (1998). Unfortunately, Mafia!, starring Lloyd Bridges, was another weak movie and a crushing failure for Abrahams.
1998 saw mixed fortunes. The Godson was another mafia-based debacle with Dom DeLuise (don't even rent it, trust me), but the spoof was given a momentary boost with the success of Galaxy Quest. Starring Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman, Galaxy Quest was a thinly-veiled spoof of Star Trek, but had a story and mythology of its own. It was about a group of actors who now attend sci-fi conventions after working in the TV show Galaxy Quest, but are mistaken for intergalactic heroes by real aliens...The spoof genre saw another step away from the 90's dirge with Scary Movie in 2000. This was a parody of slasher movies, particularly Scream (itself a parody, really). Personally, I'm not a fan of Scary Movie because of its crassness and reliance on simple parodies of pop-culture. Where's the fun and invention of Airplane!? But, whatever my thoughts, Scary Movie did laugh up a lot of money, so sequels became a certainty...
Scary Movie 2 was fast-tracked for release in 2001, but proved a massive disappointment. This was just a weaker variant on the first movie, simply content to mix various movie plots together and weaky parody recent supernatural movies.
It seemed the dirge was creeping back in when Not Another Teen Movie and 2001: A Space Travesty were also released that year.
In 2003, Scary Movie 3 hit cinemas and expectations were higher than deserved. Leslie Nielsen had joined the cast (cause for concern, perhaps), but director David Zucker (one third of ZAZ) was at the helm with his old friend. Could Zucker's talents again reinvigorate the genre? Well, no. Scary Movie 3 was certainly better than Scary Movie 2, but that's not saying much. It again relied too much on pratfalls and imitating other movies.
And, like clockwork, the interminable Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday 13th arrived the same year to ensure the spoof movie stay resolutely in the gutter...
A slight reprieve beckoned again in 2004 with Britain's own Shaun Of The Dead proving itself a brilliant pastiche of zombie movies, managing to scare/laugh up plenty of cash for Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. The creators of TV's South Park also got in on the action with Team America: World Police, which can be seen as a parody of post-9/11 world events, puppett-based 60's adventure series such as Thunderbirds and musicals. "Aids! Aids! Aids! Aids!"But now, in 2006, Date Movie has just been released to mass derision and Scary Movie 4 is the very latest offering from the genre. Interestingly for spoof fans, Scary Movie 4 is again directed by David Zucker, but is also co-written by his old comedy partner Jim Abrahams. But, despite this near-reformation of ZAZ, I don't hold out much hope on SM4 raising the game...
It seems we're still languishing in a pit of unfunny spoof movies that think they're funny just because they imitate other movies. This is spoof at its most basic, folks!
Hopefully producers will begin to realize what made Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Airplane!, Naked Gun and Hot Shots! so special, and the spoof will be reborn for the 21st-Century. They need their own standalone stories, decent characters, a clever and satirical edge, and less reliance on simple mimicry.
Modern spoofs just lurch from one movie spoof to another, with no regard for internal logic or story. I certainly hope the genre returns to form (and isn't crippled by the cash-in leeches that seem to blight the genre). But as of 2006, the spoof genre is currently a very depressing place to be for fans...
... and Shirley, I am serious...
DAN'S TOP 10 SPOOF MOVIES
01. Airplane!
02. Monty Python & The Holy Grail
03. Naked Gun
04. Hot Shots: Part Deux
05. Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery
06. Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell Of Fear
07. Galaxy Quest
08. Hot Shots!
09. Blazing Saddles
10. Shaun Of The Dead
