Hot Shots! Part Deux; parody / comedy, USA, 1993; D: Jim Abrahams, S: Charlie Sheen, Valeria Golino, Lloyd Bridges, Richard Crenna, Brenda Bakke, Jerry Haleva, Miguel Ferrer, Rowan Atkinson, Martin Sheen
Once a warrior, now a peaceful Buddhist somewhere in Asia, Topper Harley is brought back to action when US president Benson orders a secret mission that is suppose to rescue a rescue party that went to rescue a rescue party in Iraq from captivity of Saddam Hussein. Topper once again teams up with his former girlfriend Ramada and goes with a small boat to the jungle in Iraq. After a lot of troubles, he rescues Colonel Walters and Ramada's husband Dexter, while Benson fights with Hussein in his castle. In the end, the team escapes with a helicopter and throws a piano on Hussein.
After a huge commercial success with "Hot Shots", director Jim Abrahams made the 1993 sequel "Hot Shots! Part Deux" that's even better and funnier than than the occasionally arbitrary original, crafting a worthy part II that became the last great parody film, long before that genre completely collapsed with disastrous "Scary Movies" and "Meet the Spartans". Part II is silly and "rough" at moments, but from start to finish it is still a remarkably fresh parody where the authors wonderfully spoofed "Rambo" and 'Operation Eagle Claw'. The exception is a 4-minute crude sex-sequence parody, a low point which wrecks the film, and drags on for way too long even though it is inapropriate for such a story, and should have been cut. The highlight is the 40-minute finale of the heroes infiltrating Iraq, where Abrahams' endless imagination is given free reign in crafting all sorts of creative ideas as well as demonstrating a very cozy adventure segment: the scene where Topper (Charlie Sheen) has a bow and arrows, but fails repeatedly to hit an Iraqi soldier who spots him, so Topper takes a chicken, puts it on his bow and uses it as an arrow, sending it flying right into the soldier, is so absurd and out of this world that it's howlingly funny. From wacky lines ("It seems the upper hand is on the wrong foot, Saddam!"), through hilarious small situations (Topper doesn't have time to recharge his machine-gun and thus takes a hand full of bullets and throws them at Iraqi soldiers, "eliminating" them; an Iraqi soldier with a 'bulls eye' sign on his uniform) up to the delicious duel between the US President and Saddam, almost every gag in this second half is a small masterclass of humor on its own, let alone when combined in unison. Sheen is really in great shape, but a small jewel is Jerry Haleva as dictator Saddam Hussein. It is a hilarious light film, and it is a pity they never made "Hot Shots III", since it would have had so much potential after the War in Iraq.
After a huge commercial success with "Hot Shots", director Jim Abrahams made the 1993 sequel "Hot Shots! Part Deux" that's even better and funnier than than the occasionally arbitrary original, crafting a worthy part II that became the last great parody film, long before that genre completely collapsed with disastrous "Scary Movies" and "Meet the Spartans". Part II is silly and "rough" at moments, but from start to finish it is still a remarkably fresh parody where the authors wonderfully spoofed "Rambo" and 'Operation Eagle Claw'. The exception is a 4-minute crude sex-sequence parody, a low point which wrecks the film, and drags on for way too long even though it is inapropriate for such a story, and should have been cut. The highlight is the 40-minute finale of the heroes infiltrating Iraq, where Abrahams' endless imagination is given free reign in crafting all sorts of creative ideas as well as demonstrating a very cozy adventure segment: the scene where Topper (Charlie Sheen) has a bow and arrows, but fails repeatedly to hit an Iraqi soldier who spots him, so Topper takes a chicken, puts it on his bow and uses it as an arrow, sending it flying right into the soldier, is so absurd and out of this world that it's howlingly funny. From wacky lines ("It seems the upper hand is on the wrong foot, Saddam!"), through hilarious small situations (Topper doesn't have time to recharge his machine-gun and thus takes a hand full of bullets and throws them at Iraqi soldiers, "eliminating" them; an Iraqi soldier with a 'bulls eye' sign on his uniform) up to the delicious duel between the US President and Saddam, almost every gag in this second half is a small masterclass of humor on its own, let alone when combined in unison. Sheen is really in great shape, but a small jewel is Jerry Haleva as dictator Saddam Hussein. It is a hilarious light film, and it is a pity they never made "Hot Shots III", since it would have had so much potential after the War in Iraq.
Grade:+++
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