Saturday, April 17, 2010

Top Secret! (1984).Val Kilmer (in his first feature film).


Top Secret!(1984). Comedy. Director: David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. Cast: Val Kilmer (in his first feature film), Lucy Gutteridge, Omar Sharif, Peter Cushing, Michael Gough and Jeremy Kemp. The film is a parody of the GDR era and Elvis films. The original music score is composed by Maurice Jarre. Recommended by Paul.
This is one WILD film. And I really do not know how to review it, so I will list the films references and parodies.

The film features an homage to the Pac-Man craze of the early 80s.

In reference to The Sound of Music, Nick Rivers leaves the stage during a concert to flee the soldiers chasing him.

In one scene a London taxi is destroyed in a car crusher with Omar Sharif inside, a take on a scene from Goldfinger where a henchman is killed off in a similar fashion.

The flashback scene where Hillary Flamond is shipwrecked in Nigel's arms on a deserted island, is a spoof of The Blue Lagoon.

Nick Rivers' line, "Seems as long as I know my way around that prison, I'll never be lonely" is a reference to Casablanca, where Humphrey Bogart says, "It seems as long as I have those letters, I'll never be lonely." There are many other references to Casablanca throughout the film, particularly in the scene where Nick and Hillary meet in the cafe, which makes reference to 'Rick's', what with the sunken floors and Gutteridge only being shot from her left side as per Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca, or the airplane scene of Casablanca referenced near the end of the film.

Nick Rivers rides a motorcycle through a field, then winks to the camera and jumps the motorcycle over a fence, a reference to Steve McQueen in The Great Escape.

The first shot of Peter Cushing, peering through a magnifying glass to make one eye look huge, was based on a similar shot from 1965's The Skull. The joke here was that when Cushing lowered the glass, his eye really was huge.

At the end of the movie, Hillary Flamond says goodbye to each member, and finishes off with a hug to a living scarecrow (who materializes out of nowhere); she holds him in her arms and says "And I'll miss you most of all, Scarecrow!" This is as obvious as a nod can be to The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy says to Scarecrow "I think I'm going to miss you most of all".

In one scene, a Ford Pinto is rear ended but in fact is barely touched - at which point it blows up - a reference to Ford Pinto's poor safety record in this type of accident.

A part of Weird Al's music video Amish Paradise was filmed in the same way as the backwards scene.

The scene in jail with torturers Klaus and Bruno parodies a scene from the 1960 film A Circle of Deception starring Bradford Dillman and Suzy Parker.
From: Wikipedia.

8 comments:

  1. Yeah, this movie has alot of old movie references. I saw this in the theater when it first came out (I was about 8 years old) and I didn't get alot of the homages. The magnifying glass scene was always just a funny sight gag to me, now I realize it was from that movie.

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  2. There is one scene in this film that is NOT appropriate for an 8-year old - the scene in the jail where they show an "adult toy". That went right over my head at the time. But the film was "PG" and showed as a double feature with "Muppets Take Manhattan".

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  3. Actually I could think of several more scenes. This would probably get a "PG-13" today.

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  4. Tom, Say what!! I can not believe that "Top Secret" was a double feature with "Muppets Take Manhattan".

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  5. Well I'm back from "Hard Drive Hell" I should have warned you about some of the"Sight Gags" in Top Secert but that would spoil the fun. And Dawn now you know my I could not tell you about the "Cows". BTW The old Paramount The End closing as used in the film.

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  6. Paul, I hope your computer problems are over. Yes, I can see why you could not talk about the cows. I had no idea how to review this movie..LOL..

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  7. Dawn , you really can't . Either you like it or you don't. I in no way approve of All the Gags, but overall it's a trip.

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  8. I think my favorite scene is the part with Omar Sharif and the souvenir vendor. Ha ha ha! That part is so funny. (I won't give away what happens in the end of the scene. lol)

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