CS Film Club II

It's been said that comedy doesn't age well in regards to "punching down", but a corrollary to that axiom would certainly involve knowing the punchline.  The films of Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker have dominated the cultural lexicon so much that the first time i saw Airplane! I knew I could never enjoy it as much as my dad did, given I'd already known so many of the punchlines.  I'm relieved to say that I went into Top Secret! completely blind.

ZAZ are at a great pace in this film, with a wordlplay joke or visual joke probably once a minute.  They're helped along by the film drawing from two main sources of humor:  1) spy espionage and 2) 60s rock and roll singer vehicles.  A very young Val Kilmer plays the rock and roll archetype introduced in one of the funniest musical sequences put to screen, and largely carries the movie on his back through sheer charisma.  Watching this movie and thinking back to Top Gun, I can see why he's had so many fans over the years pulling for him to break out into a megastar role that never came.  He has perfect comedic timing against a cast of largely bit players and nobodies (excluding Omar Sharif and Peter Cushing).