Smack-Down Mini: Dracula Dead and Loving It VS. Hot Shots!

The place: a crowded Mexican restaurant in Athens, Georgia. The players: your humble author and Nick, my close friend and designer of our corporate logo. The argument: which is the better spoof movie, Mel Brooks' Dracula Dead and Loving It or Jim Abrahams' Hot Shots!

Perhaps this debate sounds silly to you, dear reader, and I couldn't agree with you more, but to be fair we had just taken a brewery tour and one of us (who shall remain nameless, but wasn't me) had a few too many, if you catch my drift. Drunken or not though, the argument grew quite heated, considering the subject matter, and eventually spilled over into the parking lot. I don't remember how it started, but I do know how it's going to end--in a good old-fashioned GEP Movie Smack-Down!

Title: Dracula Dead and Loving It

What the hell?: I think the argument kicked into high gear when Nick had the audacity to make the following statement: "This is the best work Leslie Nielsen has ever done." So, the man who gave the world Detective Frank Drebin and uttered the classic line, "I am serious...and don 't call me Shirley," finally hit his stride with this minor Mel Brooks picture? Is that what I'm to understand, sir?

To be fair, in this section of the Smack-Down I classically describe what the movie is about, so here we go: it's about an hour and a half.

The truth: If your idea of comedy gold is funny accents, Dracula Dead and Loving It will probably be your choice for best comedy ever. I have the same complaint with this film that I have with every other Mel Brooks film--it's not funny enough. I've never been a huge fan of Brooks (his films, to be fair--I find the man quite charming), but I keep giving him a chance. Dracula Dead and Loving It is a waste of time to watch and it seems like Brooks was aware of that the whole way through. Harvey Korman scores a few laughs as Dr. Seward, whose solution to every problem is an enema, and Steven Weber's terrible British accent (which I think was purposeful) made me smile quietly to myself once or twice.
Title: Hot Shots!

What the hell?: If you thought the Charlie Sheen/Jon Cryer comedy alliance started with CBS's Two and a Half Douchebags, you couldn't be further from the truth. Ducky and The Sheenster had already cracked America up with this spoof of Top Gun. The first ten minutes of Hot Shots! is funnier than the entirety of Dracula Dead and Loving It. I've always preferred the spoofings of Jim Abrahams and those Zucker Boys to those of Mel Brooks anyway. Hot Shots! contains clever wordplay, a sensual love scene in which Sheen cooks breakfast on Valeria Golino's stomach, a hilarious helium-peace pipe ceremony, and a running chihuahua gag that made me laugh every single time. Plus, its got Lloyd Bridges, perhaps the funniest man in the spoof genre after, well, Leslie Nielsen.

The Winner: I gotta go with Hot Shots! As I said before, Dracula Dead and Loving It is minor Brooks anyway and probably won't be embraced as a classic the way Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles has been. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick won't be starring in a musical version of this piece of shit anytime soon. It's lame, poorly made, and worst of all, not in the least bit funny. Hot Shots!, on the other hand, is genuinely hilarious. I'll just chalk this disagreement up to you being sloppy drunk and me being a movie snob, OK, Nick? But seriously, Dracula Dead and Loving It sucks, and I don't mean in a sexy vampiric way.