Great reaction ladies ...This was another hilarious spoof comedy by the ZAZ team...Jerry Zucker, Jim Abraham & David Zucker and Val Kilmer's big screen debut (and yes that is his actual singing voice). Glad that you both enjoyed it. Also the British actor playing Deja-Vu (Jim Carter) would later be more well known worldwide for playing Mr. Carson, the head butler on the award winning drama series 'Downton Abby'.
If you're looking for another ZAZ spoof movie, then check out their very first big screen outing, The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) - it spoofs Bruce Lee's: Enter The Dragon and television itself in general, including parodies of commercials too....also unlike their other films, which are mostly rated PG-13, this one is a hard R, but it is still hilariously funny though.
@@ForceOfLightEntertainmentDirectors David Zucker and Jim Abrahams told ScreenCrush in 2014 that the actors in the scene held their breath underwater while they shot in 10 or 15 second increments, then returned to the surface. “The hardest part was not laughing and running out of oxygen,” added Kilmer. - Screen Crush
Maybe better known now. But it was a box office disappointment. It needed to make over $20 million to break even and made just under that. Compare that to the over $170 million Airplane! made.
They're doing a mash-up, spoofing several things at once: -- cold war spy movies -- world war 2 action movies -- late 50s early 60s teen movies especially Elvis Presley movies -- and of course Blue Lagoon
Oh man, been wanting to see this ever since my family caught the first minutes on Pluto TV. If that's what it's making fun of, this is going to be a blast!
Thanks, Natalie and Michelle, great review. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of watching this while eating brekkie; I almost chocked on my eggs twice! 🤣🤣🤣
Here are a couple of genres/movies they are spoofing: 1. Elvis concerts/movies. In fact the name Nick Rivers is a take on Elvis' character Deke Rivers in the movie "Loving You." 2. James Bond/Spy movies - the car crushing scene is taken directly from a similar scene in "Goldfinger." 3. WW2 movies such as Casablanca (dialogue during the parachute scene), the Great Escape (motorcycle scene just like Steve McQueen), Dirty Dozen, etc. 4. 60's beach movies such as Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, etc. 5. Indiana Jones with the truck fight scene. There are plenty of other smaller nods to things, but these are the most obvious ones. Glad you enjoyed it.
@@ForceOfLightEntertainment Also you have Nazis in communist East Germany!? But the athletes--that was true, most country's produce coal or wood or food. But East Germany, their claim to fame was athletes. In their propaganda drive to prove that Communism was superior to the West, all their athletes were trained in government training facility's and pumped up with massive dose,s of steroids. They did win many Olympic medals, but the athletes paid a horrible price, some died other were crippled. But that,s communism, the Party is everything, the individual is worthless.
Between the underwater bar fight and the backwards scene, this is one of the most creative movies out there, as well as being outrageously funny. I've always loved this.
My favorite comedy movie of all time and the movie I have seen the most times. Truly a hidden comedy gem. As a Swede the Swedish bookstore bit is a highlight. Our dogs do indeed walk backwards.
From what I heard, the face-cast they took of Peter Cushing for the big eye prosthetic, was what they used to generate the digital Moff Tarkin in Rogue One
And to think a year later Val Kilmer was in TopGun and became a big star it's so sad that such a talent has had voice stolen by cancer a fantastic actor ❤
Ah. Top Secret, the finest Elvis WW2 Spy Movie ever made. And for you younguns, Mel Torme was a jazz singer popularly known as "The Velvet Fog" due to his smooooth vocal stylings. He was active from the 40s to the 60s. He was also Judge Harold T. Stone's from Night Court's favorite musician. ... I will now need to explain what Night Court was as that reference is also 30-40 years old now.... Oh, and for another young Val Kilmer comedy, Real Genius.
"Top Secret!" was a follow-up film after "Airplane!" was a huge success, both made by the same team. It was a spoof of intrigue, thriller, espionage movies generally.
The skeet surfing joke came up while the filmmakers were doing interviews for Airplane!. At one point, they got bored answering the same questions all the time. So they invented this game where they would say the silliest thing in the most serious way to the point that it would be taken at face value and printed in the newspaper. When asked, "What did you do during your teenage years in Milwaukee?", they would talk about skeet surfing.
Highly recommend the old david lettermen interview with all three of them from back in the day. It’s hysterical. They change clothes with each other during commercial breaks.
Hard to believe this is Val Kilmer's first movie. Though bittersweet given his current health problems, Val crooning his way through this wacky spy parody is so lovely. He's just so charming and talented here it's wild that this is his debut. The underwater saloon fight is easily my favorite scene. It's so well done, completely absurd, and absolutely hilarious. You ladies would also love Val in The Doors and Real Genius (for starters, he has a ton of great movies)
@@Kickinwyng Way of Water got pretty close, pre-CGI enhancement. Large water tank sets, free diving trained actors, and off-screen O² assist divers. But it's also miserable to shoot in, being wet and cold all day, and James Cameron has almost gotten people killed doing similar work in The Abyss, which is why it is not done so much these days 😅
The backward German library scene is the best acted scene in movie history. The movie is making fun of old spy movies and the ridiculousness of the Elvis movies. Val Kilmer actually sang all those songs, as well. Skit Surfing is my jam!
Casablanca, Nazi Germany at war time, and a few more movies. I saw it in my kind of town, and I was in pain with laughter. I laughed more at this movie than Airplane and that's saying something. I love you two having a great time because I love this movie. The music and the gun play were so funny. Thanks, lovely ladies!
I still remember a Halloween party where a buddy of mine showed up in, IMO, one of the best costumes ever - one of the male ballet dancers from Top Secret!
My sister loved this movie. I know every word of it because she watched it so much when we were growing up. Basically just a spoof of all the cold war espionage movies that were common back then.
A few scenes not in this version: One of Flomaunds assistants makes an apple. Flomaund tosses the apple outside and it explodes like a gernade. At the very end, the German general is brought to the same crushing yard that Cedrick was brought to...and dropped into the same crusher...which is being operated by cedrick...still encased in the car.
"I guess this is Germany before the Berlin Wall fell?" 👍 It's a general parody of 'singer-features' (movies headlined by the likes of Elvis, Frankie Valley, etc) mixed with post WW-2 cold war thrillers. I think the decade is intentionally vague.
There was a girl I was friends with in high school from 85-89. We dropped one-liners to each other from this movie all 4 years! Great memories! If they still made movies like this, the world would be a better place. Seriously! Having fun stuff like this to bond over really was unifying.
I have a friend who grew up in East Germany and was in one of their athletic programs growing up. The scene with the East German women's athletes was scarily spot on lol.
Loved this movie a mid-80s classic. If you didn't grow up during that time period, I can see how you can miss out on some of the humor. The blue lagoon references or the E.T. chest glowing. Even the sports jokes were of that error. Thanks for watching it, ladies it's fun to know others enjoyed that movie.
They spoofed numerous tv shows, films, music and commercials of the time. It was current events humor in general. It’s so hard not to laugh because it’s joke-joke-joke-joke most of the way through. It’s silly good fun and a great escape!
I had just started working at a movie theater a couple of weeks before this movie came out. I saw it opening day and knew nothing about it other than it was from the creators of airplane. I had no idea who Val Kilmer was, this was his film debut, but I knew immediately he was gonna be a star. I love this movie.😂
During the 70's, war movies were particularly popular. Many of them had carried over from the previous decades. You had black & white war themed shows as reruns, but you also had shows like CPO Sharkey and Black Sheep Squadron. So, war films were pretty familiar to an 80's audience. Top Secret isn't spoofing any film in particular, but it is poking fun at the WWII genre. The odd thing is, rather than being set in World War times, it's set in East Germany, during the time of the Iron Curtain. It's pretty contemporary for the time, and even mentions the Carter Administration. It always brings me joy, when someone actually gets the Pinto joke. In another decade, I'm not sure anyone will understand the context of that scene. This is one of my favorite films. It is so well crafted. When you think about the Swedish bookstore scene and the underwater fight, they really went all out on the production. It has a very good balance of story & a sheer number of sight gags. Yet, the way everything is taking everything so seriously, it's more than just a comedic skit movie.
Okay, how many of you are old enough to get the gag about the German car barely tapping the Ford Pinto and having it explode into flames? So many period gags in this movie, and if you weren't alive during this time, or have a good understanding of what happened, many of the jokes and gags will go over people's heads. That said, this soon-to-be 59 year old loved the movie when it came out and still laughs at it today - it's in my online media collection.
Now y'all have to check out "Scary Movie" (2000), which spoofs 1990's flicks like Scream, Sixth Sense, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and many others. I think you'd get a kick out of it.
A lot of the "German" language used in the movie is actually Yiddish spelled to look like German. For example, the restaurant is named "Gey Schlüffen". "Gay schluffen" is actually Yiddish for "Go to sleep".
My parents had this movie on VHS. So my brothers and I watched this movie all the time when we were kids. It's always been one of my favorite comedies. But you're right it's definitely a movie you don't hear about anymore.
You asked which movie this movie is spoofing. It is not a single movie, or even a single genre. Elvis Presley made several movies in the 1960s where he would break out into song several times during the show. This movie spoofs those movies. It also spoofs 1960s spy movies. ZAZ (Zucker, Abrams, and Zucker, the directors of this movie) did a kind of mashup where they combined those two genres and then spoofed them both.
Yes, it's a shame. I remember that, the second time I saw this movie, back in '84, I was the lone spectator in the theater. (Although, on the bright side, I sat in multiple seats and reacted as wildly to the jokes as I cared to!) 😉
Spoofing Elvis musicals and WW2 movies was the original intent, though obviously there's cold war and Beach Boys references. The movie used to be longer but they trimmed some of the jokes and kept them on the DVD as deleted scenes. I liked the sudden Pac-Man when they were doing the "Indiana Jones map with drawn arrow" bit, but it was 1984 so it was funnier at the time. There were FOUR Doctor Who actors in the film. The easy ones are Peter Cushing and Michael Gough. Of the other two, one was a Dalek (Cy Town, playing one of the anthem singers) and another was Katy Manning's stuntman (not stuntwoman-- Stuart Fell, playing Avant-Garde).
After Airplane!, the filmmakers couldn't decide which genre they'd spoof next between WWII spy thrillers or Elvis' musicals so they decided to combine both! Except for The Great Escape, the most famous movies that are spoofed are not related to Elvis or WWII: Goldfinger (the man crushed in the car), The Blue Lagoon (Hillary and Nigel flashbacks), Jaws (the cow attack), the tv series Bonanza (the underwater saloon fight), the Wizard of Oz (the final goodbye). Some references are honestly more obscure, like 1944's The Conspirators (Hillary fleeing to a restaurant after witnessing the shooting of a colleague in an alley and taking refuge at the table of a stranger. A blind man in the street selling goods from a case hanging from his neck.)
12:00 "Now, remember, folks, you have to perform this scene _completely_ straight-faced. It's an absurd scene, and that absurdity is intensified for the audience if you don't react to it, so don't react to it. One smile and we have to start over."
4:28 Believe it or not, but back in day, long ago, when they were young, my mother dated the man who played the German officer. Warren Clarke, his name was. That's the story, at least.
"My uncle was born in America." "Oh, really?" "But he was one of the lucky ones. He managed to escape in a balloon during the Jimmy Carter presidency." Fun Fact: Theatrical movie debut of Val Kilmar. Director Cameos Fact: Directors Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker appear as the German soldiers who show up at the door of the prop room to arrest Nick (Val Kilmer). Final Bow Fact: Peter Cushing, who began his screen career in the old Hollywood of the late 1930s, makes his final appearance in an American production. He made three more British films before passing in 1994. Music Enthusiast Fact: The songs that Val Kilmer sings in the film are actually performed by Val Kilmer himself and were featured on the film's soundtrack released in 1984 under Kilmer's character's name Nick Rivers. When Nick Rivers is in jail, a head shot of Cher can be clearly seen on the wall of the cell several times. Val Kilmer was dating Cher at the time. The Bookstore Scene Fact: The scene where Hillary (Lucy Gutteridge) and Nick (Val Kilmer) go into the Swedish bookstore was staged, shot, and then run backward for a "unique" sound. If you record the scene and play it backward, you will find all of the dialogue to be exactly what is shown in the subtitles except for the title of the book. "Europe On Five Quaaludes A Day" (which I can't confirm as real) is what Hillary asked for. A forward-playing version of the Swedish bookstore scene can be found on the DVD. The sight gag of Peter Cushing and the magnifying glass is a parody of a similar shot of Cushing from Terence Fisher's The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). The prosthetic that Peter Cushing wore in the bookshop scene involved the making of a cast of his face to fit it to. This same cast was used 30 years later by ILM to build a CGI model of his face for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016).
The makers of this movie said they were spoofing WW2 and Elvis films. A few years ago, I turned on my TV and Downton Abbey was on. I was surprised to see Deja Vu in the cast.
One of my favorite Val Kilmer movies. To this day, whenever I see or hear the word latrine...I hear LATRINE! Of course I saw this in the theater at the age of 15 so I probably have a different perspective.
Love this movie, saw it in theaters when it came out. Pinto crash always gets me, I still have my Dads '78 Pinto Runabout. Thanks for reacting to this ✔️✔️✔️🤗😆
Great movie, actually watched it as a teenager back in the 80's... These sort of comedies are so awesome... I think the only reason we don't see more like these is because studios are afraid of backlash from all the current folks who get offended by everything these days... There have been a few flicks now and then, but not on the same level as this one or movies like the Airplane movies, etc... Loved laughing with ya'll as I watched you both watch this movie... Brings back good memories and that's always boosted when watching with others...
31:34 "You've got to hand it to the Germans. They make great cars." Seriously, that particular vehicle was just in an _explosion_ and it still _drives._
Great Reaction! 🖒 Val is one of the top actors of the time. You guys slayed us with the endless laughter. This is exactly what we needed to brighten our day.
One of the best comedies of all time, and one of my favorites. So many iconic scenes and lines. I highly suggest watching the Swedish book store scene a couple times, must have been wild to try and film. The modern day spirit animal to this film in my mind would have to be Tropic Thunder. Some scenes spoof some early bond films, Octopussy comes to mind (opening train scene). Another funny note, the in movie dubbing often has nothing to do with the actual German and French being spoken so if you speak either it's often an entirely new layer of comedy. Fans of WWII and post WWII history, movies and documentaries all appreciate this movie as it usually pulls the right strings.
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Great reaction ladies ...This was another hilarious spoof comedy by the ZAZ team...Jerry Zucker, Jim Abraham & David Zucker and Val Kilmer's big screen debut (and yes that is his actual singing voice). Glad that you both enjoyed it.
Also the British actor playing Deja-Vu (Jim Carter) would later be more well known worldwide for playing Mr. Carson, the head butler on the award winning drama series 'Downton Abby'.
If you're looking for another ZAZ spoof movie, then check out their very first big screen outing, The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) - it spoofs Bruce Lee's: Enter The Dragon and television itself in general, including parodies of commercials too....also unlike their other films, which are mostly rated PG-13, this one is a hard R, but it is still hilariously funny though.
Cool reaction as always ladies, you both take care and have a nice day 🥰❤️😊
@@coreyhendricks9490thank you! You too! 🥰
@@MLJ7956 funniest movie ever made 😄
To think that this was Val Kilmer's first film role - and that was genuinely him singing the songs too! What an opening to his film career!
The underwater saloon fight has to be one of the most original ideas I've ever seen. It caught me off guard.
😂
@@ForceOfLightEntertainmentDirectors David Zucker and Jim Abrahams told ScreenCrush in 2014 that the actors in the scene held their breath underwater while they shot in 10 or 15 second increments, then returned to the surface. “The hardest part was not laughing and running out of oxygen,” added Kilmer. - Screen Crush
With the Bonanza theme at the end!
I love the Mohammed Ali moves during the fight scene
One of the most underrated of the 80’s spoof movies.
One of the best but least known comedies of all time. Worth it for Peter Cushing and Omar Sharif having immense fun
The whole backwards library scene with Peter is amazing. I still have trouble wrapping my mind around some of the gags 🤯
Maybe better known now. But it was a box office disappointment. It needed to make over $20 million to break even and made just under that. Compare that to the over $170 million Airplane! made.
@@LordVolkov That they filmed backwards and in a single take is astonishing work
Val Kilmer's singing is on the sound track but he's only listed as Nick Rivers.
My all time favorite #1!!
They're doing a mash-up, spoofing several things at once:
-- cold war spy movies
-- world war 2 action movies
-- late 50s early 60s teen movies especially Elvis Presley movies
-- and of course Blue Lagoon
Oh man, been wanting to see this ever since my family caught the first minutes on Pluto TV. If that's what it's making fun of, this is going to be a blast!
Thanks!
Bonanza tv show, western fight scene trope also.
The great escape too
It’s a time-period mash-up too.
Another thing is Val Kilmer played alongside Michael Gough in this and fascinatingly enough they were in Batman forever together also
Thanks, Natalie and Michelle, great review. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of watching this while eating brekkie; I almost chocked on my eggs twice! 🤣🤣🤣
Thank you so much!! ☺️
😂😂😁
Omar Shariff, one of the best film actors, ever had a ball doing this movie.
Ah, that's his name. Couldn't think of it. All I could think of was Dr. Zhivago (or however that is spelled)
Here are a couple of genres/movies they are spoofing:
1. Elvis concerts/movies. In fact the name Nick Rivers is a take on Elvis' character Deke Rivers in the movie "Loving You."
2. James Bond/Spy movies - the car crushing scene is taken directly from a similar scene in "Goldfinger."
3. WW2 movies such as Casablanca (dialogue during the parachute scene), the Great Escape (motorcycle scene just like Steve McQueen), Dirty Dozen, etc.
4. 60's beach movies such as Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, etc.
5. Indiana Jones with the truck fight scene.
There are plenty of other smaller nods to things, but these are the most obvious ones. Glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks Chris!!
@@ForceOfLightEntertainment Also you have Nazis in communist East Germany!? But the athletes--that was true, most country's produce coal or wood or food. But East Germany, their claim to fame was athletes. In their propaganda drive to prove that Communism was superior to the West, all their athletes were trained in government training facility's and pumped up with massive dose,s of steroids. They did win many Olympic medals, but the athletes paid a horrible price, some died other were crippled. But that,s communism, the Party is everything, the individual is worthless.
Very good breakdown.
Between the underwater bar fight and the backwards scene, this is one of the most creative movies out there, as well as being outrageously funny. I've always loved this.
So few people are reacting to this one.
Happy you did.
The underwater bar fight has to be one of the best scenes ever made for a movie.
My favorite comedy movie of all time and the movie I have seen the most times. Truly a hidden comedy gem. As a Swede the Swedish bookstore bit is a highlight. Our dogs do indeed walk backwards.
Haha!
The Indiana Jones style truck chase that turns into an underwater saloon brawl is probably one of the greatest jokes in cinema
One of the greatest movies of the 80s. I still quote lines from it today.
No, you don't. You're just trying to impress the girls.
One of my fave “dumb” movies. The “Pinto” car joke gives away how old it is.
as does the Montgomery Wards mailing list
From what I heard, the face-cast they took of Peter Cushing for the big eye prosthetic, was what they used to generate the digital Moff Tarkin in Rogue One
And to think a year later Val Kilmer was in TopGun and became a big star it's so sad that such a talent has had voice stolen by cancer a fantastic actor ❤
Val does all his own singing in this movie
"Wait! You dropped your phony dog poo!"....."What phony dog poo?".
Ah. Top Secret, the finest Elvis WW2 Spy Movie ever made.
And for you younguns, Mel Torme was a jazz singer popularly known as "The Velvet Fog" due to his smooooth vocal stylings. He was active from the 40s to the 60s. He was also Judge Harold T. Stone's from Night Court's favorite musician.
... I will now need to explain what Night Court was as that reference is also 30-40 years old now....
Oh, and for another young Val Kilmer comedy, Real Genius.
Add my vote for Real Genius.
"Top Secret!" was a follow-up film after "Airplane!" was a huge success, both made by the same team. It was a spoof of intrigue, thriller, espionage movies generally.
The skeet surfing joke came up while the filmmakers were doing interviews for Airplane!. At one point, they got bored answering the same questions all the time. So they invented this game where they would say the silliest thing in the most serious way to the point that it would be taken at face value and printed in the newspaper. When asked, "What did you do during your teenage years in Milwaukee?", they would talk about skeet surfing.
Highly recommend the old david lettermen interview with all three of them from back in the day. It’s hysterical. They change clothes with each other during commercial breaks.
When you stage a whole backwards scene for one linguistic gag. Now that's class!
Hard to believe this is Val Kilmer's first movie. Though bittersweet given his current health problems, Val crooning his way through this wacky spy parody is so lovely. He's just so charming and talented here it's wild that this is his debut.
The underwater saloon fight is easily my favorite scene. It's so well done, completely absurd, and absolutely hilarious.
You ladies would also love Val in The Doors and Real Genius (for starters, he has a ton of great movies)
Thanks!
They just don't do scenes like that anymore. Not without CGI anyway. Such a shame.
@@Kickinwyng Way of Water got pretty close, pre-CGI enhancement. Large water tank sets, free diving trained actors, and off-screen O² assist divers.
But it's also miserable to shoot in, being wet and cold all day, and James Cameron has almost gotten people killed doing similar work in The Abyss, which is why it is not done so much these days 😅
The backward German library scene is the best acted scene in movie history. The movie is making fun of old spy movies and the ridiculousness of the Elvis movies. Val Kilmer actually sang all those songs, as well. Skit Surfing is my jam!
Greatest underwater fighting scene ever made!
Umm, no. That would be the zombie on shark fight from 1978s "Zombie".
Casablanca, Nazi Germany at war time, and a few more movies. I saw it in my kind of town, and I was in pain with laughter. I laughed more at this movie than Airplane and that's saying something. I love you two having a great time because I love this movie. The music and the gun play were so funny. Thanks, lovely ladies!
This is one of my favorite comedies. Your laughs and reactions made refreshed its humor. I loved watching you smile and laugh.
Thanks! ☺️
I still remember a Halloween party where a buddy of mine showed up in, IMO, one of the best costumes ever - one of the male ballet dancers from Top Secret!
This is a 6 out of 5 for me… I just love it! Must have seen it like 150 times😂
"And I'll miss you most of all scarecrow" The cherry on top.. That's hilarious.
It's such a great joke mixed into the Casablanca farewell spoof 🤣🤣🤣
It's an underrated gem and much more elaborate than the "Hot Shots" movies.😂
That little German joke is a derivative of the “I had a hunch back at the station” joke from the Police Squad series
My sister loved this movie. I know every word of it because she watched it so much when we were growing up. Basically just a spoof of all the cold war espionage movies that were common back then.
my brother and i watched this many times as kids. we still say this line to each other: "how do we know he's NOT Mel Torme?" LOL
My favorite line is "What's your hurry?!!"
Real Genius is another great young Val Kilmer movie.
A few scenes not in this version:
One of Flomaunds assistants makes an apple. Flomaund tosses the apple outside and it explodes like a gernade.
At the very end, the German general is brought to the same crushing yard that Cedrick was brought to...and dropped into the same crusher...which is being operated by cedrick...still encased in the car.
"I guess this is Germany before the Berlin Wall fell?"
👍
It's a general parody of 'singer-features' (movies headlined by the likes of Elvis, Frankie Valley, etc) mixed with post WW-2 cold war thrillers. I think the decade is intentionally vague.
There was a girl I was friends with in high school from 85-89. We dropped one-liners to each other from this movie all 4 years! Great memories! If they still made movies like this, the world would be a better place. Seriously! Having fun stuff like this to bond over really was unifying.
"Oh I know a little German". Brilliant 😁😁
Val Kilmer has one of the most underrated careers of all time.
I have a friend who grew up in East Germany and was in one of their athletic programs growing up. The scene with the East German women's athletes was scarily spot on lol.
Loved this movie a mid-80s classic. If you didn't grow up during that time period, I can see how you can miss out on some of the humor. The blue lagoon references or the E.T. chest glowing. Even the sports jokes were of that error. Thanks for watching it, ladies it's fun to know others enjoyed that movie.
Love this movie, seen it 85 times lol, still funny. Thank you, ladies.
"Transylvania Twist" 1989, has always been my favorite spoof movie. Slapstick, puns, visual gags, and songs, and silly synth music.
You could *not* get away with this film today, lol!
This was Val Kilmers, first movie role.
I go by Nick Rivers when on Internet forums, introductions with auto salesmen, and Craigslist deals.
Thanks for your reaction to this!! Fun Fact: Two days after this was uploaded, 6/8/24, is the 40th anniversary of the original release of the film.📽
They spoofed numerous tv shows, films, music and commercials of the time. It was current events humor in general. It’s so hard not to laugh because it’s joke-joke-joke-joke most of the way through. It’s silly good fun and a great escape!
I had just started working at a movie theater a couple of weeks before this movie came out. I saw it opening day and knew nothing about it other than it was from the creators of airplane. I had no idea who Val Kilmer was, this was his film debut, but I knew immediately he was gonna be a star. I love this movie.😂
Grew up with this & found it hilarious as a kid especially the cow scene. I love Natalie's shirt, too cute!
Thanks! ❤
Well done, ladies! The jokes do still hold up well (and I'm especially pleased at your enthusiastic recognition of the *Blue Lagoon* segment). ☺️
During the 70's, war movies were particularly popular. Many of them had carried over from the previous decades. You had black & white war themed shows as reruns, but you also had shows like CPO Sharkey and Black Sheep Squadron. So, war films were pretty familiar to an 80's audience. Top Secret isn't spoofing any film in particular, but it is poking fun at the WWII genre. The odd thing is, rather than being set in World War times, it's set in East Germany, during the time of the Iron Curtain. It's pretty contemporary for the time, and even mentions the Carter Administration.
It always brings me joy, when someone actually gets the Pinto joke. In another decade, I'm not sure anyone will understand the context of that scene. This is one of my favorite films. It is so well crafted. When you think about the Swedish bookstore scene and the underwater fight, they really went all out on the production. It has a very good balance of story & a sheer number of sight gags. Yet, the way everything is taking everything so seriously, it's more than just a comedic skit movie.
Love these slapstick comedies. I remember sneaking in to watch this in the theater when I was 13
This isn't even remotely slapstick comedy.
The movie was filmed in England, hence a lot of British actors. The surfing scene was made in Newquay and the water was very cold!
Deja Vu went on to be in Downton Abbey!
@@ajivins1 He's also married to Imelda Staunton, who played Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter, and the Queen in the later seasons of The Crown.
@@FrenchieQc I liked her in the sitcom 'Is it Legal?'
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen this movie! Nice trip down memory lane 😊! Thanks ❤
Glad you enjoyed it!!
Things change
People change
Hairstyles change
Interest rates fluctuate
Okay, how many of you are old enough to get the gag about the German car barely tapping the Ford Pinto and having it explode into flames? So many period gags in this movie, and if you weren't alive during this time, or have a good understanding of what happened, many of the jokes and gags will go over people's heads.
That said, this soon-to-be 59 year old loved the movie when it came out and still laughs at it today - it's in my online media collection.
I got the gag but that’s because I know my cars 😁
Now y'all have to check out "Scary Movie" (2000), which spoofs 1990's flicks like Scream, Sixth Sense, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and many others. I think you'd get a kick out of it.
Would but we have seen them!
A lot of the "German" language used in the movie is actually Yiddish spelled to look like German. For example, the restaurant is named "Gey Schlüffen". "Gay schluffen" is actually Yiddish for "Go to sleep".
My parents had this movie on VHS. So my brothers and I watched this movie all the time when we were kids. It's always been one of my favorite comedies. But you're right it's definitely a movie you don't hear about anymore.
You asked which movie this movie is spoofing. It is not a single movie, or even a single genre. Elvis Presley made several movies in the 1960s where he would break out into song several times during the show. This movie spoofs those movies. It also spoofs 1960s spy movies. ZAZ (Zucker, Abrams, and Zucker, the directors of this movie) did a kind of mashup where they combined those two genres and then spoofed them both.
Lol...Natalie was really diggin' that bulging tights scene!
😂😂
I love Top Secret and never understood why it didn’t catch on as much as Airplane and the Naked Gun.
Yes, it's a shame. I remember that, the second time I saw this movie, back in '84, I was the lone spectator in the theater.
(Although, on the bright side, I sat in multiple seats and reacted as wildly to the jokes as I cared to!) 😉
The guy in the crushed car: "well I don't hafta go to the chiropractor anymore."...."do you think that scratch next to my forehead will buff out?"
Spoofing Elvis musicals and WW2 movies was the original intent, though obviously there's cold war and Beach Boys references. The movie used to be longer but they trimmed some of the jokes and kept them on the DVD as deleted scenes. I liked the sudden Pac-Man when they were doing the "Indiana Jones map with drawn arrow" bit, but it was 1984 so it was funnier at the time.
There were FOUR Doctor Who actors in the film. The easy ones are Peter Cushing and Michael Gough. Of the other two, one was a Dalek (Cy Town, playing one of the anthem singers) and another was Katy Manning's stuntman (not stuntwoman-- Stuart Fell, playing Avant-Garde).
This movie is one of Val Kilmer’s best movies.
After Airplane!, the filmmakers couldn't decide which genre they'd spoof next between WWII spy thrillers or Elvis' musicals so they decided to combine both!
Except for The Great Escape, the most famous movies that are spoofed are not related to Elvis or WWII: Goldfinger (the man crushed in the car), The Blue Lagoon (Hillary and Nigel flashbacks), Jaws (the cow attack), the tv series Bonanza (the underwater saloon fight), the Wizard of Oz (the final goodbye).
Some references are honestly more obscure, like 1944's The Conspirators (Hillary fleeing to a restaurant after witnessing the shooting of a colleague in an alley and taking refuge at the table of a stranger. A blind man in the street selling goods from a case hanging from his neck.)
Thanks!
12:00 "Now, remember, folks, you have to perform this scene _completely_ straight-faced. It's an absurd scene, and that absurdity is intensified for the audience if you don't react to it, so don't react to it. One smile and we have to start over."
4:28 Believe it or not, but back in day, long ago, when they were young, my mother dated the man who played the German officer. Warren Clarke, his name was.
That's the story, at least.
Cool!
"My uncle was born in America."
"Oh, really?"
"But he was one of the lucky ones. He managed to escape in a balloon during the Jimmy Carter presidency."
Fun Fact: Theatrical movie debut of Val Kilmar.
Director Cameos Fact: Directors Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker appear as the German soldiers who show up at the door of the prop room to arrest Nick (Val Kilmer).
Final Bow Fact: Peter Cushing, who began his screen career in the old Hollywood of the late 1930s, makes his final appearance in an American production. He made three more British films before passing in 1994.
Music Enthusiast Fact: The songs that Val Kilmer sings in the film are actually performed by Val Kilmer himself and were featured on the film's soundtrack released in 1984 under Kilmer's character's name Nick Rivers. When Nick Rivers is in jail, a head shot of Cher can be clearly seen on the wall of the cell several times. Val Kilmer was dating Cher at the time.
The Bookstore Scene Fact: The scene where Hillary (Lucy Gutteridge) and Nick (Val Kilmer) go into the Swedish bookstore was staged, shot, and then run backward for a "unique" sound. If you record the scene and play it backward, you will find all of the dialogue to be exactly what is shown in the subtitles except for the title of the book. "Europe On Five Quaaludes A Day" (which I can't confirm as real) is what Hillary asked for. A forward-playing version of the Swedish bookstore scene can be found on the DVD. The sight gag of Peter Cushing and the magnifying glass is a parody of a similar shot of Cushing from Terence Fisher's The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). The prosthetic that Peter Cushing wore in the bookshop scene involved the making of a cast of his face to fit it to. This same cast was used 30 years later by ILM to build a CGI model of his face for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016).
Thanks!
You're welcome! 😁
Go in Peace and Walk with God. 😎 👍
TRUST ME on this MUST SEE absolute Classic Movie,, "The Outlaw Josey Wales"
(1976)..A truly iconic movie. ❤
The makers of this movie said they were spoofing WW2 and Elvis films. A few years ago, I turned on my TV and Downton Abbey was on. I was surprised to see Deja Vu in the cast.
Did you feel like you'd seen him before?
😂
One of my favorite Val Kilmer movies. To this day, whenever I see or hear the word latrine...I hear LATRINE! Of course I saw this in the theater at the age of 15 so I probably have a different perspective.
5:36 Funny how this movie decades ago would predict what women athletes will look like in a few years.
😂
Saw this movie back then, I was 8 or 9. This was the most laughs I ever had in my life so far at that age. It spoofs old Elvis movies
Always loved this movie. Here's to hoping you both kick off a trend of watching this.
Innerspace (1987) is funny too.
Great classic top secret, binge watching your videos early hours of the morning in north east England, keep em comin 👌
Will do!
This is the best and funniest of the ZaZ (Zucker, Abrams, Zucker) movies imo.
The scene where they play it backwards must have taken many tryes to make .... 🤪
This is my favorite spoof of all time! I love The Naked Guns/Airplanes/Hot Shots, but this was always a notch above those for me
Val Kilmer did his own singing. Check out Val ‘s other comedy Real Genius.
Thanks!
Natalie's reaction during the ballet scene was priceless.
Such a great movie. I've seen it 100 times but still makes me laugh.
Love this movie, saw it in theaters when it came out. Pinto crash always gets me, I still have my Dads '78 Pinto Runabout. Thanks for reacting to this ✔️✔️✔️🤗😆
"Loaded Weapon" is a spoof of Lethal Weapon. Very funny spoof with surprising stars. 😂😂😂
Loaded Weapon. 😉
@@victornewmanforever Thanks! I knew that and still typed 'gun'. Fixed! 🙂
Great movie, actually watched it as a teenager back in the 80's... These sort of comedies are so awesome... I think the only reason we don't see more like these is because studios are afraid of backlash from all the current folks who get offended by everything these days... There have been a few flicks now and then, but not on the same level as this one or movies like the Airplane movies, etc... Loved laughing with ya'll as I watched you both watch this movie... Brings back good memories and that's always boosted when watching with others...
31:34 "You've got to hand it to the Germans. They make great cars."
Seriously, that particular vehicle was just in an _explosion_ and it still _drives._
Another good movie with Van killer is Real Genius. It’s very underrated and under appreciated
Funny comedy from the 80s! Great reaction!
top secret got me through my A school back in the 80s ... this was my jam lol
Great Reaction! 🖒
Val is one of the top actors of the time. You guys slayed us with the endless laughter. This is exactly what we needed to brighten our day.
Thanks Jerry!!
🥰❤️🥰
Val Kilmer was actually offered a recording contract after this movie was released, but he declined.
Val did all his own singing in this
One of the best comedies of all time, and one of my favorites. So many iconic scenes and lines. I highly suggest watching the Swedish book store scene a couple times, must have been wild to try and film. The modern day spirit animal to this film in my mind would have to be Tropic Thunder. Some scenes spoof some early bond films, Octopussy comes to mind (opening train scene). Another funny note, the in movie dubbing often has nothing to do with the actual German and French being spoken so if you speak either it's often an entirely new layer of comedy. Fans of WWII and post WWII history, movies and documentaries all appreciate this movie as it usually pulls the right strings.
Top Secret Laughing Out Loud and Dancing is so Much a Force of Light, same team that did Airplane made Top Secret
backwards & underwater = cinema masterpiece