This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Beep! Beep!
Plot Overview
Some
twenty years ago US Navy
pilot Leland “Buzz” Harley (Bill Irwin) took the blame
for the death of his co-pilot Dominic “Mailman” Farnham
(Ryan Stiles) in a hunting accident. Currently, Buzz's son Lt. Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen),
a consummate pilot in his own right, suffers from Paternal
Conflict Syndrome (PCS) and is discharged from the service for
disobeying a direct order. He's been living with the Indians for
eighteen months. Lt. Cmdr. James Block (Kevin Dunn) recalls
him, against medical advice, to lead a failed strike in order to
discredit the plane so the Navy will replace it with a competing
foreign model. Mailman's love child, fighter pilot Kent Gregory
(Cary Elwes) is Topper's rival in the air.
Ideology
Cinemagraphically the movie
mimics the action in (Prov. 30:18-19)
“There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea,
four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of
a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea;
and the way of a man with a maid.” Starting with “the
way of an eagle in the air,” we have fighters worrying
geese/ducks who are in their flight path (“He singed my tail
feathers.”) Topper starts a sizzling affair with his shrink
Ramada Thompson (Valeria Golino) reminiscent of line from author
Yukio Mishima: “They clutched at each other and collided in
frenzied, awkward movements like beasts in a forest lunging at
a ring of fire” (44.)
Next comes the ground
game, “the way of a serpent upon a rock.” Topper
engages in a death-defying ballet on bike with the trick riding
horsewoman Ramada (“I was really impressed with the way
you handled that stallion.”) It's like a piece from a Yukio
Mishima novel: “his concept of ideal love: a man encounters
the perfect woman only once in a lifetime and in every case
death interposes—an unseen Pandarus—and lures them
into the preordained embrace. This fantasy was probably a product
of hyperbole of popular songs. But over the years it had taken on
substance in some recess of his mind—” (39.) His Dream
Lover discovery notwithstanding, he still has a suicide
mission to complete.
Then comes the water game,
“the way of a ship in the midst of the sea.” Walking
along the shore Topper tells his girl that no matter what he does,
he always hurts someone. He skips a rock across the water,
which strikes a kayaker. Kent is likely to get hurt by his once
girlfriend on the rebound.
The culmination is,
“the way of a man with a maid.” It's not a
straightforward course.
Production Values
“” (1991) is a brazen parody of “Top Gun” (1986) set during the first Iraq War. The mission is an attack on an Iraqi nuclear plant launched from the carrier U.S.S. Essess. It was directed by Jim Abrahams and written by Jim Abrahams and Pat Proft. It stars Charlie Sheen, Cary Elwes and Valeria Golino. Also featured are Kristy Swanson as Kowalski, Heidi Swedberg as Mary Thompson, Eugene Greytak as Pope John Paul II, Don Lake as Doctor, Marc Shaiman as Piano Player, Tony Lorea as Humphrey “Bogie” Bogart, Bob Lenz as Elvis “The King” Presley, and Willie Collins as Liberace. Jerry Haleva made a good Saddam Hussein look-alike. Lloyd Bridges playing an all wet Admiral Thomas “Tug” Benson gets the most laughs. Here's a typical skit:
Admiral Benson: [while standing on top of the aircraft carrier, his cap blew off and landed in the ocean] “Holy Cow! My cap blew off! Swing her round. We'll pick it up.”
Officer: “But, sir, we're on the mission.”
Admiral Benson: “Good thinking. We'll pick it up on the way back. We gotta mark the spot, though. Put Rabinowitz in a life raft. Have him row in circles until we return.”
Officer: “It could be days.”
Admiral Benson: “Then put some food in the life raft, for god's sake, man. Do I have to think of everything? We'll tape his favorite shows, he won't miss anything.”
The tense mission gets underway and they're busy in the operations room coordinating the attack. Faintly in the background is heard a repeating message in Morse. Out of habit as a ham radio operator I deciphered it. They are keeping track of that sorry “raft.” This was so outrageously deadpan it put the movie over the top in my book.
It was certified PG–13. The humor consisted of white-wall military idiom punctuated with off-the-wall zingers, cartoonish defiance of the laws of physics, and silliness stretched tight to be ambushed from left field. You don't have to get every joke to laugh a bunch. Runtime is 1 hour 25 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
A crowd shows up with signs saying, “God Bless Our Troops.” There's the pope, a rabbi and a couple Amish—they're pacifists. The whole movie is ridiculous yet there aren't any jokes at the expense of religion. The humor is mostly clean.
I thought it was funny, but I'm easy to please. What you see is what you get.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Better than watching TV. Suspense: A few suspenseful moments. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Mishima, Yukio. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Copyright © 1965 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965. Reprint.
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