Pros And Cons of Top Secret

Rating: 8/10 (12 April 2017)

Pros 1. I was amused to hear Leonard Bernstein referenced since he composed the score for Ghostbusters, a film that stole a lot of business from Top Secret. Speaking of musical references, there's a funny moment when main character Nick Rivers gets top billing ahead of Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra. Sinatra would appear in theaters the following week in "Cannonball Run II" and Stevie Wonder would win an Oscar for a song from "Woman In Red" released later that summer.
2. I was delighted to see Maurice Jarre composed the score for this film the same year he earned a Best Original Score Oscar for Sir David Lean's "A Passage To India". Speaking of Sir David Lean, Omar Sharif gets to show a great comedic side he didn't get to show in "Lawrence Of Arabia" or "Dr. Zhivago".
3. I'm a big Beach Boys fan and I get a real kick out of Nick River's hit "Skeet Surfing".
4. I'm always thankful to get a dose of the awesomeness that is Michael Gouge. It's amusing that Lucy Gutteridge played Gouge's daughter as they both appeared that year in the Christmas Carol film that aired on CBS. Gouge played a charity worker and Gutteridge was the girl that rejects Ebenezer in the "Ghost Of Christmas Past" sequence.
5. Peter Cushing gets a funny scene as a Swedish Book Store Owner. At least he doesn't sexually assault anybody like in "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed". The villain in Top Secret is sexually assaulted by a bull but that's all right.
6. Not growing up in the 80's, I didn't know who Freddie Laker is. After doing some research, I do see the hilarity in Nigel naming Freddie Laker as a communist author.
7. I loved the Pac-Man cameo. This was just 7 months after the Hannah-Barbera Pac-Man cartoon ended.
8. I've had many nightmares about not studying for school. I appreciate Nick Rivers finding torture better than a nightmare about school.
9. The Wizard Of Oz is without doubt the most parodied film in history but that doesn't make this film's "Wizard Of Oz" parody any less funny. It's appropriate as Top Secret was released almost exactly a year before "Return To Oz." Like Top Secret being over-shadowed by "Ghostbusters", Return To Oz was over-shadowed by another Sci-Fi film: Cocoon.
10. Best Line German General: (on the phone) I see, well call if his condition changes (hangs up) he's dead
Cons 1. It seems bad timing for a code-name to be "there are no good white basketball players" when Top Secret was released 10 days after Larry Bird led the Celtics to their 2nd world championship in 4 years.