Mom and Dad Save the World (1992) Warner Bros./Sci-Fi-Comedy RT: 88 minutes Rated PG (some language and comic violence) Director: Greg Beeman Screenplay: Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon Music: Jerry Goldsmith Cinematography: Jacques Haitkin Release date: July 24, 1992 (US) Cast: Teri Garr, Jeffrey Jones, Jon Lovitz, Dwier Brown, Kathy Ireland, Thalmus Rasulala, Wallace Shawn, Eric Idle, Suzanne Ventulett, Michael Stoyanov, Danny Cooksey, Jeff Doucette, Jonathan Stark, Dan Stanton, Don Stanton, Bergen Williams, Brent Hinkley, Tony Cox, Ed Gale, Debbie Carrington. Box Office: $2M (US)
Rating: ***
I used to hate the sci-fi comedy Mom and Dad Save the World. I saw it at the cinema and nearly walked out. I didn’t find it the least bit funny. It made my “Worst of” list that year. I recorded it off cable a few years later (1999 to be exact) and taped over it after a second viewing failed to change my opinion. I swore I’d never bother with it again. I managed to keep that vow for more than a quarter-century.
I don’t know what came over me tonight, but I decided to take another look at Mom and Dad Save the World. I had nothing better to do anyway. This time, I enjoyed it. I laughed at it more than I ever did in the past. Isn’t it funny how opinions can change over time?
EUREKA! I discovered that the key to enjoying Mom and Dad Save the World is to realize it’s not so much funny as it is silly. The idea of a suburban couple being transported to a faraway planet in a station wagon only to find themselves compelled to save their home planet from total annihilation by a dimwitted madman ruler is pure goofiness. It’s like one of those cheap, cheesy sci-fi movies that typically showed on UHF channels on the late show way back when but infused with laughing gas. With this realization, I was finally able to surrender myself to the supreme silliness of it all.
Teri Garr (Young Frankenstein) and Jeffrey Jones (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) play the Nelsons, Marge and Dick. They’re in something of a rut with their marriage. She has a sense of adventure and likes to try new things. He doesn’t. He’s always complaining about his back or sensitive tummy. He’s the kind of guy who pulls his car out of the garage to pick up the newspaper at the end of his driveway. To celebrate their 20th anniversary, they decide to take a weekend trip to Santa Barbara. En route, they get detoured way, WAY off course.
On a distant planet named for its tyrannical ruler, Tod Spengo (Lovitz, SNL) plans to destroy Earth with his “Super Death Ray Laser”. It bears mentioning that everybody on planet Tod is an idiot including and especially Tod. He temporarily halts destruction when he gets an eyeful of Marge through a telescope. He’s immediately attracted to her and intends to make her his wife. He uses a “Magnobeam” to bring her to him. Dick is basically along for the ride. When the couple arrives in their station wagon, he throws Dick in the dungeon and lets Marge know she’s going to marry him.
In the dungeon, Dick encounters the rightful king of Tod, Raff (Idle, Monty Python and the Holy Grail). He clues the clueless earthling in on what’s happening. He tells Dick to escape and track down his son Sirk (Brown, Field of Dreams) and daughter Semage (Ireland, Necessary Roughness) living in exile in the desert. When he does, they elect him to lead the rebellion against Tod. Only he can save Marge and only they can save Earth.
It’s possible I was in a better head space than the previous two times I watched Mom and Dad Save the World. I’d even say it’s likely. Either way, I sat there on my couch giggling at the stupidity of the story and characters. I especially got a kick out of Lovitz who totally steals the show as King Tod, a moron who constantly needs his ego stoked by his second-in-command General Afir played by the late Thalmus Rasulala (Blacula) to whom the movie is dedicated (he died in October ’91).
Lovitz actually gave up his SNL gig because of this movie. Filming, which took place in summer ’90, ran over schedule. SNL producer Lorne Michaels told him he couldn’t miss any time on the show. He quit so he could finish working on the film. Now that’s what I call dedication to one’s craft. Too bad it was the wrong choice.
Mom and Dad Save the World absolutely bombed at the box office. It made less than $1M in its opening weekend. Everybody saw that coming. It took a while (almost two years) for it to make it to cinemas. Warner kept delaying its release. They didn’t screen it in advance for critics or audiences. They just dumped it into theaters knowing full well it wouldn’t make it too far from the starting gate in the summer box office race. Lovitz thought it would be the one to make him a movie star. Yeah, that never happened. Warner pulled it after two weeks and hoped the public would just forget about it. Most have, but I’m not an ordinary member of public. I never forgot it.
Directed by Greg Beeman (License to Drive) and written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon (the Bill & Ted movies), Mom and Dad Save the World is fun if you look at it the right way. Take the special effects. I love the use of miniatures. The alien creatures are obviously little people in cheap costumes or puppets as is the case with the killer mushrooms. This is how they used to do it, kiddies.
Let’s now address the elephant in the room. We all know about Jeffrey Jones and what he did to get cancelled. It’s bad, but I’m not going to let his reprehensible acts deter me from enjoying the movies he’s been in. He does okay as the dull husband/dad. Garr is just as fun as the upbeat suburban housewife who insists on bringing her own coffee maker on a weekend trip (hey, who knew?). Kathy Ireland looks sexy as the scantily-clad alien princess. Idle has some good scenes as the rightful king. It’s always fun to see the Stanton twins (Good Morning Vietnam, Gremlins 2 and Terminator 2) show up in a film.
In thinking about it, I probably would have liked Mom and Dad Save the World as a young teen. I can see it as one of those movies I’d watch multiple times on HBO. I was 24 when it came out so I didn’t make that youthful connection with it. I didn’t get it then, but I do now. It’s just a silly, stupid movie best watched with the brain in OFF mode.
