Top Secret!

This is the least well-known of the madcap satirical comedies of Jim Abrahams and David and Jerry Zucker (Airplane!, The Naked Gun), and by all counts the weirdest. But the richness of its ideas makes it my favorite. The plot combines the rock musical with the spy thriller (not to mention assorted other genres), and the comic invention is fairly constant.

The attempted target this time is a combination of the traditional spy film and Elvis Presley musical romps, which in and of itself is funny to start with. And Val Kilmer proves a perfect blend of staunch hero and hothouse heartthrob.

A bunch of scattered laughs. [22 June 1984, p.5-12]

Top Secret! replaces the scattershot-parody approach with a more precise re-creation of the dopey simplicity of WWII romances and Elvis pictures.

Like "Airplane!", the film is teeming with funny ideas. Unlike "Airplane!", the majority do not come off...Top Secret! is mildly amusing at best. [25 June 1984, p.69]

This time, though, the creative group has neglected to build to the kind of giddy, everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink climax that made Airplane! such a memorable exercise in anarchy. Top Secret! plays more like a pillow fight in a summer-camp cabin, an agreeable way to pass the time after lights-out, but one that just peters out when everyone gets tired of breaking the rules.

The first half chugs along quite happily, but whereas in Airplane the jokes could simply be strung on a hand-me-down storyline, here the demands of the plot start to play havoc with the levity. Signs of desperation have begun to creep in some time before the end.

While it may not hit the heights of their previous movie Airplane!, this Abrahams & Zucker brothers movie is still one absurd, hilarious ride.

One of the funniest movies I've seen in a while. I was laughing my ass off through the whole thing. There's gags everywhere. Gags in the foreground, gags in the backrground, gags on the walls, gags on the ceiling. I'm not exaggerating. Not all of them land, but the ones that do are some of the funniest ever. This is Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker at the top of their game.

Top Secret! isn't as consistently funny as the best of these spoof movie (such as Airplane) and some of the jokes haven't aged well, but it still provides enough laughs to make for a worthwhile watch.

This type of parody truely is dead. And that makes it somewhat sad to watch the 1984 film Top Secret! Following a rock star who ends up embroiled in East German espionage, this movie spoofs every spy trope imaginable. From the cliché love triangle, to stereotypical French names, this film is positively filled to the brim with absurdist humour. Watching it reminded me of Airplane and when I saw the poster, I realised it was made by the same people as Airplane. There’s not much to say about the rest of the film, as it is purposefully bad. It isn’t great, but neither did it aim to be. And it’s still a hilarious watch.

Everyone in the film is spot on and plays their roles brilliantly. In addition to Val, the film also has a rather robust cast including Peter Cushing, Jeremy Kemp, Michael Gough, Omar Sharif and many others. ****