The sad passing of Val Kilmer in April has led to a re-assessment of his work, with "Top Secret!" (his first feature film, and a leading role at that) getting a fair share of new viewers. Sandwiched between "Airplane!" and the first "Naked Gun" (the other two ZAZ movies you have to buy on a 4K Box Set in order to get this otherwise exclusive 4K disk), "TS!" lacks the Ted/Elaine relationship around which "Airplane!" hung out its endless gags. Kilmer and Lucy Gutteridge are cute together and mostly nail the jokes, but they're no Ted and Elaine. To me the highs (Nigel post-bull walk, Swedish backwards bookstore, Nick Rivers' concert, giant dove statue) outnumber the lows (compressed Omar Shariff, fireplace singalong, pizza joint dance-off). Come for the hit-or-miss gags/jokes, stay for the Val Kilmer sing/dance show. 3.75 CHOCOLATE MOUSSE GRUNTS (out of five).
"Valley Girl" director Martha Coolidge, the writers of "Bachelor Party"/"Police Academy" (Neal Israel and Pat Proft) and now-proven-star Val Kilmer teamed-up for "Real Genius," which started slow and wasn't clicking with me early on. But I knew THAT famous 'Tears for Fears' song was coming, so I stuck around. Neither wide-eyed boy genius Mitch Taylor (Gabriel Jarret) or enjoying-life-to-its-fullest brainy legend Chris Knight (Kilmer) seem interesting or worth following as newest and veteran recruits, respectively, of William Atherton's genius university. Trying to crack a laser project the military wants to use to do stealth murder of foreign enemies, Atherton pushes his students to the brink without telling them what the laser's real objective is. Gradually the supporting cast (primarily Robert Prescott's butt-kissing, a-hole teacher's pet Kent and Michelle Meyrink's nerdy/cute Jordan) started not only winning me over, but their interactions with the leads highlighted Jarret's and Kilmer's comedic timing. Kent (who looks much older than everyone else in the cast) becoming angrier at being bested by Chris kept getting funnier, and Atherton somehow ends up being a bigger prick here than in "Ghostbusters" (but not as scummy as in the "Die Hards").
Lazlo Hollyfeld's absent-minded background gags about rigging a contest pay off at the end, a nutty-as-hell WTF! finale I didn't see coming and made me gasp with amusement. It's a simple nerdy-but-cool kids vs. adult/military squares comedy, one that dials back the T&A and relies on the charm of its actors (plus one heck of an '80's soundtrack) to land its jabs. Not a classic, just an absurd fairytale. 3.15 HIDDEN CLOSET TUNNELS (out of five).
VALLEY GIRL (1983, TUBI)
ReplyDeleteTOP SECRET! (1984, 4K UHD)
REAL GENIUS (1985, IFC)
A hangout flick that's also a time capsule of a specific time/place in pop culture (downtown L.A. and San Fernando Valley circa the early '80's), "Valley Girl's" youthful characters aren't fishing for laughs during their parties, mall trips, visits with friends, concerts, phone calls to Top Ten radio stations, etc. We're welcome to ridicule how these teens-going-on-30 talk with their now-cliché valley lingo, but director Martha Coolidge and her writers aren't mocking them. The relationship between good girl from the valley Julie (Deborah Foreman) and sensitive city punk Randy (Nicolas Cage in an early breakthrough role) takes place mostly off-screen (or in a voice-less driving montage) after their cute-meet at a party. Convos/peer pressure from Julie's girlfriends pushing her to reunite with ex Tommy (Michael Bowen) makes the bulk of "VG's" story, not Julie/Randy getting-to-know-you scenes. It's a miracle Cage gets us to sympathize with Randy given his limited screen time, or that his bestie Fred (Cameron Dye) is such a douche. And is it me or does "Valley Girl" and "The Graduate" end exactly the same except the former sugarcoats the bitter pill Julie and Randy are about to swallow? 'It's fine' but not that much fun. 2.85 UNSCHEDULED POOL CLEANING VISITS (out of five). Shame Colleen Camp/Frederic Forrest as Julie's hilarious hippie parents don't get more scenes. :-(
The sad passing of Val Kilmer in April has led to a re-assessment of his work, with "Top Secret!" (his first feature film, and a leading role at that) getting a fair share of new viewers. Sandwiched between "Airplane!" and the first "Naked Gun" (the other two ZAZ movies you have to buy on a 4K Box Set in order to get this otherwise exclusive 4K disk), "TS!" lacks the Ted/Elaine relationship around which "Airplane!" hung out its endless gags. Kilmer and Lucy Gutteridge are cute together and mostly nail the jokes, but they're no Ted and Elaine. To me the highs (Nigel post-bull walk, Swedish backwards bookstore, Nick Rivers' concert, giant dove statue) outnumber the lows (compressed Omar Shariff, fireplace singalong, pizza joint dance-off). Come for the hit-or-miss gags/jokes, stay for the Val Kilmer sing/dance show. 3.75 CHOCOLATE MOUSSE GRUNTS (out of five).
"Valley Girl" director Martha Coolidge, the writers of "Bachelor Party"/"Police Academy" (Neal Israel and Pat Proft) and now-proven-star Val Kilmer teamed-up for "Real Genius," which started slow and wasn't clicking with me early on. But I knew THAT famous 'Tears for Fears' song was coming, so I stuck around. Neither wide-eyed boy genius Mitch Taylor (Gabriel Jarret) or enjoying-life-to-its-fullest brainy legend Chris Knight (Kilmer) seem interesting or worth following as newest and veteran recruits, respectively, of William Atherton's genius university. Trying to crack a laser project the military wants to use to do stealth murder of foreign enemies, Atherton pushes his students to the brink without telling them what the laser's real objective is. Gradually the supporting cast (primarily Robert Prescott's butt-kissing, a-hole teacher's pet Kent and Michelle Meyrink's nerdy/cute Jordan) started not only winning me over, but their interactions with the leads highlighted Jarret's and Kilmer's comedic timing. Kent (who looks much older than everyone else in the cast) becoming angrier at being bested by Chris kept getting funnier, and Atherton somehow ends up being a bigger prick here than in "Ghostbusters" (but not as scummy as in the "Die Hards").
Lazlo Hollyfeld's absent-minded background gags about rigging a contest pay off at the end, a nutty-as-hell WTF! finale I didn't see coming and made me gasp with amusement. It's a simple nerdy-but-cool kids vs. adult/military squares comedy, one that dials back the T&A and relies on the charm of its actors (plus one heck of an '80's soundtrack) to land its jabs. Not a classic, just an absurd fairytale. 3.15 HIDDEN CLOSET TUNNELS (out of five).