c/movies · by TheImpressiveX@piefed.social · 25d

Rick Moranis Ended Acting Retirement After Nearly 30 Years and Says ‘It Was Very Strange’ on ‘Spaceballs 2’ Set: ‘I Felt Like I Was in a Time Warp’

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/rick-moranis-acting-retirement-spaceballs-2-strange-1236822474/

443 points · 73 comments · view on lemmy.world

73 Comments

TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world · 89 pts · 25d (25 replies)

I haven't been to see a movie in theaters in almost three decades. I might go see this.

wjrii@lemmy.world · 64 pts · 25d (24 replies)

Pros: Sound, projection, and seats are all better. Assigned seating is a godsend.

Cons: Prices, people on cell phones, prices, previews/ads push actual start to 20 + (d20 roll) minutes after the listed start, and prices.

ramble81@lemmy.zip · 26 pts · 25d (5 replies)

Pros: Alamo Drafthouse has a strict no phone policy (they eject without refund) and no ads before the show. The only thing they show is kitschy stuff related to the movie. And for Spaceballs, that’s gonna be fun.

thal3s@sh.itjust.works · 26 pts · 25d (3 replies)

Unfortunately, they’ve updated how ordering works and it’s phone based now so people are using their phones during the movie :(

Source

master_of_unlocking@piefed.zip · 15 pts · 24d

Yeah I still like them over other theaters but I hate that decision. It’s made worse by the fact that they haven’t implemented Apple/google pay so you have to type in the full credit card info every time.

I spoke with a server when they first started doing that and they told me that they were also supposed to speak with guests as little as possible. The servers are often movie lovers so I miss being able to talk about the movie before the show. Fuckin’ Sony.

fartographer@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 24d (1 reply)

I was gonna say that it fucking sucked the last time I went there and everyone was on their phones the entire time.

On the other hand, I went to a drive in theater and watched a movie in the trunk of my car with my wife, while people's kids ran around the parking lot playing. That was genuinely fun.

LePoisson@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 24d

See that's kind of the same for me. I think it's all about expectations vs reality.

Drive in theater - I expect all that, expect the audio to be whatever because it's my car speakers, expect kids and people running around, expect some noise and chaos. It's annoying when people leave their car lights on though or headlights and don't realize it.

Movie theater - dark AF, phones are distracting as hell because my eyes can't ignore a giant bright light appearing out of nowhere and you're at the goddamn movie theater. Turn your phone off. If you can't keep your phone off for the duration of a movie or live theater show then do not go for the love of God.

Just inconsiderate assholes ruining it for others.

Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip · 3 pts · 24d

Con: The nearest Alamo Drafthouse is almost 2 hours away.

IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 25d (1 reply)

My sofa isn’t all ripped up, and the reclining backs work.

wjrii@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 24d

Fair. Still, the modern cinema seats are generally better than the stained and overly absorbent folding auditorium seat monstrosities we used to endure.

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 24d

Don't besmirch my sound system. It has a box that says Dolby somewhere

bklyn@piefed.social · 2 pts · 25d (12 replies)

Thank you for listing all of the reasons why I will wait a month or two to download this onto my Plex server for free. it saves me the time of doing it myself.

I don’t care how good the movie is, I will wait to watch it in the comfort of my own home for free. Nothing, NOTHING could possibly drag me back into the nightmare of spending $25-$45 just to endure everyone else’s bullshit just to watch a movie. Nothing could possibly make it worth it.

Never again.

I even got a tattoo to mark the last film I saw in a theater 8 years ago: Ready Player One (not a great film, but I was drunk and stoned, so I enjoyed it)

Old-school 3D glasses. I thought it apropos

Abyssian@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 25d (11 replies)

If you haven't, you should check out the Dirtyhippie encode of Ready Player One. 4k 90fps sbs. It's by far the most beautiful 3D experience I've had.

bklyn@piefed.social · 4 pts · 25d (10 replies)

I appreciate any recommendation to improve my cinematic experience, however 3-D films give me a headache.

The tattoo is a symbolic nod to the enjoyable cinema-going experiences of yore, not an expression of enthusiasm for the 3D medium in particular. But, thank you, nonetheless.

That said, if you know of any fan edits of that film that can improve it in any way, please, do let me know.

I often describe that film as: for all of what it wasn’t, it quite nearly was

Abyssian@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 25d (9 replies)

Honestly not a big fan of it myself since it's such a pain in the ass to see well. But I bought one of those VR headsets and then realized that swinging my arms constantly to stab people in Skyrim was way less fun in practice than I'd imagined it would be so I picked up a few movies.

Pretty much all the 3D things were disappointing even in a high res VR headset, but that RPO encode was shiny as fuck.

bklyn@piefed.social · 4 pts · 25d (8 replies)

Well, I never wanted to know any of that, nor anything about this subject, yet… Quite subversively, I found all of that quite interesting to learn.

I feel a little weird saying this, but… Is there anything else that you’d like to share about the experience?

Abyssian@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 25d

Absolutely, starting out by saying you were somehow kind of interested while being bored and completely not giving a shit is the best way to get me talkative.

Idk. I'm in my 40s. Growing up I always imagined VR video games. Actually running around stabbing goblins and innocent passerby and looting them. The VR that exists right now is already better than anything I'd have hoped for. Except the part where people who play loads of video games and people who think it's fun to physically run in place and swing your arms about endlessly for hours at a time aren't really groups that tend to intersect very much.

It looks amazing, it's immersive as all hell, but it's also tedious as all hell. The few things I bother with any more are all games that I play with a controller, wearing the headset for added immersion. I can still turn my head and have my view change like I'm actually a part of the world, but then just sit on my ass and press buttons on the controllers for everything else.

Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy, and loads of other gorgeous games with worlds that are flat out amazing to see from a VR point of view can be modded to work with it if your system is beefy enough. But for me it was like it was amazing to get to experience and explore those worlds from a genuine first person point of view, but not the most fun way to just plain play video games. Very glad I spent some time fucking around with it, but after 6 months or so the headset just got perched on my PC tower.

The rare times it gets use these days are mainly for porn maybe once every few months. Which is another thing everyone should experience. Maybe. Seems like one of those things some internet creeps take to like it's heroin. It's crazy af and the best thing to happen to porn since shaving, yes, but porn, like heroin, isn't one of those things I'd like to dedicate the bulk of my life to.

If so, you'll have to wait until tomorrow since my blood amphetamine level seems to be bottoming out for today. :/

probable_possum@leminal.space · 2 pts · 24d (1 reply)

Cons

And people's feet on the backrest. I don't mind the feet, but often times they move them all the time and the backrest, too.

I'm curious how the space balls humour will translate to the present and how my mind will judge it. My mind... It changed over time. Plus my memory removed the bad parts in the original movie.

Aneb@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 24d

Your theater hasn't updated to recliner couches yet? Only the super tall still kick the back of seat otherwise its a nice way to relax, my theater got them heated seats too.

Sepix@feddit.org · 39 pts · 25d (7 replies)

Pretty sure the film will be horrible but that they pulled off geting Moranis back is simply amazing.

hOrni@lemmy.world · 58 pts · 25d (1 reply)

I was sure the new Naked Gun would be terrible but I laughed my ass off. I'll give Spaceballs a chance.

bklyn@piefed.social · 11 pts · 25d

That may be the best endorsement anyone could possibly give

aeronmelon@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 25d

Recent successes in revival movies and comedies, like The Naked Gun, make me hopeful.

It can be done, you just have to want to do the work.

DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 25d (3 replies)

I mean, it's all the same crew, including Mel Fucking Brooks. It's gonna be good.

UnrepententProcrastinator@lemmy.ca · 12 pts · 24d

John Candy 😭

CandleTiger@programming.dev · 12 pts · 25d (1 reply)

I feel like Mel fucking Brooks may have less energy available at this point in his career to push his artistic vision through.

I feel like this movie is the cinematic equivalent of 90-year-old congresspeople giving us “greatest hits of ideas that played well decades ago”.

Go. Retire. You had a great career for a long time. Now find a smaller audience.

Davel23@fedia.io · 18 pts · 25d

Brooks had very little to do with this sequel aside from reprising his role as Yogurt. He neither wrote nor directed.

homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 25d (6 replies)

Bob and Doug is a Canadian animated sitcom, which premiered on Global on April 19, 2009. The series is a revival of the SCTV sketch characters Bob and Doug McKenzie. The first season consisted of 10 episodes. The show was produced by Animax Entertainment. The first season premiered on April 19, 2009 and held the first season finale on June 29, 2009. A short second season of "five secret episodes" has since aired in sporadic form. The show was originally planned for development by Fox in the United States.

I totally missed that

SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 8 pts · 25d (4 replies)

Same, and that's brutal because I fucking love Dave Thomas. He always killed as Scott Aukerman's dad on Comedy Bang! Bang!

Kolanaki@pawb.social · 6 pts · 25d (3 replies)

I fucking love Dave Thomas

The Wendy's guy? 🤨

Blibly@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 25d (1 reply)

Yes. We love that man and his square-shaped meat patties

nocturne@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 25d

Take off, eh!

wjrii@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 25d

No, that's Dave Thomas. You're thinking of the former gridiron footballer for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 25d

You Hoser! Take off eh.

(I missed it too, I'm also a Hoser.)

aeronmelon@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 25d

What a reason for him to come back. You were sorely missed, sir.

ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de · 13 pts · 24d

I've been waiting for this danged movie since they hinted about it in the original movie almost 40 years ago. Insane production time.

Kolanaki@pawb.social · 9 pts · 25d (2 replies)

It's just a jump to the right...

TheImpressiveX@piefed.social · 8 pts · 25d (1 reply)

The left, you mean.

Kolanaki@pawb.social · 9 pts · 25d

Alternate timeline.

HugeNerd@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 24d (5 replies)

As do we. Let's stop rising old franchises to the hole in the roof during a storm.

Jarix@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 24d (4 replies)

This one gets a moment in time. It's pretty much the last chance to do something with most of the original cast and creator.

While I share your sentiment usually, this one really is an exception to the reboot slop we have seen over the last decade or so

IronBird@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 24d

comedies are the exception to rebootslop (generally), for example i desperately want another austin powers movie

usernamefactory@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 24d (2 replies)

This one gets a moment in time. It’s pretty much the last chance to do something with most of the original cast and creator.

You can say that for most of these reunion/reboots. Meryl Streep is pushing 80, so The Devil Wears Prada 2 had to happen now. We've already lost one Ghostbuster, so we really needed to make Afterlife happen stat.

Not that I want to harsh anyone's buzz. I've enjoyed some of these things, and this may turn out to be one of the good ones. But I'm not seeing anything setting it apart from the others, either.

Jarix@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 24d (1 reply)

One person isn't the majority of the entire cast.

Rick Moranis retired from acting almost 30 years before this project and it was a project worth him coming back for in his opinion.

That's different from your examples in a fundamental way. I'm not sure how I can explain it to you, but the difference for this one is clear and unambiguously a different situation then what you are comparing them to me

usernamefactory@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 24d

One person isn’t the majority of the entire cast.

When it's The Devil Wears Prada and we're talking about Streep, she may was well be.

Moranis is an amazing get, I'll give you that. I'm not trying to write this movie off, I just don't automatically write any of these things off. I don't think the glut of backwards looking projects is good for the industry as a whole, but most do have potential on an individual basis, and a couple of them deliver on it. I'm certainly hoping this will be one of them.

DistrictSIX@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 24d

"Moranis was always in pretty good shape"

bklyn@piefed.social · 6 pts · 25d (5 replies)

My download queue is ready and waiting…

Edit: before anyone gives me any shit about only 18 hours of uptime, I just did my monthly update and roboop, so gimme a break. This is a 14 year-old iMac, and my standard uptime is 30+ days before I run system updates and reboop.

jaybone@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 24d (3 replies)

Roboop and reboop are sitting in a boat.

Roboop falls out.

Who is left?

bklyn@piefed.social · 1 pts · 24d (2 replies)

Thank you for making my silly typo into something adorable

jaybone@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 24d (1 reply)

Typo? I figured that’s just what you called it because the t is no where near the p, at least on my keyboard. 🤷

It is cute though. I might start using it myself.

bklyn@piefed.social · 1 pts · 24d

No, I was referring to reboop vs roboop

I’ve been using ‘reboop’ for decades ;)

DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 24d

Uptime is not a flex.

Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 24d (4 replies)

Mel Brooks is pulling the stops. He's not dead, and neither is his comedy.

What I love is that he's taking risks.

It's not perfect, but we all appreciate it. Fuck the haters, man.

Nouvellalia@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 24d

Lol, receiving a boatload of cash to strap your name to a sequel to a successful movie you did decades ago and then keeping your hands out of it, is "taking risks"?

JingoBingo@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 24d

Josh Gad wrote this one not Mel Brooks.

chiliedogg@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 24d

I'm mostly concerned because Mel Brooks hasn't made a good film since Spaceballs.

I know a lot of people love Men in Tights, but it was just a bunch of reused jokes from earlier films. Even the title song was just "Jews in Space" from the epilogue of "History of the World Part I."

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 24d