More zany gags from the makers of Airplane!
I have no idea why Top Secret! isn’t better remembered: it’s from Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers, the creative team behind Airplane! and The Naked Gun series, and, in my eyes, it’s on the same level of comedic excellence. The non-stop jokes have a strong hit-to-miss ratio, and I was impressed by the film’s varied mixture of vulgar but effective sight gags, surprisingly clever non-sequiturs, and surreal set pieces (the backwards library and the underwater fight scenes come to mind, both quite ambitious and well-executed). Also, Val Kilmer’s film debut! What more could you ask for?
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