SPOOF II: HOT SHOTS PART DEUX, NATIONAL LAMPOON'S LOADED WEAPON 1, ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS© Sean Gallagher
Sep 7, 2004
By 1993, the spoof genre, refined by Mel Brooks and ZAZ, no longer seemed quite as fresh as it once did. Not only did three spoof movies come out - Jim Abrahams' HOT SHOTS PART DEUX, Gene Quintano's NATIONAL LAMPOON'S LOADED WEAPON 1, and Mel Brooks' ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS - but they all were spoofs of the action/adventure genre, or specific movies in that genre. Still, the former generated a lot of laughs, while the latter two delivered some.
Unlike NAKED GUN 2 1/2, Abrahams' sequel to his 1991 hit doesn't go soft, even though there was no reason to make it other than the obvious (money). Charlie Sheen returns as Topper Harley, the fighter pilot. This time, he's living with Buddhist monks because his girlfriend Ramada (Valeria Golino) left him. His former commanding officer, Col. Walters (Richard Crenna), and Michelle Rodham Huddleston (Brenda Bakke), a CIA agent, try to recruit him to rescue men captured by Saddam Hussein. Topper refuses, until Walters is captured, and he teams with Huddleston and a commando team, while Ramada comes back into his life, and President Tug Benson (Lloyd Bridges) goes on a mission of his own. Once again, though, it's the gags that are the point of the movie. Once again, they're non-stop, with often two or three going on at once (while Walters gives a parody of a pep talk, monks go up to Huddleston with signs saying, "Celibacy sucks"). There are also elaborate parodies within parodies; it's once thing to spoof the "meatball" scene from LADY AND THE TRAMP, but to do it alongside a GODFATHER parody and all inside a CASABLANCA parody is inspired and hysterical. Plus, when Sheen and his father come together for one scene, it's quite inspired - and funny. There are also the usual amount of sight gags (during the opening scene, the typewritten introduction of the scene contains typos), running gags (all the women characters have the middle name Rodham, a la Hilary Rodham Clinton), dialogue gags (when a guard admires how Walters withstands torture, he retorts, "I've been married. Twice!"), culture humor (after a battle scene, a soldier (Miguel Ferrer) says, "War! It's fantastic!"), and even commented on itself (when Topper wonders why Ramada came back, she replies, "It's a sequel. I had to come back"). The cast again know how to make this funny. Returnees Sheen, Golino, and Bridges all seem comfortable in their roles, and newbies Crenna, Ferrer, and Bakke know enough what to do. Again, there was no reason to make HOT SHOTS PART DEUX, except it's funny.
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