Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993) - Laugh your pants off

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+ Best Big Hit Movie of the Year + Best Spoof of the Year  

 

Star Sheen fires off a shocked rooster from a bow on this dead-pan hilarious poster for Jim Abrahams' Hot Shots! Part Deux

Harley Topper has gone into exile somewhere in Asia, but he is brought back home to the States for an important mission: Save the soldiers, who were supposed to save some American hostages of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but who has instead also been taken hostages themselves.

 

Hot Shots! Part Deux is written by co-writer/co-producer Pat Proft (Ringo (1978, TV-movie)) and great Wisconsinite filmmaker, co-writer/director Jim Abrahams (Airplane! (1980)). It is the sequel to the pair's huge hit Hot Shots! (1991).

This comedy hits the mark: One almost cries out in laughter, and everything just seems tighter than in the already hilarious first film: The gags, the references, the guest appearances (including Rowan Atkinson (The Lion King (1994))!) and the howlingly funny scenes. Charlie Sheen (Scary Movie 3 (2003)) is a riot in Hot Shots! Part Deux.

 

Related posts:

Jim Abrahams: 1993 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Hot Shots! (1991) - Abrahams and Co. present another rip-roaring spoof comedy

Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Airplane! (1980) - The deadpan/spoof/crazy-comedy classic!

 

Watch a 2-minute clip from the movie here

 

Cost: 25 mil. $

Box office: 133.7 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 5.34 times its cost)

[Hot Shots! Part Deux was released 21 May (USA) and runs 86 minutes. Sheen was paid 4 mil. $ for his performance, and worked out voraciously to beef up for the part. Shooting took place from October 1992 - January 1993 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #2, behind Sliver, to a 10.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#5-#5), grossing 38.9 mil. $ (29.1 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. Abrahams returned with An Introduction to the Ketogenic Diet (1994, video documentary), ...First Do No Harm (1997, TV movie) and theatrically with Mafia! (1998). Sheen returned in Deadfall (1993). Hot Shots! Part Deux is rotten at 56 % with a 5.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hot Shots! Part Deux?

Hot Shots! (1991) - Abrahams and Co. present another rip-roaring spoof comedy

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A simple poster for Jim Abrahams' Hot Shots! which promises, hilariously, 'the mother of all movies!'

Topper Harley has a complex due to his father, Buzz's fatal jet plane accident, but once the US Navy require him back in duty, he can only respond in the positive. - But it turns out that there's something amiss in the US military...

 

Hot Shots! is written by Pat Proft (Mary (1978, TV-series)) and great Wisconsinite filmmaker, co-writer/director Jim Abrahams (Airplane! (1980)).

Charlie Sheen (Bad Day on the Block (1997)) is best here in the scenes in which you feel he is riffing comedically and not only playing what's in the (already funny) script. Lloyd Bridges (The Lloyd Bridges Show (1962-63)) is certainly also hilarious as the mad admiral, on-par with the master of dead-pan laughs, Leslie Nielsen. Jon Cryer (Weather Girl (2009)) has a funny minor role as a pilot nicknamed Dead Meat.

Hot Shots! is totally nuts. It is crammed full of gags, many of which don't provoke laughs; but those that do incite uproarious laughter. Hot Shots! is simply a funny comedy, end of story.

 

Related posts:

Jim Abrahams: Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Airplane! (1980) - The deadpan/spoof/crazy-comedy classic! 
 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 26 mil. $

Box office: 181 mil. $

= Huge hit (returned 6.96 times its cost)

[Hot Shots! premiered 26 July (Los Angeles) and runs 84 minutes. Shooting took place from January - April 1991 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #1 to a 10.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it held on to the #1 position for another 3 weekends and then spent a further 3 in the top 5 (#4-#4-#5), grossing 69.4 mil. $ (38.3 % of the total gross). The success sparked sequel Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), again by Abrahams and starring Sheen. This was Abrahams' return. Sheen first returned in Loaded Weapon 1 (1993). Hot Shots! is fresh at 84 % with a 6.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hot Shots!?

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) - Hughes' perfect movie of youth

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Matthew Broderick sports his boyish charms on this simple poster for John Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Ferris Bueller is a high school senior rebel who is about to take a wild day off in Chicago. He takes his introverted, anxious friend Cameron and attractive girlfriend Sloane into joining him on an adventure in Cameron's father's prized 1961 Ferrari.

For thousands upon thousands of people the world over, Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a sweetly nostalgic treasure that won't ever lose its magic. It is the perfect movie about youth, made by the great auteur of teenage portrayals, 1980s champion, Michigander master filmmaker John Hughes (Curly Sue (1991)), who wrote and directed the film.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off strikes a rare balance between being funny and serious, but in the first place it is hugely entertaining throughout.
Matthew Broderick (The Last Shot (2004)) is Ferris, and the supporting parts are also all brilliantly cast. Among the most memorable are Alan Ruck (Hot in Cleveland (2013), TV-series) as Cameron, who undergoes the great change in the film, effectively getting saved by Ferris into seeing the life and promises of the world all around him; Jeffrey Jones (Sleepy Hollow (1999)) as the sadistic principal and Charlie Sheen (Postmortem (1998)) in a prophetic role as a junkie. Although carpe diem is closely associated with Peter Weir's Dead Poets' Society (1989), - also a good film, - the film that truly earns the title as the seize-the-day movie of all time is Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off. - Simply a blast of a film.

Related post:

John Hughes: The Breakfast Club (1985) - John Hughes' detention classic

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 5.8 mil. $
Box office: 70.1 mil. $ (North America only)
= Mega-hit
[Ferris Bueller's Day Off was released 11 June (USA) and runs 103 minutes. Hughes wrote the script in less than a week and shot his first draft. He intended the film to be more about characters than plot. The first cut was 2 hours and 45 minutes. Broderick and Ruck were friends and had acted together before in Biloxi Blues on Broadway. Shooting took place from September - November 1985 in Illinois, including in Chicago, and in California, including in Los Angeles. Hughes made a point of getting as much of his beloved Chicago in the film as he could. The '61 Ferrari (today one of the most expensive cars ever sold) in the film was the real deal in insert shots and reproductions in wide shots SPOILER and for the destruction scene in the end. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Back to School, to a 6.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#5) and scored a triumphant 70.1 mil. $, becoming the year's 10th highest-grossing title in North America. Unfortunately, its world gross is not listed. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to two notches harder than this review. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe (for Broderick). Hughes returned with Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987). Broderick returned in Project X (1987). An NBC Ferris Bueller TV-series (without Hughes or Broderick - but with Jennifer Aniston) ran a single season in 1986. Ferris Bueller's Day Off is certified fresh at 79 % with a 7.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Ferris Bueller's Day Off?