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Top Secret! | 113837__top_l
'SECRET' RENDEVOUS Kilmer and Lucy Gutteridge in the forced spoof ''Top Secret!''
Top Secret!: Kobal Collection

Credits

Rated: PG; DVD Release Date: Jul 16, 2002; Genre: ; With: Lucy Gutteridge and Val Kilmer; Distributor: Paramount Pictures

With Top Secret!, a spoof that unnaturally conjoined WWII-era spy flicks and hip-swiveling Elvis films, it's clear that the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team had temporarily run out of laughing gas after the high of 1980's ''Airplane!'' and the six inspired episodes of 1982's ''Police Squad!'' The result is a monkeyshine that lumbers when it should swing.

On the commentary, the ZAZ boys admit that referencing ''obscure 1940s movies nobody's seen'' might not have been wise, and indeed, after their fleet-footed send-up of the air-disaster genre, ''Secret'' feels like a very slo-mo snicker. The storyboards and outtakes don't uncover any hidden hilarity, though Val Kilmer is uncharacteristically genial in his first major role (he does his own singing to boot) and a bit with a cow does capture some of the old ZAZ pizzazz.


Posted Jul 15, 2002
 

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