f you loved "Airplane" and "The Naked Gun" you're in for a great time with the only time Elvis movies and WW2 films were ever spoofed at the same time in TOP SECRET.
Four years after their massive hit, "Airplane" Writer/Directors Jim Abrahams, David and Jerry Zucker take the same rapid-fire "throw every joke and sight gag at the screen" approach to the tale of American rock star Nick Rivers (Val Kilmer) dragged deep into a spy tale while on tour in Germany.
Rivers falls for the daughter of a kidnapped scientist that the Nazis are forcing to develop a war changing weapon.
It sets up hundreds of opportunities to spoof the classic moments from WW2 films of every era/mashed up with the worst parts of every Elvis movie to ever grace the screen.
Kilmer is funny and sings & dances well through some hilarious numbers. Omar Sharif is great as a very unfortunate spy on the streets of France. "Novelties, party tricks....excuse me you forgot your dog poop..."
Sharif is game for anything and his efforts after being smashed in a car compactor are fall over funny.
Peter Cushing is a bookstore owner with an amazing magnifying glass. Their entire scene was filmed in reverse and generates some great laughs with subtitles for their dialogue in reverse English posing as German.
When our resistance hides inside a cow to penetrate a German stronghold and has an encounter with a bull, as Kilmer turns an upscale Opera dinner into a fifties sock hop, when Kilmer and his love carry on an entire romantic conversation while falling in parachutes, the film hits every high note that "Airplane" did.
It's surprising this wasn't a bigger hit at the time, but maybe the cow poster didnt help.
By the way, Sasha Baron Cohen owes the Zucker/Abrahams boys a sincere thank you for their PG Cow/Bull interactions here as the silent inspiration for his NC-17 elephant interactions in "The Brothers Grimsby". I laughed pretty damn hard at both.
Some favorite lines:
Doctor Flamond: "If they find out you've seen this, your life will be worth less than a truckload of dead rats in a tampon factory."
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Nick Rivers: Hillary. That's an unusual name.
Hillary Flammond: It's a German name. It means 'she whose bosoms defy gravity'.
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Hillary Flammond: My uncle was born in America.
Nick Rivers: Oh, really
Hillary Flammond: But he was one of the lucky ones. He managed to escape in a balloon during the Jimmy Carter presidency.
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Silly and damn funny,TOP SECRET should be better known and gets a laugh-filled B+.
Souvenirs....Novelties....party tricks....
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