"Mom and Dad Save the World" has been on and off the Warner Bros. release schedule so many times it's surprising this film wasn't released straight to video. It should have been.
A spoof of science-fiction films that is more bizarre than funny, the plot has two typical American suburbanites, Marge and Dick Nelson (Teri Garr and Jeffrey Jones), being taken up into space in their station wagon, off to the tiny planet Spengo, which is populated by self-described idiots.
The chief idiot is Tod Spengo (Jon Lovitz), who has taken over the planet, renamed it after himself and who plans to use a death ray to destroy Earth, which he feels is too cocky. But when he spies Marge on a viewer, he falls in love. So, with marriage on his mind, he plots to bring her to Spengo.
As the film opens, we're told Marge and Dick have been married 20 years and we soon see that Dick is suffering from middle-age blues. He's overweight, suffers from a bad back and isn't very amorous toward his long-suffering wife. Marge, on the other hand, is supremely optimistic about everything.
During a vacation trip without the kids, which Marge hopes will rejuvenate their marriage, they find their car suddenly hurtling through space. When they arrive on Spengo, Dick is thrown into the dungeon, where he encounters the former king (Eric Idle). Marge, meanwhile, is taken to a dressing room where she is groomed for the wedding by fish-maids. The fish are married to dogs who act as the palace guards. Then there are those deadly, "Alien"-like mushrooms that look like mutant Muppets.
Oh, never mind.
Anyway, Dick escapes and tries to rescue Marge with the help of the king's son and daughter, along with their very stupid (and barely dressed) tribe of desert rebels.
Does all of this sound like fun?
It isn't.
And we haven't talked about the the mind-melt machine, yet. Or the scene where Tod dresses up like Elvis. Or the one where Marge is tied to a chair and Tod kisses her with his tongue.
As you may have gathered by now, most of this picture is just as idiotic as Spengo's population. And Lovitz's "Tod the Destroyer," played as an overgrown, petulant child, quickly wears out his welcome.
Garr and Jones are always fun to watch, but everything here is played so broadly - and so badly - that even they look uncomfortable. On the other hand, when you're conversing with dogs and fish or being chased by mushrooms, how else can you look?
"Mom and Dad Save the World" is, more or less, a kids' picture. But, as usual, there are vulgar jokes and a few killings that seem rather inappropriate for very young ones.
It is rated PG for violence, vulgarity and profanity.