Director: Jim Abrahams
Cast: Charlie Sheen, Cary Elwes, Valeria Golino, Jon Cryer
Have I Seen It Before: Chalk another one up to the “I had cable in the 90s, so I had to have” although I imagine I did seek the film out at some point.
Did I Like It: There’s not a lot of room for creative criticism when it comes to films like this. It all boils down to: Is it closer to Airplane! (1980) or is it closer to the dreary—and thankfully curbed in recent years, after a quick look at Wikipedia—work of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. At least one part of ZAZ is directly—read: not just getting a contractual credit—involved. That’s a big step in the right direction. It was released earlier than 1996. That’s another step in the right direction. So, yes, this is “one of the good ones.” You will laugh more often than you don’t. Whether or not it bothers you if you’re laughing at something occasionally pretty stupid is a question you’re probably not concerned with if you have decided to watch Hot Shots!.
The only thought I think I can add to the discussion is wondering why there has yet to be some discussion, on some level—especially after the unassailable box office success of Top Gun: Maverick (2022), and the reasonable success of The Naked Gun (2025)—of doing a legacy sequel to this. Sure, Sheen may be a little bit harder to get an insurance bond on, but give him the same deal they gave Robert Downey Jr. in the 2000s: Make him put his own bond money up, incentivizing to finish the movie. It could a be a big success for him, and a reasonable amount of money for Disney. Hot Shots!: Topper. The poster sells itself. Get Jeff Bridges to play Lloyd Bridges son…
Why am I not pitching this right now?