Mom and Dad save the world – newsdubai

24 July 1992

MOM AND DAD SAVE THE WORLD is a comedy sci-fi fantasy thing that was apparently released quite widely (but seen very narrowly) on July 24, 1992. I saw this when it came out on video and I remember , that I liked it for all its crazy sets and costumes and puppets and shit. Unfortunately, this time I found it extremely difficult to sit through. It’s interesting that something so obvious could have so much work put into it and still turn out to feel like it’s barely a movie.

The cartoonish supervillain who sets the action in motion is played by Jon Lovitz, last seen in A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN. He is the seedy tyrannical ruler of the planet Spengo, and his name is Emperor Todd Spengo. I don’t know why it’s funny for a character like that to be called Todd, but it is. It’s one of I think two things that made me laugh in this movie. The second is a few minutes in when Emperor Todd Spengo decides to postpone the destruction of Earth with his “Super Death Ray Laser” because through his telescope he spots the most beautiful woman he has ever seen – Marge Nelson (Teri Garr, THE PLAYER) makes it very awkward. aerobics in an ugly sweatsuit.

It’s kind of funny that the object of his desire is this clueless middle-aged woman in a cat sweatshirt with giant glasses, which would now be worn by an ironic hipster, but was then correctly recognized as humorously ugly. A lady like that doesn’t expect something like this to happen to her, you know. But she takes it in stride.

So that’s the joke. Marge and her husband Dick (Jeffrey Jones, HOWARD THE DUCK) are a regular boring and apparently somewhat loveless suburban couple about to celebrate their 20th anniversary when they and their crappy station wagon are magnetically drawn to the fantastical “planet of idiots.” An over-the-top score by Jerry Goldsmith (WARLOCK) blares throughout as they are marched around by goofy soldiers called Destroyers, go down slides, get attacked by mushroom creatures, talk to people with animal faces, etc.

There are some people with fish heads, and in the tradition of TOXIC AVENGER II, they are humanoids, but with a full fish body, fins and tail as a head. Strange. There are also dog people. Tony Cox (BAD SANTA) and Ed Gale (HOWARD THE DUCK), who played Station in BILL & TED’S BOGUS JOURNEY, both play dog ​​people.

Okay, actually a third part that made me laugh was when Dick was taken to a dungeon by bulldog people and he asked “Who is your tutor?”

Marge is spoiled and given a makeover to prepare for a forced royal wedding; Dick escapes and meets a tribe of outcasts in bird masks and tries to lead a rebellion. Jones is an interesting choice to play Dick, but I don’t think he really works because the character is in his wheelhouse of these obnoxious assholes, but it looks like we’re supposed to be invested in him realizing how much he loves Marge and become heroic to save her, bringing tension to their marriage. Could you ever invest in and relate to Jeffrey Jones, even when we didn’t know? It is a challenge.

Eric Idle (TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE) plays former king Raff, chained to a dungeon wall with a long beard covered in cobwebs. One of those cameos. You also have Wallace Shawn (STRANGE INVADERS) in quite a bit. Model Kathy Ireland (THE PLAYER) plays his daughter. John Connor’s friend Danny Cooksey is seen briefly (and without pointed mullet) as one of Dick and Marge’s children. Thalmus Rasulala (BLACULA, FRIDAY FOSTER, BORN AMERICAN, ABOVE THE LAW), who plays the Emperor’s long-suffering general, died of a heart attack shortly after finishing filming, so the film is dedicated to him.

The effects are by Tony Gardner and his Alterian Studios, who also made SLEEPWALKERS and ARMY OF DARKNESS that year. I don’t think this movie would have been released without their work here. For example, there is a random part where Dick sees a huge rat in the dungeon and it mimics what he says. It’s a nothing scene, except the thing looks so awesome.

The creature work and the various designers probably deserve the biggest credit for making this pass into a real movie, what with all their Dr. Seuss-inspired architecture, bulbous beam cannons, cheesy spaceship models, etc. Surprisingly, production designer Craig Stearns (BODY ROCK, DEAD HEAT, THE BLOB, SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO) didn’t really specialize in that kind of fantastic setting. I guess he later made THE MASK. And MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS: THE MOVIE. And the live-action THE YEAR WITHOUT SANTA CLAUS. I guess he tried.

I noticed that the cinematographer was Jacques Haitkin, whose name I know because he shot A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 1 and 2. Around this time he also shot MANIAC COP 3: BADGE OF SILENCE, which I personally would be much more proud of of being involved in. if I were him, but he can do what he wants.

The screenplay is credited to Chris Matheson, with a story credit for Ed Solomon. They’re the team that wrote all the BILL & TED movies, and Solomon had separately had LEAVING NORMAL earlier this summer. MOM AND DAD seems more like a BILL & TED type of movie as it finds humor in an absurd fantasy concept, except it’s not as funny or good as BILL & TED. So it turns out I’m more of a LEAVING NORMAL guy than a MOM AND DAD SCARED THE WORLD guy. These are the things we learn as we grow older.

Director Greg Beeman was mostly a TV director after making episodes of The Wonder Years and Creepy, Indianaand later some other quite interesting ones like The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., Nowhere Man and Strange luck. He directed the unused 2007 Aquaman pilot and episodes of some of the modern cartoon shows that actually aired (Lucifer, Swamp Thing, Batwoman, Stargirl, The Flash). In the feature films, however, he only had LICENSE TO DRIVE (1988), this one and BUSHWHACKED (1995). Well, and some TV movies, especially PROBLEM CHILD 3: JUNIOR IN LOVE.

I’m not sure if I knew MOM AND DAD SAVE THE WORLD was a theatrical release. It was reportedly released on over 900 screens, but did terribly and was pulled from most of them the next week, making only about $2 million on a $14 million budget. While I can’t see a scenario where this movie is popular, I certainly didn’t know it existed at the time, so I blame the advertising. There are better known films I’m skipping in this series that are certainly less boring to watch, but at least this one supports my theory that ’92 was a strange summer.