There are some great parody films out there, but the overwhelming abhorrence and laziness of the genre in general means I'm reluctant to give any of them a chance today, unless I already happen to like the person making it.
I don't know what I think of Mel Brooks, since I've never watched anything he's done as of the time of writing this intro. Some of these films are pretty popular though, and not just among idiots, so worth a try. Here's what I reckon about The Top 11 Mel Brooks Movies.
The world really didn't need a fairly authentic Dracula adaptation interspersed with occasional crap jokes, but maybe Mel Brooks needed a new house or something.
Seemingly a send-up of a specific Robin Hood adaptation that hasn't exactly gone down in history, this isn't a parody that anyone need trouble themselves with outside of the early 90s. Especially since Maid Marian and Her Merry Men was already nailing it.
I did unusually extensive background reading for this parody by watching all the Hitchcocks last year. He's aiming high by trying to make something vaguely comparable, but with nearly all of the gags being bolted on rather than sending up the suspense genre itself, it just ends up like quite a rubbish Hitcock.
Brooks' pseudohistorical sketch anthology hurls shit at the screen for 90 minutes and a few pieces stick. Orson Welles' narration gives it unearned gravitas, but he was even doing Manowar voice-overs by this point.
After his black-and-white early-talkies tribute, Mel goes even further back than I would've thought permissable, excused by the meta conceit that the characters are making this unlikely film before our eyes. As tenderly authentic as always, despite not going all the way with juddering sepia stock, but still not funny enough.
Brooks picked out another tale of greedy comeuppance for his classier and less funny second film. Maybe because I'm used to Russian stories in the short form, this period farce felt twice as long as it needed to be, even at less than 90 minutes.
Lovingly authentic in style, but dully traditional in plot, which was especially disappointing after Blazing Saddles. Gene Wilder gives a passionate performance in his pet project, but it's never funny enough to really feel worth it. Sadly, this would be the trend from now on.
A surprisingly sincere if slightly sentimental comedy-drama amid the silly spoofs, this social satire was nothing special, but a refreshing change of pace. I'd forgotten what it was like to actually care about characters.
The subject matter secures this one's pop-culture status more than its quality, which isn't up there with the great parodies or sci-fi comedies. The best parts are the fourth-wall-breaking gags and the effects, which they commendably bothered to do properly.
Brooks' debut film about a play producer putting on a play feels a lot like it's been adapted from a play, but that reverse adaptation wouldn't happen for several decades. The plot's timeless, but the execution is so resolutely sixties in its coy innuendos that when it does suddenly go all edgy, it's all the funnier.
1. Blazing Saddles (1974)
Uncomfortably frank for some modern audiences in its period bigotry (1870s and 1970s), this skewed western (not really a parody) redeems itself as it gallops towards its anarchic, fourth-wall-obliterating ending. The jokes aren't as funny as ZAZ, but it's actually saying something.