Hot Shots! Part Deux

One of the best jokes in Jim Abrahams’ parody is a piece of casting. The old commanding officer who comes to pull Topper out of seclusion is played by Richard Crenna, repeating his own role from the Rambo films being mocked, which Variety called brilliant casting. Jerry Haleva, who plays Saddam Hussein, was not an actor but a lobbyist in Sacramento. In 1989 a colleague passed a photograph of Hussein around the office captioned with the line that now we know what Haleva does on his weekends. He took a small part in the first Hot Shots, moved up here, and gave the work up in 2003 when Iraq was invaded. The violence is parodied as arithmetic: during one shootout an inset body count ticks over in the corner while flashing type declares this the bloodiest movie ever made. Charlie Sheen’s father, Martin Sheen, passes the other way down the river on a boat, still inside his Apocalypse Now role, and shouts to his son that he loved him in Wall Street. A good fit if you enjoy placing each gag, spotting which frame came from Rambo, which from Apocalypse Now and which from Lady and the Tramp. Not for viewers who will find the Goldilocks story that sends Topper back to duty merely loud rather than clever.