HOT SHOTS PART DEUX
US, 1993, 89 minutes, Colour.
Charlie Sheen, Valeria Golina, Lloyd Bridges, Rowan Atkinson, Richard Crenna.
Directed by Jim Abrahams.
Hot Shots Part Deux is an amusing sequel to the original, Hot Shots. The film was written by Jim Abrahams (who, with the Zucker brothers, produced and directed the entertaining parodies, Flying High and Top Secret as well as Ruthless People - Abrahams directed, by himself, Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael and Big Business) and Pat Proft, writer of some of the Police Academy series.
While the original film parodied Top Gun, this film takes as its target the Rambo films. Charlie Sheen, inflated extraordinarily, is a would-be Rambo who is accident-prone. The beginning of the film has a long parody, cleverly done and attentive to all kinds of detail, on Saddam Hussein. This time Admiral Benson, Lloyd Bridges, is the president in a parody of George Bush. Valeria Golina returns as Ramada.
The film has obvious targets and relies on visual and verbal humour. There is an incidental scene where Charlie Sheen is going upriver and meets his father Martin Sheen (as in Apocalypse Now) and they comment on their performances in Wall Street!
The film parodies the kind of violent action film of Hollywood in the '80s - though enjoying its target. There is a guest appearance by Rowan Atkinson as Valeria Gillian’s husband.
1.The title and the focus? The tone, comparisons with the original? Jim Abrahams and his spoofing films, from Top Gun to Rambo?
2.Brief running time, visual and verbal humour, pace and editing? The stars?
3.The Middle East settings, the Far East - movie style?
4.Audience response to the Rambo films and their conventions of action and the tough hero, American dominance?
5.Tongue-in-cheek style, heroes and heroics, romance, villains and portrayal?
6.The Saddam Hussein spoof, the details of life in Iraq? The special mission - and its failure?
7.Tug Benson as president, the helicopter cutting his cap, vomiting like President Bush at the banquet...? His lack of control, orders? Denton Walters and his hopes in him - and Richard Crenna reprising his role from the Rambo films?
8.Charlie Sheen as Topper Harley, the Rambo type, the initial bout - yet accident prone? Walters watching him, recruiting him? The memories of being abandoned by Ramada, going to the monastery, the Buddhist - and the monk and the spoof of sex appeal? Michelle and her attraction?
9.Topper and Michelle - romance, the taxi (and the videoing)?
10.The Middle East, the mission, Ramada appearing again, sailing up the river, the story of her husband as prisoner?
11.The attack and the parody of marine gung-ho films? The boat, the attack on the camp? Benson arriving underwater and his duel with the dictator?
12.Ramada's husband, Topper stepping out of the romance, the husband going over the cliff?
13.The revelation of Michelle as spy? Her contacts?
14.The parody of movies like The Lady and the Tramp, Casablanca? The violence count? How telling as a Hollywood self-critique of the '80s and the Rambo genre of films?
