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Squeaking in all this somewhere was the latest from the wacky creators of Airplane! and the Naked Gun movies, the Zucker Brothers and Jim Abrahams, who came up with another hilarious gag-fest. Top Secret! was not a blockbuster at the time, but has cultivated its own cult following and remains a worthy entry in the spoof genre that hits far more than it misses.

Nick Rivers (Val Kilmer) is a chart topping, Elvis-esque bubblegum American singer who has been invited to Germany for a cultural festival. Whilst there he accidentally becomes involved with a woman that he met at a restaurant, and who turns out to be the daughter of a kidnapped scientist who lost her to a childhood lover that she last saw on a deserted island, who then turned out fifteen years later to be the leader of the French Underground. Got that? Does it matter?

Kilmer made his big-screen debut as Rivers, which might explain why his performance is so wooden. However, he quickly would rise to fame with better performances in such faves as Real Genius, Top Gun and Willow, all in only the next four years. His costars in Top Secret! are no slouches, either, and include everyone from Omar Sharif to Peter Cushing to Batman's Michael Gough. It's inspired casting and inspired lunacy, and if your cup of tea is full of sight gags and Zucker humor, than you'll be in hog heaven with Top Secret!

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Paramount brings Top Secret home with a new 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer which unfortunately disappoints. I'm not sure what condition the source print was in, but it must have been a pretty sad sight. Dirt, grain and other anomalies run rampant throughout, wreaking havoc on an already soft print that lacks detail. Blacks tend to be on the faded side and contrast is just decent. Colors are drab with mediocre fleshtones that veer wildly, lending the film a very dated look. This film looks more like an early 70's flick than one from the mid 80's, faring worse even than Airplane!, the other Zuckers classic that looks much better on DVD. On the positive side edge enhancement seems to have been used sparingly with only a few scenes sporting any haloing, and compression artifacts are minimal. Not the worst looking disc I've seen, but definitely below average.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The audio is much better than the video, featuring a new English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track recorded at 448 kbps. The front soundstage is decent with little real separation but nice balance between the dialogue, score and effects. Left to right stereo pans are noteworthy but the rears are used rather sparingly, with the surrounds only coming to life with some extension on the score. The high end does come close to being very raspy and there are some volume issues, with the transitions from quiet to loud scenes jarring. Low end is also only average at best. But on the whole, this is an excellent remix of an 80's comedy film.

A French 2.0 stereo dub recorded at 192 kbps is also included and features French subs, and there is also a complete English subtitle track and English Closed Captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

There are a surprising number of extras included on this disc, especially for for a Paramount catalog release, but on par with most of the other Zucker/Abrahams films that have made it to DVD.

First up is a pretty cool screen-specific audio commentary Jim Abrahams, the Zuckers Brothers and producers Jon Davidson and Hunt Lowry, and moderated by Fred Rubin. There is a ton of fantastic inside stories here and it's almost as fun as the film. The bunch aren't particularly screen-specific, preferring to veer off in many directions, and the track is marred by a fair number of quiet spots. Yes, the group is usually waiting for the others to laugh at their own jokes, but this is still a must-listen for fans of the film.

Next up are four alternate scenes, which basically are just four deleted scenes. Presented in anamorphic widescreen, their condition is poor but they are somewhat amusing. There is also a collection of three storyboard sequences, all easy to use and navigate. Last but not least, we have a silly but excellent theatrical trailer in anamorphic widescreen and 2.0 stereo.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

Like just about every Paramount release, no ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts