Des pilotes en l'air

Jim Abrahams' first solo comedy effort Hot Shots! is a smash comedy that has many, many laughs and is as silly as anything Abrahams has done with his uoltra successful team of ZAZ (Zucker Abrahams and Zucker) which made Airplane, Top Secret, The Naked Gun and The Kentucky Friend Movie. Hot Shots deserves a place with them.

Charlie Sheen plays a top gun type of charater that is trying to go against his father's reputation and still be able to fly and fight and all. The movie however doesn't try and go with the plot, which is always good in these movies, and it succeeds in bringing silly, goofy laughs just by having Lloyd Bridges act totally and utterly hilariously insane, or in just having a pilot with moose antlers. Deadpan. A

Really funny movie spoofs Top Gun, Dances With Wolves and others. In the centre is Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen), who is incapable of flying because he thinks his dad is responsible for the death of his co-pilot.

But one day he is called back into the squad, as there is a scheme going on about some new airplanes. Oh well, never mind that.

Funny stuff all the time, too much to talk about really. I love the 'Dead Meat' character, when he is taking his last flight, claiming he knows the answers to global warmth and Kennedy's assasination. That really cracked me up.

One of the best spoofs ever. 7/10.

Hot Shots is one of my favorite movies when it comes to comedy. It was made in a time that farting and burping weren't yet considered as the very best humor has to offer.

This film is very enjoyable when you don't know any of the movies this parody has been based on (very hard to believe), but when you do know the movies, Hot Shots is really hilarious from time to time. Most of the time they make fun of Top Gun, but movies like Superman, Dances with Wolves, Gone with the Wind... can be recognized in it as well.

Topper Harley is an excellent pilot who left the navy because he couldn't cope with the feelings of guilt over his father. His father didn't do enough to help his co-pilot during a mission and the poor man got killed in an awful way. When he found out, Topper decided never to fly again. He now lives on his own with an Indian and a wolf, inhaling helium. However, when Lt Commander Block offers a second chance, to take part in secret mission Sleepy Weasel, Topper decides to fly again, although this means that he'll have to deal with a difficult love interest and his old fears.

This movie certainly scores above average when you ask me. Therefor I reward it with a 7.5/10.

If you are going to watch "Top Gun", please watch that film first before this one. It will make this film much funnier plus, Top Gun has not aged well and will seem cheesier than normal if you watch it last.

This is the Abrahams & Abrahams style ("Airplane", "Naked Gun") parody of the 1986 Reagan era military action film, Top Gun. It is hilarious and nothing is sacred. It is probably one of the ten funniest films I have ever seen, but nothing is ever going to top Young Frankenstein or Blazing Saddles. I'll just say, don't think that if you find this film in the middle of the night and say "this will be a good oldie to fall asleep to" that you will do any such thing. I made that mistake.

Charlie Sheen plays the troubled pilot Topper Harley that is the equivalent of Tom Cruise's character in Top Gun. Cary Elwes is his rival. In this film Topper Harley's love interest is his therapist, Ramada (Valeria Golino), instead of a physicist and Top Gun instructor. Because then they'd have to inject some science into this film and it would ruin everything.

The jokes are just non stop. Sight gags are everywhere. There is a welcome home banner that actually says "Welcome Home Banner". And there is a send up of the food scene in "9 1/2 Weeks" (1986) that will have you never looking at olives quite the same. And Lloyd Bridges does a hilarious rendition of a clueless and completely incompetent Admiral, with one particularly great line to the villains of the film - "You risked the lives of some damn fine pilots... and that's *my* job!"

Notice that Jon Cryer costars in this film 12 years before he and Sheen starred in the TV series "2 1/2 Men". Is there a story there? Maybe.

At any rates laughs are hard to come by these days. For absolutely stress free film watching that is wall to wall laughs with no chance of an Oscar worthy moment, this film still fits the bill.

Hot Shots, starring Charlie Sheen is a spoof film that kind of addresses the macho-military man stereotype. I consider it to be one of the funniest spoofs I have ever seen.

Before the review let's get into the premise

Topper played by Charlie Sheen is a young and very much stereotyped Navy Fighter Jet Pilot. Haunted by the Ghost of his late father, and his freak-accident crash that got his friend killed, Topper is an ambitious pilot that has his sights set on one thing...becoming the best pilot the Navy has ever seen. After getting kicked out of the Navy for being too much of a high risk asset, Topper seeks refuge with a Native American tribe until he gets recruited by Lt Block, an old friend. LT block needs Topper and his flying prowess in order for the mission to succeed. Will Topper finally overcome the Ghost of his father and become the best pilot the Navy has ever seen?

This movie is funny. But there is a prerequisite for it. If you haven't seen Top Gun, then this movie is not going to be that funny. Honestly. The reason spoofs are so funny in the first place is because they are poking fun at plot holes, stereotypes and really just giving some normalcy to the dramatization that is a little over the top in another context. If you really want the jokes to land as hard as possible, consider doing a double feature with Top Gun followed by Hot Shots.

Now the biggest downfall for spoofs is honestly the casting. There just really isn't a big budget for spoofs and because of that the delivery of the comedy and satire suffers due to the actors not being adequate enough to deliver the lines and actions in a convincing way. Charlie Sheen really carries this movie and sets the tone. The Director, Jim Abrahams, who also directed "Airplane!" did an amazing job at keeping everybody on the same page. Every line and joke felt so fluid and this spoof film didn't feel like a bunch of SNL sketches that were edited together.

I think Hot Shots is definitely for you if you have watched and enjoyed other movies such as "Airplane" "Airplane 2" and the Naked Gun series. Hot Shots! Is definitely one of those movies I have to watch just because it's such a fun and lighthearted movie that really brings some laughs into the home.