Hardware Wars

You don’t need the Force to make a Star Wars spoof. In fact, parodies of the sci-fi franchise have been in steady stream for years, from the tongue-in-cheek ”Troops” to the bizarre ”Star Wars Holiday Special” (oh, wait, that wasn’t a parody). Hardware Wars is the granddaddy of fluke Lukes. Hailed as ”ingenious” upon its release, the 13-minute faux trailer, featuring such rebel heroes as Ham Salad and Princess Anne-Droid flying around in a steam iron, feels considerably less irreverent now. Less funny, too. Thankfully, director Ernie Fosselius makes up for it in other areas, providing a hilarious, long-winded commentary that pokes fun at the similarly self-indulgent tracks from real auteurs. And there’s the purposefully inept ”Director’s Cut,” complete with backward credits and fingers in the frame. ”Hardware”’s extras show how far the genre has come: It’s no longer enough to simply spoof — now one must parody the parody.