Strong and Moving!

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Jim Abrahams and David Zucker, the creators of Airplane!, bring more madcap humour to the big screen with Top Secret!, which stars Val Kilmer as rock and roll singer Nick Rivers, who becomes involved in a resistance plot to rescue a scientist being held captive in East Germany.Kilmer, in his debut, is surprisingly good, handling acting, comedy and singing duties with aplomb, proving without a doubt that he is a major star in the making; Kilmer is joined by a wonderful supporting cast which includes more established faces such as Peter Cushing, Omar Sharif, Ian McNiece and Michael Gough.Unfortunately, as talented as the cast are, the scattershot humour is far too random and wildly inconsistent to be a total success: for every laugh-out-loud moment (my favourites: a very silly dance routine, the novelty dog poop gag, the brilliantly executed Swedish book store scene, and the singing horse), there are dozens of others that will fail to tickle the funny bone.

I remember watching this film on some old cranky VHS somewhere in 1988- 1989, with some 'orrible Russian dubbing, but it was so hilarious, we split sides laughing and almost screaming with giggles. Young and handsome Val Kilmer seemed so cool and nonchalant there, that we all simply tried to imitate his gimmicks and we all dwelt on repeating some of the craziest and funniest routine of the movie. Years later, I finally watched this one in English. Yeah, much of fun is still there and cameo by Omar Shariff is excellent, but still, some of the older magic is gone. Some gags ran stale, some jokes look vapid, some routine seems banal and not good even for a parody spoof film. The ZAZ team did a fine job. Yeah, some films lose charm, some stay the test of time. This on is 50/50, as some of the jokes grew rotten. But still, it can be watched

Although it can be argued that they are still being made, the 'spoof' movie really died a death in the 1990's. Recently, there have been tragedies such as Epic Movie (2007) and its various imitations, all of which were the cinematic equivalent of sticking your cock in a blender. They used to be the forte of comedic giants and legends such as Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and the Monty Python crew. David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams made perhaps the last great spoof in Top Secret!, a relentless parody of spy thrillers that seems unfairly forgotten in the wake of ZAZ's (Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker) more popular Airplane! (1980) and The Naked Gun (1988).With East Gemany planning an attack during a cultural festival, they invite American rock 'n' roll singer Nick Rivers (Val Kilmer) to perform as a distraction for the audiences. Rivers, a sort of Beach Boys meets Elvis Presley, soon gets embroiled in the French resistance movement when he meets the beautiful Hillary Flammond (Lucy Gutteridge) who is searching for her missing father Dr. Paul (Michael Gough). Along with a group of misfit revolutionaries with various French pun's for names, and Hillary's lost-love Nigel (Christopher Villiers), they must break into the high-security prison where Dr. Paul is being held. Top Secret! is a film of such effortless hilarity, it's a wonder how and why the three directors behind it parted ways and made such drivel as Jane Austen's Mafia! (1998), Rat Race (2001) and Scary Movie 3 (2003), highlighting just how much they needed each other. It offers near to non-stop sight-gags that vary from the inspired (a train station pulling away from the train) to the downright ridiculous (a character gets crushed in a car then is seen later with his arms and legs sticking out of it, still alive), nearly all of which hit the mark. But there's also clever word play, and that lost art - embracing the stereotype. Would a film nowadays get away with calling it's only black character Chocolate Mousse? There are literally too many funny scenes to mention, but the one that had me in stitches is the scene in which Nigel and Du Quois (Harry Diston) dress up as the rear and front of a cow, when a real cow comes to suck on its udders, much to the pleasure of Nigel. They stop, with Du Quois insisting they make haste, and Nigel replies "you're always in such a bloody hurry!". It's marvellously old-school, headed by a wonderful performance from Kilmer, who as well as getting plenty of belly laughs himself, also proves himself to be a bloody good dancer in the few performance scenes he has. But it is also a sad reminder of just how good this sub-genre used to be.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

This round (Jim Abrahams), (Jerry Zucker) and (David Zucker) made nothing but a bunch of jokes on the war movies, which didn't hold together as a whole movie. I wished that the parody's most famous team would present something more solid and effective than these desultory weak sketches. True that there was an ambitious intention, but the final outcome was purely deficient. The plot line is thinner than a thread. Most of the gags are juvenile. There are some comic moments that manipulate the cinematic medium for just the manipulation (the bar fight under the water, the library scene played backwards), without at least real laughs along the way. Choosing (Val Kilmer) was a big hole to a ship with already many holes. He had such a stiff face, which didn't fit comedy (or in fact anything !). The supposedly comic lines were delivered miserably by him.Speaking of which, if you noticed well, you would discover that the-stiff-face choice was kind of a habit of the (Abrahams, Zucker and Zucker). From (Val Kilmer) in (Top Secret! – 1984), to (Charlie Sheen) in (Hot Shots! – 1991) and (Hot Shots! Part Deux – 1993), ending with (Jay Mohr) in (Jane Austen's Mafia! – 1998) !!! Maybe the studio used to demand a young handsome guy as a lead, whether had a talent for comedy or not ! Sure (Leslie Nielson), a regular – and better – face in that team's movies, wasn't always satisfying for the producers as only handsome guy (young age beats talent is an old Hollywood story !).2 things live from this movie : its actively ironic spirit out of the movies' exposed tricks, along with few marginal jokes. It's not a perfect movie in the first place; just a quick rehearsal for (Hot Shots 2) later. After parodying the 1940s and 1950s war movies in (Top..), they would parody the 1970s and 1980s war movies in (Hot..). Btw, character actor (Miguel Ferrer) was in the 2 movies, playing nearly the same role. The only difference was that the last one was more funny and more like a movie as well.