Top Secret! is the worst of the "bad joke" movies from the team that made Airplane! For those of you who are too cultured to be familier with these cinematic events, Abrahams, Zucker and Zucker (for convience, heretofor referred to as AZZ) take bad b-movies and not so much parody them but destroy them. There is no semblance of character development in any of their movies, they are slightly Keatonian (though without the intellegence or wit) in their relentless self-reflexiveness. We are always aware that we are watching a movie, simply because there is nothing to care about other than the jokes, which are relentless stupid, crude and often very funny.
AZZ's movies are also almost all alike, so the only real differance in Top Secret! is the genre of movies being parodied and how funny the jokes are. This film simultaniously makes fun of WWII spy thrillers and 50's teen rock musicals. It's not as funny as it should be.
The story is of no importance so I'm not going to describe it here. What distinguishes this from AZZ's other efforts is that the film has actual A-list stars instead of B-actors mocking their own persona. Val Kilmar plays the lead, and does a good job (he plays an Ricky Nelson-type teen idol and does all of his own vocals). Omar Sharif, one of my favorite actors, is always fun to watch.
The film's biggest problem is that is that the jokes are front-loaded. It is quiet funny for a while, but aside from an occasional bit of mirth the movie becomes boring. There is pretty incredible shot (the cameo with Peter Cushing) that features an entire master shot filmed backwards. But most of the last two-thirds of the movie is boring.
This would probably be an okay to film to watch while drinking with your friends, but aside from the first half-hour there's not enough here to reccomend.
Top Secret! (1984)