Sunday, June 19, 2016

Mom and Dad Save the World (1992)



One of the leading sources of comedy in movies is dumb people.  This has been the case since the beginning of comedy.  A classic dynamic is the straight man and the wacky man.  In that scenario, the wacky guy is commonly a dumb guy.  Some movies push the boundaries further by making multiple characters into dumb characters and having that be the focus.  Dumb and Dumber, Idiocracy, and Mom and Dad Save the World use stupidity as their driving force.  There’s a fine line to follow in order to succeed with this comedy.  If you cross this line, you risk the movie being as dumb as the characters.

Mom and Dad Save the World crossed that line and kept on going.  It turned back, saw the line that it crossed, and said “Screw it.  I’m already this far.  I’ll go to the edge of existence.”  Why it chose to do that will is a mystery.  There were flying cars, killer mushrooms, and Jon Lovitz bald headed and sporting strange wigs.  A few good jokes made it in, but for the most part it was as dumb as the characters.  How anyone thought that this movie was good will forever baffle me.

What is Mom and Dad Save the World?  Dick (Jeffrey Jones) and Marge Nelson (Teri Garr) headed out on vacation.  They got magnetized to a distant planet by Tod Spengo (Jon Lovitz), who wanted to marry Marge before destroying Earth.  Spengo imprisoned Dick, leaving Dick no choice but to free himself and find a way to save his wife.  In saving Marge, he would also save Earth.  Oh, and Spengo’s planet, which he named Spengo, was filled with the dumbest inhabitants in the universe.

The main problem in Mom and Dad Save the World is that there is no proper straight man.  In Idiocracy, Luke Wilson is the normal person amidst the crazy, immature and unintelligent future generation.  Dumb and Dumber had the characters surrounding Harry and Lloyd reacting to the crazy antics.  The main characters of Mom and Dad Save the World don’t act in this reactionary way too often.  They have their own eccentricities that add to the lunacy.

Dick and Marge have been married with children for a long time.  They were introduced as that crazy old couple.  They showed their vacation pictures to anyone who would listen.  Dick always complained about his aging body, particularly his sore back.  He even got in his car to get the newspaper from the curb.  Marge found any opportunity to use her camera, regardless of how inappropriate it was to do so.  They weren’t as dumb as the people of planet Spengo.  They were, however, wacky in different ways.

There were sporadic moments that showcased a little bit of a straight man and wacky man contrast.  These were the best parts.  Also note that they did not feature Jon Lovitz.  One example was when Dick met the former king of Spengo, locked in the dungeon.  The king told him increasingly ridiculous things, including that Dick had to go into his pants.  Jeffrey Jones sold the reactions, showing that the dynamic worked.  There was a later scene in which Dick teamed up with a group of rebels and had to grow accustomed to their dumb ideas.  It was a fish out of water scenario much like Idiocracy, but without the writing talent of Mike Judge.

Mom and Dad Save the World instead relied upon farce.  There were only a few minor instances of farce that truly worked in the movie.  One such scene involved a group of Tod Spengo’s soldiers looking for the rebels and stumbling upon a grenade that would disintegrate them if they picked it up.  It had a message on its side that said “Pick me up.”  One by one, each of the soldiers picked up the grenade.  They watched as the soldiers before them died, and continued to do it.  More moments like this could have helped to make the movie funnier, which could have partially made up for what it lacked in story and straight man dynamics.

As big a problem as the lack of a straight man was the overabundance of Jon Lovitz.  He better suited for smaller, supporting roles than the loony bad guy in a science fiction farcical comedy.  His style is not something that can support feature length exposure.  His more tolerable performances are either shorter, or performances that lessen his style.  Movies like City Slickers 2 or Rat Race keep him Lovitz-y, but it’s a Lovitz-light.  Certain movies produced by Happy Madison have him at the same extreme as this movie, but he doesn’t get nearly as much screen time.  This movie had him at his worst.

There isn’t a whole lot more to say about the comedy in Mom and Dad Save the World.  The movie was a dud on that front.  However, there is one other thing that I want to bring up.  The look of the movie was interesting, though at the same time, very much of that era of science fiction.  It looked like many of the other movies from the early 1990s.  The set design was reminiscent of movies like Super Mario Bros. and Judge Dredd.  It had that kind of science fiction look, without any of the science fiction charm.  (Say what you will about Super Mario Bros.  The look was at least interesting, though inaccurate to the games.)  It looked like wacky science fiction for the sake of wacky science fiction.  It never truly built a world for anything other than jokes.  It could have used more than that.

This is going to end up being the shortest post I’ve written in a long time.  That’s because I don’t have a whole lot to say.  The comedy was bad, the visuals weren’t great, and the acting would fluctuate from good to bad in less than a second.  What saddens me more than anything is that this movie was the reason that Jon Lovitz left Saturday Night Live.  The production of this movie ran a couple weeks long and Lovitz had to choose between it and SNL, and left SNL to finish what he thought was going to be a huge movie.  It wasn’t huge and nearly ruined his career.  It failed because it was terrible.  It was terrible because of the comedy.  The comedy was terrible because it tried to be farce but didn’t go far enough, and didn’t have a straight man to save what was left.  Mom and Dad Save the World was a bad movie.
Now for some notes.  A lot of notes:

  • Mom and Dad Save the World was suggested by @nickissac, who previously suggested D.E.B.S. and Drop Zone.
  • Ed Gale made his fifth Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance with Mom and Dad Save the World.  He was previously in Tiptoes, Chopper Chicks in Zombietown, Howard the Duck, and Santa, Jr.
  • Debbie Lee Carrington made her third appearance after being in Tiptoes and Howard the Duck.
  • Jeffrey Jones was in Howard the Duck as well as Mom and Dad Save the World.
  • Mom and Dad Save the World is the second Sunday “Bad” Movie to feature John Michael Quinn.  He was already seen in Monster in the Closet.
  • Thalmus Rasulala made a second appearance in Mom and Dad Save the World after being seen in Blacula.
  • Danny Cooksey returned to the Sunday “Bad” Movies in Mom and Dad Save the World.  His first movie was Mac and Me.
  • Michael Stoyanov was in both Mom and Dad Save the World and Freaked.
  • Eric Idle is now in two Sunday “Bad” Movies.  His first appearance was in Delgo.
  • If Wallace Shawn seemed familiar to you, it may be because he was already in the Sunday “Bad” Movies in Furry Vengeance.
  • Two actors from Date Movie appeared in Mom and Dad Save the World.  They were Tony Cox and Charlie Dell.
  • Finally, Jon Lovitz is in Mom and Dad Save the World.  He recently showed up in Bark Ranger.
  • Have you seen Mom and Dad Save the World?  What did you think about it?  What do you think about this post?  Use the comments below to discuss anything related to this movie.
  • If you have any movies that you think I should watch for the Sunday “Bad” Movies, let me now in the comments or on Twitter.  I need to start putting together the next part of the schedule.
  • Sometimes when I’m watching bad movies, I will put up clips of them on snapchat.  You can find me there with the username jurassicgriffin.
  • Next week’s movie will be something called Lil’ Treasure Hunters.  It is also known as The Lil’ River Rats and the Adventure of the Lost Treasure.  From what I’ve seen so far, it’s another new millennium knock off of The Goonies.  Why are these a thing?  I don’t know.  You’ll see what I have to write about it next week.  See you then.

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