Spaceballs

Mel Brooks’s “Spaceballs” skewers the conventions of space opera with gleeful irreverence. When the villainous Dark Helmet covets Princess Vespa’s planet’s dwindling air supply, it falls to reluctant hero Lone Starr and his dimwitted companion Barf to thwart his scheme. Guided by the enigmatic Yogurt, Starr is introduced to “The Schwartz,” a cosmic force that might just turn the tide. A send-up of everything from “Star Wars” to “Star Trek,” “Spaceballs” revels in its own absurdity, trading in satire and slapstick for a humorous, if chaotic, ride through the cosmos.