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Top Secret! (1984)
Rate:
5
Viewed:
1/25
1/25:
Top Secret! marks the screen debut of Val Kilmer.
It's an okay comedy picture, having rarely made me laugh, that's actually better than what Mel Brooks used
to put out during the 80's and the 90's. Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker are more interested
in going from gag to gag without putting much of thought to the story. The worst part is using animals
for sex jokes which is something I don't ever want to see.
Plenty of movie moments are recreated in a spoof way such as The Great Escape,
The Blue Lagoon, Das Boot,
and The Wizard of Oz. Even Jeremy Kemp sports
the medal from The Blue Max instead of the customary Iron Cross.
Mice on the street between buildings? That's taken from Superman.
It's true about the Ford Pinto blowing up on impact which is due to the placement of the gas tank in
the rear. How about these East German females with muscles and the screaming girls as seen in The Ed Sullivan Show
when it had Elvis Presley and The Beatles on? When Val Kilmer is trying to kill himself while singing, he mimics
James Brown during the performance of "Please Please Please."
If anything, I'm surprised to see Omar Sharif taking part in this. He's not bad really. Val Kilmer does
the singing himself, and it'll play an important role down in the road by taking on the role of Jim Morrison in
The Doors. As for his acting ability, he's very much two-dimensional compared
to Leslie Nielsen of The Naked Gun trilogy, causing the film to be flat
most of the time.
Oh yeah, the German words uttered throughout the film? A great deal of them are made-up despite how authentic
they sound. At one point, Val Kilmer was listening to the self-learning tape, and it mentioned "blitzen" for
"pen." That confused me because it actually means "lightning" as in "blitzkrieg" or simply "blitz." Something
that prevents an unfluent viewer from getting the film 100% is when the characters use German
they're saying something funny.
All in all, I've never been a fan of Airplane!, and Top Secret!,
although better, is just more of the same.