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Top Secret!

Top Secret!

List Price: $9.99
Your Price: $9.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Brainless, Shallow, and Absolutely Hilarious
Review: This film is from the same wackos who gave us Airplane, Police Academy, and Naked Gun. If you've seen even just one of these, you pretty much know what to expect from this one. Except for one thing: for sheer mindless fun, Top Secret tops them all.

The movie stars a young (and apparently not very role-choosy) Val Kilmer as a teen rock n' roll idol who goes on a road tour in East Germany, where he meets and falls in love with Hilary (Lucy Gutteridge), who enlists his aid to rescue her scientist father.

But really, who cares about the plot? Watch this show for the deliciously insane gags. I won't even mention a single one of them, because they have to be seen to be believed.

Sure, the humor is unsophisticated. Even dumb. But that's the point. We all have to treat ourselves to this sort of lunacy now and then. And I'd have to say that Top Secret is the best way to do just that.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: You'll laugh until you hurt!
Review: From the wacky Zucker brothers that brought you the Airplane and Naked Gun spoofs, we now have a total laugh fest with Top Secret. This movie sits right there at the top when it comes to sight gags, one-liners and a hilarious script.

What do you get when you combine an American rock and roll star with totally inept Nazi's, resistance fighters named after French foods, a fight scene in a saloon under the water, and more comedy mayhem than you can handle? You've got a 3 ring circus of total insanity that never quits!

If you're a fan of any spoof film (Naked Gun, Hot Shots, Airplane, etc.), this is definitely the movie for you and it will not disappoint. Just make sure you pay attention during the movie because there is a lot of subtle but hilarious gags and props in the background while the main action is happening.

It's fantastic to see this movie finally make it to DVD. Some of the nice things on the disc are the the commentary by the directors, the 5.1 Surround sound track, alternate scenes, and storyboard compilations. Highly recommended and enjoyable!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: If you liked Airplane! you'll love Top Secret!
Review: I've been a fan of the ZAZ team for as long as I can remember. And this is one of their classic films- Top Secret! spoofs both Elvis musicals and doubleya-doubleya two films- and does it really well. There's sight gags, background gags, puns, a scene shot entirely in reverse, an underwater saloon fight, what else do you want in a movie? I've watched Top Secret! on a regular basis for 15 years, whether it's the version I taped off of TV or the DVD, and am still not bored with it. I always find some new gag that somehow escaped me in previous viewings. While Top Secret! isn't as well known as Airplane!, it's just as hilarious. Watching it with the commentary is not advised- it's quite possibly the worst commentary track I've come across and it's mostly just a bunch of guys laughing. A note- the "alternate scenes" featured in the DVD were re-inserted for the TV version of the movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Greatly Underrated Film
Review: This film was done by the same people who made "Airplane" and the "Police Squad" movies. I enjoy this film more. It is just as silly as the others, if not more so. I think the jokes work better in this film.

The film takes place in some unnamed East German-like country. The time is something between today, the 50s, the 40s and somewhere in between. It parodies teen rock-and-roll movies, french resistance films, Blue Lagoon and a bunch of other stuff thrown in for good measure. Val Kilmer plays a rock-and-roll teen idol named Nick Rivers. He gets involved with a bunch of resistance fighters in a represive soviet block country that plans on taking over the world. Funnier than it sounds. Surreal comedy at its best. (The guard falling off the castle wall is one of my favorite gags.)

How can you argue with a movie that starts with a Beach Boys parody called "Skeet Surfing"? ...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Souvenirs...novelties...party tricks."
Review: "Airplane" spoofed airplane disaster flicks. "The Naked Gun" spoofed the Dragnet-type cop movie. "Top Secret!", lesser known, but just as funny, if not funnier, actually spoofs two genres--the Elvis musical and World War II movies. Somehow, in the absurd universe of Zucker/Abahams/Zucker, these two go hand in hand. The sight gags are nonstop and relentlessly ... hilarious. Val Kilmer has a great knack for the delivery this kind of comedy requires. He also does all his own singing on classics like "Straighten the Rug", "Skeet Surfin'", and the hauntingly romantic Macy's Semi-Annual Lincoln's Day Sale jingle, "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" Other highlights include the long-awaited clarification of the lyrics to the German national anthem, a dedicated band of French resistance fighters, Omar Sharif's brutal initiation into the world of physical comedy, and two of the Zucker Brothers' most inspired set-pieces--one in a Swedish bookstore and the other in an underwater saloon. Just watch.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Outrageously Funny!
Review: Top Secret! is a hilarious movie from the makers of airplane. The jokes are so funny you'll puke. The visual humor is also extremely great. All acting is great and an all around great DVD to own.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Well-Deserved Exclamation Point
Review: 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 make a "serious" film that fell apart. In that case, learning why/how it failed would be interesting and instructive. To shred a spoof film, especially a sophomore and sophomoric effort like Top Secret!, is entirely unwarranted. Sure there are plot holes. Sure it makes no sense that submarine would crash into a prison dungeon. Sure some things are only mildly amusing. Drawing undue attention to them is doubly pointless. Sheesh! If you're a big fan, skip the commentary.

I really enjoyed this movie and really (mostly) enjoyed its presentation on the DVD. There aren't a lot of extras, but be sure to hunt for the Easter Egg - it's definitely worth finding.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A very clever "silly movie"
Review: Besides being a little dated, this ecclectic comedy mixes spoofs, satire and every possible form of visual humour and adds up to a hilarious film that bases its strength in never letting the viewer rest.
Some visual gags are place in the background and need repeated views to be found, and enjoyed (like a statue shaped as a pigeon where humans stand on).
One example of the wacky sense of humour of this film is that the scene where Hillary and Nick go into the Swedish bookstore was staged, shot and then run backwards to make the dialog sound sweedish.
If you like movies like Airplane and Naked guns series you will have a little feast with this less known movie.
Watch for a young Val Kilmer in the leading role and a great cameo by Omar Shariff.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Pure comedy genius
Review: I absolutely LOVE this movie, with some of the most ingenius sight gags in movie history (the train station is my personal favorite, followed closely by the Swedish bookstore). It was nice to hear an audio commentary from all three directors, though I didn't care for "moderator" Fred Rubin.

I'm hard to impress these days, having seen too many movies to be mindblown by them anymore, but "Top Secret" had me collapsed on the sofa. The point here is the gags, not the plot. I can't believe how underrated this movie is, and would encourage everyone to give it a shot.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Even funnier if you know some German
Review: Very funny movie! Even funnier if you know some German because almost everything the Germans say in this movie sounds perfectly German - but it isn't.


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