However, by adding ruthless, Juvenalian satirical jabs at real-life politicians and corrupt arms manufacturers to a movie built on fonder, Horation parody of Top Gun’s goofy action-movie heroics, Hot Shots! gave edge and relevance to a fun, silly story. Often, the comedy of spoof movies could end up feeling somewhat toothless and juvenile, as a parody by definition prizes making audiences laugh over making a point.
Much like Rick & Morty’s Prometheus parody poked light-hearted fun at the Ridley Scott movie but added sharper critiques of contemporary politics into its script, so too did Hot Shots! temper its off-the-wall absurdity with clever satirical stabs at the corporations profiteering off endless war through arms sales. The Iran-Contra affair gave the filmmakers a prime target to mock with pointed satirical barbs that gave Hot Shots! real edge despite the silliness and over-the-top nature of the spoof format. With a real love for the movie being spoofed and a laser focus on Top Gun's unique style, Hot Shots! could have visually passed for a sequel to the movie were it not for the goofy prop comedy scattered through the spoof's action.Īs well as affectionate spoofs of Top Gun and other ‘80s hits, Hot Shots! featured more pointed satire of the real-life politics of the day. Where many parodies were happy to just spoof the most famous scenes from the object of their ire, Hot Shots! had a real affection for the source material, as proven by Cary Elwes and Charlie Sheen’s pitch-perfect parodies of Iceman and Maverick in the pair’s respective performances. Hot Shots!, in contrast, succeeded because the movie focused on recreating the feel, tone, and style of Top Gun, albeit with some absurd punchlines added throughout the proceedings.įrom renaming Goose as “Dead Meat” to the movie’s Maverick stand-in having a father who survived a crash, only to be mistaken for a deer and shot immediately after Hot Shots! painstakingly recreated the aesthetic of Top Gun to spoof the movie.
Where successful spoofs like the Austin Powers movies meticulously recreated the aesthetic of the movies they were mocking, many ‘90s and ‘00s parody movies simply referenced anything popular at the time in the hopes that topical familiarity and recognition would make up for a lack of focus. However, part of the reason that the sub-genre fell out of favor was the decision by critically-derided spoof movies throughout the ‘90s and ‘00s to take a scattershot approach to parody. It can be hard to recall, after decades out of critical and commercial favor, spoof movies used to be serious business at the box office. In 1990, the creators of Airplane! earned both glowing reviews in years and a cool $180 million box office payday with Hot Shots!, a scene-for-scene Top Gun parody. However, despite how silly Top Gun was, there was still room for a movie to mercilessly parody the film and gain critical and commercial success in the process. The movie was a bombastic, self-consciously silly story that was unashamed of its cheesiness, and Top Gun director Tony Scott infused the action with winking self-awareness years long before later action auteur Michael Bay’s movies mocked their own excesses. Director John Carpenter even turned down the project upon reading an early draft, noting that the climactic dogfight would trigger World War III if it occurred in real life. Related: Why Top Gun’s Reshoots Were A MistakeĮven the most ardent defenders of Top Gun could not deny that much of the movie’s appeal came from how over-the-top its goofy heroics were, and how unlikely its escapist story was. As a result, the Tom Cruise vehicle was highly successful, but Top Gun was also undeniably a little silly. Top Gun even invented pilot rankings and trophies for flying, neither of which existed in the real-life institution, to make the story feel more like an inspirational sports movie than a heavy drama about war. Unlike most army movies of the time, Top Gun was a fun, breezy, and cheesy summer blockbuster that ignored any inconvenient realities of life in the Navy in favor of glamorous Hollywood fantasy.
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