Top Secret! (1984)

Fresh and Exciting

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Pros 1. I was amused to hear Leonard Bernstein referenced since he composed the score for Ghostbusters, a film that stole a lot of business from Top Secret. Speaking of musical references, there's a funny moment when main character Nick Rivers gets top billing ahead of Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra. Sinatra would appear in theaters the following week in "Cannonball Run II" and Stevie Wonder would win an Oscar for a song from "Woman In Red" released later that summer.2. I was delighted to see Maurice Jarre composed the score for this film the same year he earned a Best Original Score Oscar for Sir David Lean's "A Passage To India". Speaking of Sir David Lean, Omar Sharif gets to show a great comedic side he didn't get to show in "Lawrence Of Arabia" or "Dr. Zhivago".3. I'm a big Beach Boys fan and I get a real kick out of Nick River's hit "Skeet Surfing".4. I'm always thankful to get a dose of the awesomeness that is Michael Gouge. It's amusing that Lucy Gutteridge played Gouge's daughter as they both appeared that year in the Christmas Carol film that aired on CBS. Gouge played a charity worker and Gutteridge was the girl that rejects Ebenezer in the "Ghost Of Christmas Past" sequence.5. Peter Cushing gets a funny scene as a Swedish Book Store Owner. At least he doesn't sexually assault anybody like in "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed". The villain in Top Secret is sexually assaulted by a bull but that's all right.6. Not growing up in the 80's, I didn't know who Freddie Laker is. After doing some research, I do see the hilarity in Nigel naming Freddie Laker as a communist author.7. I loved the Pac-Man cameo. This was just 7 months after the Hannah-Barbera Pac-Man cartoon ended.8. I've had many nightmares about not studying for school. I appreciate Nick Rivers finding torture better than a nightmare about school.9. The Wizard Of Oz is without doubt the most parodied film in history but that doesn't make this film's "Wizard Of Oz" parody any less funny. It's appropriate as Top Secret was released almost exactly a year before "Return To Oz." Like Top Secret being over-shadowed by "Ghostbusters", Return To Oz was over-shadowed by another Sci-Fi film: Cocoon.10. Best Line German General: (on the phone) I see, well call if his condition changes (hangs up) he's deadCons 1. It seems bad timing for a code-name to be "there are no good white basketball players" when Top Secret was released 10 days after Larry Bird led the Celtics to their 2nd world championship in 4 years.

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

If you try and ignore this "Spy" offering from the Airplane team, you won't last long. When it's on your TV screen there'll soon be something so outrageously daft that you have to at least stare in dismay and amazement.Yes, it's a pity it hasn't got Leslie Nielsen at the helm but the young Elvis-sort of looking Val Kilmer is good, but not brilliant. It's just not in the class of the best Abrahams and Zucker's, especially the fore- mentioned Airplane, hence my four stars.Sent off to cold-war East Germany and playing rock'n'roll to an audience not yet immersed in such, at a concert that aims to unite west and east Berlin, Nick Rivers (Kilmer) encounters an array of mishaps, from the outset. Naturally, the opposite sort of happens and I'd like to say that plot details are fairly useless here and they're pointless in a script where gag after gag is out for laughs, most of them hitting some spot, or another. There's Omar Sharif as you've never seen, or ever thought you'd see him and a turn from Peter Cushing, too.Venturing into a parody of WWII films, including The Great Escape, it ends up with a herd of cows wearing wellington boots...What happens between is fast and funny and whilst Top Secret isn't the funniest thing you'll see, it's good and worthy of including in the 'ones to see'.

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.