Friday, January 24, 2014

Top Secret

The movie. It's old.



Entertaining and almost funny in places, and in some other places actually quite amusing. From the standpoint of guessing which sight-gag the new scene holds and the satisfaction that comes from being right each time, or experience disappointment the scene is not made even more ridiculous, more sight-gag and joke loaded. Like a Mad magazine. The boots are used again, framing-gag, and the joke of forced perspective never gets old. Yes it does. No it doesn't.

And the satisfaction that comes from observing actors grow in their craft over time.


Somebody said, "Thanks, I just bought that off Amazon."

I thought that must be kind of cheap. See for myself, I'd watch. Turns out apparently the movie is such a national treasure Amazon offers it free streaming for its Prime customers to make sure all of us see it and that is pretty much everyone. Like Inconvenient Truth, and Fahrenheit 911, and Birth of a Nation, that shows the film is right up there with Citizen's Cane.

You can watch it for free.

It is important film about world history, WWII Nazis and how Americans behaving like Elvis Presley prevailed in the war by everyone being confidently silly. Educational.

One of the best parts is where the hero is introduced to members of French Resistance, all exaggeratedly menacing. Camera pans the line of characters so you look for the gag, and there it is, one fighter is pumping a spring-loaded top. Over-the-top menacing with weaponry so expect them to behave as tender pussycats. Nigel the anti-hero is shown as the character in Blue Lagoon. As the fighters are introduced it is apparent right off you are being put on, their names are ordinary French words and now they must stick with these names, Chevalier, Montage, Detante, Avant-Garde, Déjà Vu (have we not met before, Messier?), Garçon, Soufflé Escargot, Chocolate Mousse, and they all look like roughnecks.

This is the fun way to learn Spanish.


I found it interesting that someone finds these the star moments. 

25 comments:

Rabel said...

The free Amazon prime movies are a treat. I've been going through a few old horror/scifi films as time allows.

Up last night was "Gog." And if you haven't seen it, well, you haven't seen it.

On the other hand, the video quality tends to vary from pretty good to pretty bad and that matters.

For example, it wasn't until I recently watched "Barb Wire" in hi-def that I realized it was the modern American classic that it is. They may not be real, but they are fabulous.

chickelit said...

Isn't "Top" a dog whistle?

Icepick said...
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Icepick said...

I'm just glad you didn't single out the scene with the Anal Intruder.

Funny story about that. Around 1989, my sister had a big family to-do for Christmas. My mother and I went, as did most of my sister's husband's siblings with their children, and my BiL's parents. The children were pretty much all 12 or under.

Someone decided to rent Top Secret and show that for the family movie. Somehow we get to the scene with the Anal Intruder (tm) and as the men-folk all start laughing uproariously the women-folk all start diving for the remotes. The kids, naturally, lost it, not so much at the scene (this is pre-intertubez, mostly, so you couldn't expect children that young to know what they were seeing and hearing) but at the reactions of the adults.

That's only the second-best funny story I can tell about family Christmas get-togethers. I think I probably COULD get away with telling the other one now, as most of the people involved are now dead, but I'm saving that one because it is just too damned funny, and I am saving it for something special. The punch line to the other story, though, is the old family motto:

We're not crazy, we're just mean.

Icepick said...

Nice Val Kilmer pic, Chip. You can see that he used to be a pretty-boy, although I don't think anyone that didn't see him back then would guess how pretty.

Former A-house regulars might be thinking of Howard Dean right about now.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Is this the movie with the Ford Pinto explosion. I was so proud of myself for getting that gag.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Here it is.

"Got to hand it to the Germans, they make great cars."

rcocean said...
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rcocean said...

General Streck: What is the condition of Sergeant Kruger?
[pause]
Very well, let me know if there is any change in his condition.
[Hangs up]
He's dead.

Ha. Still funny.

rcocean said...

Now labeled an "Old movie".

God,so am I.

Thanks Chip.

Unknown said...

Never watched it. Cannot recall hearing about it until now.

rcocean said...

April fascinating comment. What other movies haven't you watched?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The Man With a Red Shoe with Tom Hanks, was another comedy of this variety.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Wise crack after wise crack.

Chip Ahoy said...

If you think that's fascinating, Dr. Fred died a fairly old man, I don't know, sixty-five maybe, perhaps seventy, not aged but still up there. And he never once saw Wizard of Oz. Everyone would talk about the movie and he's all, "Wut? Wut?" He never understood any Wizard of Oz reference like flying monkeys, or click your heels nor any of the things that make that film great.

deborah said...

I haven't seen:
It's a wonderful life
Titanic
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler's List

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I would never have admitted to none of that Deb.

You are going to need a new identity. it's for your own safety ;)

Paddy O said...

I know a little German...

Paddy O said...

I'll miss you most of all, Scarecrow...

Revenant said...

Hillary Flammond: My uncle was born in America.

Nick Rivers: Oh, really?

Hillary Flammond: But he was one of the lucky ones. He managed to escape in a balloon during the Jimmy Carter presidency.

deborah said...

I don't do Facebook, neither, Lem, now get off my lawn!

Unknown said...

Deborah has me beat in the movie dept.

I was busy during the 1980's and early 1990's. I didn't go to the movies. It makes for boring conversation from me. I know.

virgil xenophon said...

Another great "Germans make good cars" line comes from the movie SLC(Salt Lake City) Punk in which the protagonist Jewish stoner "Stevo" (played by Matthew Lillard) decides to get straight, give up the life and go to Harvard Law after all. When, at the end, he calls his by-then-divorced Father to be picked up and taken home, he gets into Dad's new compensatory sports-car car and says: "Dad, you're driving a Porsche!" His Dad replies: "So?" "But Dad, we're Jewish!" "I know son, but they make such damn good cars." LOL!!

ken in tx said...

In Cambridge Massachusetts, if you see someone wearing a baseball cap and a sport coat with jeans, chances are he has a yamaka underneath the ball cap. Chances are he also drives a VW or Mini Cooper--and a BMW when he makes tenure.

ken in tx said...

Or, if he does not fit these stereotypes, he's a Russian. I would get startled looks on the subway when I turned to whole car and said "Dos Vedanya" when leaving. They thought I understood all the nasty things they had been saying throughout the trip.