Review of Top Secret! (1984) by Billy M — 20 May 2017

Holy cow, the Abrahams-Zucker team really are the masters of spoofs. I laugh so much at the ridiculous humor in Top Secret, and find myself dying for more. They have so much going on in this movie that I was enjoying myself throughout. It has silly sketches, some fun play on words, and even the occasional serious moment to keep the plot rolling.

I still love how these directors make a point of casting serious actors, and then asking them to take the plot seriously as well. It adds to the humor when the most insane things are going on, but the characters just keep moving on with the story as if this nonsense was logical to them. Val Kilmer is obviously the standout in the cast and he is criminally underrated as an actor. He crushes the performance in Top Secret.

Ironically, despite the fact that the plot is a low priority in these spoof movies, it was the only thing that I didn't love about Top Secret. It felt like they needed to spend a little more time fleshing out the story they wanted to tell before adding all the humor. There were a number of potential plot threads that they start, but none of it pays off. It's definitely a minor complaint in a movie I otherwise adored and am anxious to watch again soon.