Top Secret! (1984)

In between their most successful films – Airplane, Naked Gun and Hot Shots – the ZAZ team modestly spoofed the espionage and conspiracy theory thrillers in Top Secret! The film involves American teen idol Nick Rivers (Val Kilmer in his first big screen role) attending a culture festival in Nazified East Germany. The festival merely is a cover-up for the sinister and evil practices of the Nazis who kidnapped an eminent scientist. Nick quickly interferes in all this and ends up as member of a resistance-party, existing of French dudes with funny-sounding names and weird comical habits (like drinking gasoline…) . Remaining loyal to the ZAZ trademarks, 'Top Secret!' is one giant running gag and a spitfire of chuckles in which absolutely NOTHING has to be taken seriously. The European-minded character of this film provided the writers with the occasion to make fun of the typical French, German and Swedish stereotypes and that forms a perfect contrast with the American surf-generation. As usual in this type of films, the widely elaborated jokes miss their target (sometimes they even are painfully unfunny) but the smaller background slapstick is hilarious and almost causes you a stomach pain from laughing. The open assaults to immensely successful cinema classics like 'the Great Escape', 'Wizard of Oz' or 'The Blue Lagoon' is something you either love or hate, but it perfectly reflects the type of over-the-top humor these writers want to bring. Val Kilmer does well in his first major role and his youthful charm helps increasing his teen-popstar credibility. Furthermore, there are a few delightful small roles for authentic cinema veterans such as Omar Shariff, Michael Gough and my personal favorite Peter Cushing. Top Secret isn't Abraham's and the Zucker brother's best work, but it's still great entertainment and the quality balances somewhere between 'The Kentucky Fried Movie' and 'Airplane'.

Fmovies: The Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team, master of the rapid-fire humor and insane spoofs, strike again! This time with "Top Secret!", which is a very underrated movie that, in my humble opinion, is just as good as "Airplane!" (which of course is considered their best work).

I don't understand it - what makes this film inferior to "Airplane!"? There are just as many jokes, the jokes are just as good, the timing is as always perfect. Am I missing something? Is it just that "Airplane!" was bold in breaking barriers for spoof movies, setting a precedent that "Top Secret!" was just there to follow?

That's not to diminish the quality of "Airplane!", which is one of my favorites. But what's wrong with "Top Secret!"? Why only a 6.6 rating? It must be from those purists who don't understand movies like this, and don't like this movie because the plot is not as well-developed as the plot of "Airplane!" Don't get me wrong - ordinarily a more developed plot only makes a movie funnier, but in the case of a spoof like this, the plot isn't important (it has often been said that the plot is just a "clothesline" for the jokes in such movies). Those purists completely miss the point of this movie.

Watch this movie unless you're one of those blasted aforementioned purists. If that is the case, go watch "The Philadelphia Story" for the thousandth time.

In East Germany, the American rock and roll singer Nick Rivers (Val Kilmer) meets Hillary Flammond (Lucy Gutteridge) in a fancy restaurant. Hillary is a member from the resistance and her hope is to rescue her father, the scientist Dr. Paul Flammond (Michael Gough), who is imprisoned by the Germans to develop a powerful weapon. Nick is arrested and sent to prison for helping Hillary and he meets Dr. Flammond in his laboratory. Hillary helps him to escape during a show and when he tells that he has met Dr. Flammond in the prison to Hillary, they decide to seek out the resistance leader. When they meet him, they discover that Nigel (Christopher Villiers) was Hillary's first lover. Further, they learn that there is a traitor in the resistance. Who might be the traitor?

"Top Secret" is a very funny comedy by Jim Abrahams and David Zucker. The plot is a parody to World Was II movies with the French resistance and it is impossible not laughing along the adventures of Nick Rivers in the East Germany. Val Kilmer steals the movie wit ha magnificent performance and singing most of the songs. In the end, time is cruel to everyone. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Top Secret – Super Confidencial" ("Top Secret – Super Confidential")

Note: On 24 Sep 2017, I saw this film again.

Top Secret! fmovies. Following the popular success of "Airplane!" and its less acclaimed sequel, the ZAZ trio was back to what I believe to be the funniest comedy ever: "Top Secret!" a hilarious parody of the WWII spy films and the 50-60's rock-themed movies. Speaking of rock'n'roll, one of the most defining songs of the film performed by Val Kilmer aka Nick Rivers is titled "How Silly Can you Get?" which sounds like a self-reflexive motto.

"Top Secret!" probably features the highest laughs-out-loud-per-minute ratio from any movie, as there is not one single moment where the action isn't punctuated by a gag, and that this very gag doesn't work. Everything in "Top Secret!" is both hilarious on an anarchic and cathartic level in the way it plunges you into a never-ending positive mindset. You may say that this is the very principle of a comedy, what's more a spoof movie, but it seems like "Top Secret!" has been specially concocted for pure and genuine amusement, and while the much more respected "Airplane!" has its slower moments, especially during the flash-back parts, "Top Secret!" was hilarious from A like Abrahams to Z like Zucker brothers.

There are two kinds of gags in "Top Secret!", the direct and the indirect one. The direct is immediate, mostly visual and slapstick, like a "find him and kill him" stamp or a sunbathing girl leaving boob-holes in the sand. The best gags are extended and feature a lot of dancing like the ball scene, the outrageous ballet sequence or a feet-view panic scene. Anyway, whether it's an offensive national anthem, a singing horse, a little German, an over-hilarious moment when Nick is about to be executed and an old lady slowly approaches to pick up the phone, any attempt to list the audio-visual gags of the film is as ludicrous as trying to define which is the funniest. The indirect gag is the elaborated one, already funny by itself but leading to a much more delightful punch-line.

The first one involves a weird shot illustrating the road taken by Nick Rivers and his manager, the map looks more and more familiar until Pac-Man makes his appearance, the very gag that sets the tone of the film. When Omar Sharif as Agent Cedric meets a colleague disguised as a party tricks vendor, the whole interaction is funny enough but the icing on the cake comes with the "You dropped your phony dog pooh", an item which obviously is not sold. The gag works even more because we expect it, like when Nick is introduced to the French Resistance, what would you expect from a man named "Déjà Vu" apart from "Have we not met before?" It could have concluded here yet the French sounding names punch-line was with the black guy named 'Chocolate Mousse", which says a lot about an era where anything was acceptable in the name of pure comedy.

I don't mean to be too analytical, but my regard for "Top Secret!" is due to one of the two funniest and creative gags from any film, starting with the Swedish bookstore sequence, a cinematic achievement that would have made Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin proud. During that part, there is a gradual suspicion that we're not watching a normal scene, even for a spoof movie, there is something weird in the walking and the talking that gets funnier as it is more noticeable, the scene becomes hilarious when we get the point and yet it goes on and on, a book getting in the right place immediately, dust

This movie is unbelievable funny and makes no sense.

Why are there Nazis in East-Germany capturing Scientists and why do they want to let a Rock'n'Roll singer play his music!? For me one of the funniest part is the "german language cassette" Rivers' is listening to in the train (!) to Germany. This words make absolutely no sense! :) The whole train sequence is funny. The train station and the guy with the tree also rock!

Val Kilmer did a great performance, acting, dancing and singing!

The title sequence "skeet surfing" is also a great parody for the American way of life!

It's so stupid it's hilarious. My husband and I were laughing nearly the entire movie and I found myself repeating, "What is even happening?!" over and over. But yet...it's somehow incredibly entertaining.