This film IMO is one of the funniest yet underrated slapstick comedies ever. Escpecially for scenes like this one;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR4NOvaFIOY
Unquestionably Val Kilmer's greatest film . . . so many sight gags you have to watch it two or three times to catch them all. favorite lines:
"You dropped your phony rubber dog poop!"
"WHAT phony rubber dog poop?"
"I know a little German . . . he's sitting over there."
"LATRINE!!!""
I love Top Secret!
I like the scene at the end, when the girl's getting on the plane and saying goodbye to everyone, and out of nowhere the Scarecrow is there and she's like, "I'm gonna miss you most of all."
Perhaps my ultimate favorite part is when Val Kilmer is driving along on the bike and he looks over to the camera and winks. That kills me every time I see it.
I really want to see this! Always see this in stores combined with "The Naked Gun" and "Airplane!", though I already have those two.
I also love "Top Secret!" There are a lot of great scenes. Nigel suddenly appearing as if he just walked off the set of "The Blue Lagoon" is one, along with him recounting his tale (of being picked up by the ship) to Hillary. Something along the lines of, "I tried to explain to them that we had to go back, but it just made them more excited."
Oh, and when Hillary says, "I know, it's like we're in some sort of bad movie." and her and Nick look at the camera. Most of the time, films doing that annoys the heck out of me. In this one, they got the comedy just right. It's hilarious.
Best part for me is the scene run entirely backwards with Peter Cushing as the antiquarian book dealer -- Blowing the dust off a book becomes inhaling the dust, etc./Cushing drops his magnifying glass to reveal one of his eyes is inordinately huge, and so on --
I also like the Pinto that blows up on contact like a bomb -- Some who see that may be too young to remember the scandal of some 25 years ago when Pintos got the reputation of being drivable petrol lighters due to the poorly designed gas tank placement.
Also, the German soldier who crashes like a ceramic --
* * *
This gets me thinking about how come a parody picture like this can get almost everything right, and then you see awful films like "Epic Movie" that manage to get almost everything wrong. Even the trailers for "Meet the Spartans" aren't funny -- and trailers are usually where a parody movie will at least use some of their best gags -- One of Andrew's favorite gags -- the breaking of the 4th wall/". . .some bad movie!" line was in the trailers for "Top Secret" when it first got its theatrical release.
Man, I'm starved for some good laughs about the excesses of modern cinema, but the modern parodies just don't hack it. Perhaps we should blame the success of the Wayans' "Scary Movie" franchise, which has more misses than hits, yet you could still get a laugh or 2 out of them. The new parodies seem to be a new genre: Parodies that aren't funny.
peter johnson/denny cheap laugh
peter johnson/denny crane
The thing that boggles about the movies like Epic Movie, Date Movie, etc, is that I can and have seen better gags in student films at school. And I've made a few myself. I'm betting a lot of it is writing by committee, but still...
And Top Secret is a decent film, but I dunno.. It's probably my least favorite of the big three spoofs of that time frame (Naked Gun, Airplane and this - and maybe toss in Kentucky Fried Movie if you really want to).
What about "Spy Hard", , I'm surprised it's not mentioned here. I saw it a while back, , which is the one where the guy gets impaled by the sex toy because he plugged it in to 220 volts instead of 120 volts? Or was that Hot Shots?
Quote from: ghouck on January 27, 2008, 03:35:29 PM
What about "Spy Hard", , I'm surprised it's not mentioned here. I saw it a while back, , which is the one where the guy gets impaled by the sex toy because he plugged it in to 220 volts instead of 120 volts? Or was that Hot Shots?
I don't recall if there is such a scene in either
Spy Hard (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117723/) (1996) or
Hot Shots (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102059/) (1991), but
Top Secret! (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088286/) (1984) did feature this very joke.
Quote from: ghouck on January 27, 2008, 03:35:29 PM
What about "Spy Hard", , I'm surprised it's not mentioned here. I saw it a while back, , which is the one where the guy gets impaled by the sex toy because he plugged it in to 220 volts instead of 120 volts? Or was that Hot Shots?
It wasn't Spy Hard. Spy Hard is Leslie Neilsen as a spy, with Andy Griffith as the villian.
I gotta watch all three of those, I can't remember which is which. I just loaded my netflix with the three of them, plus hot shots part duex, and 2001: space travesty just for good measure.
I agree woth Peter though, about films like the Scary Movie franchise. Seems sometimes like they are just throwing stuff at the wall to see what will stick. Forget writing quality jokes, go fo quantity, and hopefully a couple of them will work. Some people aren't bothered by the 50 bad jokes that fall in between any two jokes that actually are funny, , to me it detracts. American Pie, Austin Powers, Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre, Scary Movie, and pretty much any of the "Teen Parodies" just don't cut it IMO. .
American Pie was decent. As far as Austin Powers, that character was annoying. Honestly, Mike should have just had the Dr. Evil character and his son. They made the movie worth watching.
Quote from: GoHawks on January 28, 2008, 03:38:52 AM
Quote from: ghouck on January 27, 2008, 03:35:29 PM
What about "Spy Hard", , I'm surprised it's not mentioned here. I saw it a while back, , which is the one where the guy gets impaled by the sex toy because he plugged it in to 220 volts instead of 120 volts? Or was that Hot Shots?
I don't recall if there is such a scene in either Spy Hard (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117723/) (1996) or Hot Shots (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102059/) (1991), but Top Secret! (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088286/) (1984) did feature this very joke.
(Scratches a ninth line in the wall, then stops)
Thanks God! I've been waiting like nine minutes for somebody to mention that joke. And I was going to add another one to the list, but I just forgot.
Yeah--Top Secret was a really funny movie! The scene where Hillary is really excited and her boobs start to glow!!! Sooo funny
:bouncegiggle:
Someone told me that the waiter that is supposedly asking Val Kilmer if he's ready to order, is actually telling him in Yiddish to "go take a s**t in the ocean". :teddyr:
My favourite part:
QuoteVal Kilmer (sees a bottle) "Do you mind if I have a swig of this?"
Chocolate Mousse: "Go right ahead."
VK: [spits in disgust] "What the hell is this stuff?"
CM: [laughs] "Gasoline!" :drink:
[/i]
"LATRINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Yes, I know, I said it before. But I grin every time I think of it!
Quote from: Trevor on March 09, 2008, 06:01:33 AM
My favourite part:
QuoteVal Kilmer (sees a bottle) "Do you mind if I have a swig of this?"
Chocolate Mousse: "Go right ahead."
VK: [spits in disgust] "What the hell is this stuff?"
CM: [laughs] "Gasoline!" :drink:
Love that, and love the movie as a whole.
"Things change...feelings change...hairstyles change...interest rates fluctuate...." :teddyr:
Two of my favorite gags that haven't been mentioned yet:
The German cycles that winnie and "gallop" off during one of Val Kilmer's escapes.
The scene where the guy is shot on the train platform because he had a package full of doggie treats. That one gets me every time. Wish I could find a clip of either of these.
And you just gotta love SKEET SURFIN'!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Nf7_v9d2Ghw&feature=related
"We'll hve fun with our gun till Daddy takes the ammo away . . . "
CLASSIC!!!
I'm trying to imagine what "Your skeetin' heart" would sound like!