Hot Shots! Der zweite Versuch

One of the best parody films of the 80-90s. Absolute Kino from the beginning till the end.

"Hot Shots! Part Deux" beats the odds to be pretty good, not just as spoofs go, but as spoof *sequels* go. Granted, it's not always very funny, but enough of the verbal and visual jokes work to make this solidly entertaining comedy fare, and a worthy sequel to the hilarious first movie. It goes about making fun of the corpse littered action escapism films of the 1980s, which of course were a genre just ripe for parody. Charlie Sheen returns as hero Topper Harley, now living in Thailand after getting his heart broken by Ramada (Valeria Golino). He's approached by the CIA to undertake a top secret mission in the Middle East where he must rescue the rescue team who went in to save the rescue team who tried to retrieve some hostages.

Also returning from the first film are Lloyd Bridges, who once again is an absolute riot; somehow, his idiotic character Thomas "Tug" Benson has become the President of the United States. Jerry Haleva makes an encore appearance as Saddam Hussein, and gets more to do this time, including a climactic duel with Benson. New characters include those played by lovely Brenda Bakke, Richard Crenna (who gets to poke fun at his own "Rambo" series role), Miguel Ferrer, Rowan Atkinson, Mitch Ryan, Ryan Stiles, Gregory Sierra, Andreas Katsulas, and Clyde Kusatsu. So there's a lot of familiar faces here, including some other famous faces in gag cameos. (The best one is by Sheen's dad Martin.) One of the brightest jokes is the "bloodiest movie ever" one; among the movies and shows parodied are "Basic Instinct", "No Way Out", "Lady and the Tramp", "Terminator 2: Judgment Day", and Bridges' own series 'Sea Hunt', but mostly co-writer and director Jim Abrahams, an old hand at this sort of thing, keeps his focus on skewering the mindless macho action flick.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable comedy, no matter if some of the humour is dated (such as referring to then first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton). It manages to hold up pretty well on repeat viewings.

And war is indeed fantastic.

Eight out of 10.

While the original will always be considered better, this film still held true to the Hot Shots mentality. While the whole concept may have been a little dragged out, at least they didn't try to make another movie to further destroy this franchise. Charlie Sheen was once again, Charlie Sheen. With yet another tongue-in-cheek performance, Sheen proves to us he is one of the most nonchalant comedy actor of our day. Plenty of funny things to talk about, but far too many to mention.

The original HOT SHOTS was a fabulous film and was more polished and fresh than this remake. However, this is not to say this sequel is bad--it still maintains an excellent pace and will make you laugh. That's because even more than the original, the jokes come so rapid fire that if one falls flat (as many do), there is no doubt a good laugh coming only moments later.

In HOT SHOTS, the film is basically a take off on TOP GUN--with many other movie references thrown in as well. Here in PART DEUX, the story is essentially RAMBO II along with many other movie references as well. Some of the parodied films include LADY AND THE TRAMP, CASABLANCA and NO WAY OUT.

The major difference in this film is the inclusion of a new major character, Saddam Hussein! He is ridiculed repeatedly and comes off as an effeminate oaf. Late in the film, the action really heats up when the President (played wonderfully once again by Lloyd Bridges) has a final showdown with Hussein...and the film degenerates into the weirdest takeoff on TERMINATOR II that you can imagine! Overall, the plot is mostly stupid and irrelevant--which is exactly what you'd expect from such a film! This is because the plot is only an excuse for stringing together many jokes and while some of the great intellectuals out there may hate this sort of film, you can't deny that it makes you laugh...unless you LIKE Saddam Hussein! The film misses about as often as it hits, but still with so many jokes this is still a crowd pleaser. Not as good as HOT HOTS or the AIRPLANE movies, it is still well worth seeing. And, unlike many films, gets better with repeated viewing.

What can I say about this movie? A comic moment at every turn, hilarious lines and a great spoof to live by. I, being a Ryan Stiles fan, couldn't stop laughing when I first saw this. His performance was top, and Charlie Sheen just brought it all together. My favourite moments included when Dexter (Rowan Atkinson) mentioned his shoelaces being tied together, and when the army wrote the sounds of the morse code (Dah di di dah dah di dah)! Couldn't stop laughing!!! The casting is great, with Lloyd Bridges as the President and Ryan Stiles as Rainbowitz, this is a great movie spoof! I recommend this movie for slapstick fans and people who just want a laugh, a lot of laughs!!