Top Secret

Well-Deserved Exclamation Point
Top Secret! - the Jim Abrahams/Zucker Bros.' follow-up to Airplane! - does for (or is that *to*) Elvis movies and WWII espionage films what the earlier feature did for/to the airborne disaster genre. The gags are slightly more immature (not necessarily a bad thing, but in some cases may have been better had they been allowed to age a little before being put into production), but some, like the forced-perspective oversize phone or saying farewell to the Scarecrow, rival anything the ZAZ team has ever done.

The music is a mixed bag. "Skeet Surfing" and the Macy's jingle are great. "Tutti-Fruitti" and "Straighten the Rug" are less so (not that every song in an Elvis movie was worthy of screen time, either). Kudos to Val Kilmer, though; even when he's camping it up, the musical numbers remain watch- and listenable.

The only thing I don't care for on the disc is the audio commentary. The production team really rips the movie apart as if they had tried to...

The funniest slapstick comedy ever made!
Just barely nudging out their own "Airplane!," I think Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker's "Top Secret" is the best slapstick comedy ever. It's got all a film should have: action, comedy, romance, great songs. This is unquestionably Val Kilmer's best movie, and he is perfect as Nick Rivers, the Elvis-like troubadour who is so famous that not even Frank Sinatra fits on the bill. The sight gags and puns are horrendously funny. I could spend hours recalling my favorite scenes. The film is a postmodern masterpiece, successfully intertwining and spoofing cliches from just about every film in the genre (most notably James Bond films and Elvis movies). The film openly points outs its flaws ("it's like the plot to some bad movie"), and celebrates film flubs. It breaks all the rules of "classic" cinema, and has made other spoof films basically impossible to be funny (films like "Spy Hard" and "Loaded Weapon").

Funny Then - Funny Now
The ZAZ team (Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker) doesn't disappoint in the laugh department with this movie. This is mainly slapstick and visual gags, but it's the best of them. If you want some stupid, no-brain, sexual innuendo, parody comedy then this is the greatest!

This movie made me laugh like no other movie has. Val Kilmer has a wonderful performance as a rock-star and foreign dignitary. The parodies of popular Beach Boys and Elvis songs are hilarious. The best scene and most creative I thought would have to be in the bookstore. You HAVE to see it to believe it. It made me laugh incredibly hard. You may have to pause the movie every once in a while so you can breathe. Although that may be exaggerating a bit it isn't far off.

This movie is well worth the money you pay for it. The laughs it delivers are tremendous and timeless. Have fun and don't laugh too hard!

Click to Editorial Reviews