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Directed by: Jim Abrahams, David and Jerry Zucker Starring: Val Kilmer, Lucy Gutteridge Most parody films tend to stick to one genre to lampoon. For example, the Scream series goes after teen-slasher flicks and Airplane! targeted airplane disaster films of the 1970s. Top Secret! tackles the unusual combination of World War 2 spy thrillers and 1950’s Teen Idol movies, throwing in bits and pieces of everything else for good measure. The result is a film so ridiculously dense with pop culture and cinematic references, it requires a pop-literacy of its audience equaled perhaps only by Family Guy, which has more than its fair share of tangents and obscure references to test its viewer’s mettle. The story follows and American rock star, Nick Rivers (played by Val Kilmer), as he travels to Europe during wartime. At a party, he rescues a young woman (Lucy Gutteridge) from Nazi officers, and the pair quickly becomes close as they flee from danger. If you were a fan of Airplane! or even the Hot Shots movies, you’ll probably enjoy Top Secret! It’s the same kind of goofy humor and completely ridiculous situations, which often seem designed purely to work in a joke or two, rather than attempting to form a tight narrative. However, the movie flows pretty evenly despite this, even in the one-shot scenes like the Blue Lagoon parody (which really dates the film), and the movie never aspires to be anything more than light entertainment, so it’s not a problem. I’ve never been a real fan of Kilmer, but he is perfect in this movie. He can play up the teen idol bit really well, and he proves himself to be a pretty good singer as well, with a good sense of comedic timing to boot. The songs themselves are brilliant, from the Skeet Surfing tune to the East German National Anthem. Most of them are Weird Al style, just changing around the lyrics of an existing song, but there are a few originals (or at least based on songs I’m not familiar with). The musical numbers are all worked into the movie quite well, without seeming more artificial or awkward than a film like this already has to be. The setting of the film is probably my favorite thing in the whole movie. It’s a mix of war-torn Europe and American rock n’ roll attitude, which makes the film a little anachronistic, but it manages to sell it as a passable milieu (though the movie recognizes its own absurdity more than once). This also allows for a lot of the jokes to work really well, and combines the energy of the two genres for a unique experience. Perhaps the oddity of the setting is why the film hasn’t caught on as much as Airplane! or other popular films of the same nature. I can see how it might be too much for some viewers to take at face value, but I personally love it. It’s also one of the few comedies that manages to be funny and cinematic. RATING: 4.5 PROS: hilarious, great music CONS: rather ridiculous setting ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088286/
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Jul 3, 2004 17:51
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 13:20 |
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Already reviewed: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1033588
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Jul 3, 2004 18:06
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quote:Montez came out of the closet to say: Doh! 
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Jul 3, 2004 18:13
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