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From: knight@rlgvax.UUCP (Steve Knight)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: Top Secret (-- maybe an eentsy spoiler)
Message-ID: <2054@rlgvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 26-Jun-84 17:18:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: rlgvax.2054
Posted: Tue Jun 26 17:18:43 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 30-Jun-84 01:02:37 EDT
References: <478@whuxle.UUCP>
Organization: CCI Office Systems Group, Reston, VA
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Alright!  Someone else saw this film and has helped give us a break from
the tedium of net.movies.latest_rage, the torch for which has recently
been passed to "Gremlins..."  Anyway.

I was extremely disappointed in "Top Secret."  I was damnably glad that
I saw it at a $2.50 matinee, because I would have felt taken had I paid
full price.  Now, maybe my reaction is a little bit of the old not-
living-up-to-inflated-expectations story, because I loved both "Airplane!"
and "Airplane II."  (No, the sequel didn't live up to the original, but
it did a better job at capturing its spirit than I was expecting, so I
was very pleasantly surprised.)

The biggest reason for my disappointment with "Top Secret" is that I just
didn't think it was very funny.  Sure, there are enough gags in it that
*some* of them hit the mark, but a lot of them are too obvious (e.g.,
"...thirty minutes to get the smile off his face..."), and too often
Abrahams, Zucker and Zucker try to extend a joke for too much screen
time.  Things that would have been good throw-away gags in "Airplane!"
get stretched until they're not funny anymore.  This is particularly true
of the "production numbers;" sure, you have a whole dining room full of
clich'e old fogeys rocking out to a pseudo-surf number, but it's been
done before, and it's certainly not funny enough by itself to sustain the
whole song.

If you do go (despite this small warning), do watch the credits.  One of
the gag credits I *didn't* miss was:

	HEYDIDDLEDIDDLE				The Cat and The Fiddle

Or something similar.  Overall, though, I feel you're much better off
seeing some other movie.  Maybe a comedy.
-- 

	Steve Knight
	{seismo,allegra,some other sites}!rlgvax!knight