Pardon My Parody: ‘Hot Shots!’
Charlie Sheen, Valeria Golino, Carey Elwes, & Lloyd Bridges in Hot Shots! 20th Century Studios (1991).
By R. J. F.
Parody movies have pretty much disappeared, but ‘Hot Shots!’ is still a superior effort in the genre.
Paula Cole once asked, “Where have all the cowboys gone?” So, I ask, “Where have all the parody movies gone?” Parody movies seem to have dwindled in the last 10 years, which is both a shame and a blessing. For the most part, a parody film will turn into a franchise and become weaker and weaker as the films keep pouring out. Take, for example, the Scary Movie franchise. The first one was pretty hilarious, the second one was also somewhat good, but after that, it was just a groan worthy mess and a total time suck. If we’re lucky, a parody movie will have 1 or 2 in the chamber and then fade away into the background. This is where Hot Shots! comes into play.
Everything I needed to know about Top Gun I learned from watching Hot Shots!. In all honesty, I didn’t watch Top Gun until a couple of weeks ago because I figured Hot Shots! would reveal the important plot points. This isn’t entirely true, but Hot Shots! was pretty spot on with some of the important details. In the movie, the main character, Topper Harley, played by Charlie Sheen, is the rebel, the wildcard, the maverick (See what I did there?) of the fleet, much like Tom Cruise’s character in Top Gun. Here are some more examples: There’s a sexy rivalry between Topper and Kent Gregory, much like Maverick and Iceman. Topper gets romantically involved with Ramada Thompson, who works for the Navy, which is a play on Maverick’s romance with Charlie, a woman that also works for the Navy. There are plenty of rockin’ guitar riffs in the flight scenes, a very similar setting of a beachside town, Topper swiftly riding his motorcycle here and there, etc. I could go on with more, but I’m just proving a point. Hot Shots! sustained me for years with vague knowledge about Top Gun, to the point where I thought it unnecessary to watch Cruise fly around in a fighter jet.
As it goes with all parody movies, there are some gags that work and some that are just plain stupid; Hot Shots! has both. One scene that I find to be overkill is when the character, Dead Meat, gets, well, killed. As if his name didn’t give it away, the character encounters a technical error while practicing flying, but they don’t just let him drop from the sky and go splat on the ground. Nope, he survives the crash, but is hit by an ambulance, then he encounters an overly bumpy ride to the hospital, is mishandled in various ways, and eventually dies after claiming he would be perfectly fine after all this bodily abuse. I mean, I get that they wanted to add on some more physical comedy, but was all that necessary? If anything, I got a minor chuckle out of it, but not much else.
On the opposite side of the spectrum is a scene that makes me teehee like a total fucking clown every time I see it. It’s when Ramada sings a sultry song at the popular bar all the Navy men like to attend. First, I want to point out a “blink and you’ll miss it” reference moment. As Ramada is walking around the bar with her mic, she passes the bar and you can see the bartender doing a little flippity-doo in the background with a bottle. If you’re not aware, this is a nod to another Cruise flick, Cocktail. What makes me giggle about this scene are all the tiny jokes and pratfalls, such as Ramada accidentally hitting someone with the mic, her taking a swig of water while her voice is still singing, and other dumb stuff like that. It’s these little, comedic moments that get the laughs.
Here’s the truth: Hot Shots! is not the best parody movie that I’ve ever seen, but it’s sufficient in the realm of this genre. When it was released, it did well in the theater, and the fact that it’s still streamed all these years later kind of says something about its popularity. What would be really interesting is if a new Hot Shots! would come out in response to Top Gun: Maverick, but I doubt that will happen because Sheen has lost his ever-loving mind in recent years. Some areas in Hot Shots! are a little too far-fetched, as is the case with most parodies, but even those scenes still get a laugh 20 plus years later. There might be a limited supply of modern parody movies nowadays, but Hot Shots! can tie us over until there’s more.
