Quick Rehearsal !

Rating: Null/10 (19 June 2012)

This round, (Jim Abrahams), (Jerry Zucker) and (David Zucker) made nothing but a bunch of jokes on the war movies, which didn't hold together as a whole movie. I wished that the parody's most famous team would present something more solid and effective than these desultory weak sketches. True that there was an ambitious intention, but the final outcome was purely deficient.
The plot line is thinner than a thread. Most of the gags are juvenile. There are some comic moments that manipulate the cinematic medium for just the manipulation (the bar fight under the water, the library scene played backwards), without at least real laughs along the way. Choosing (Val Kilmer) was a big hole to a ship with already many holes. He had such a stiff face, which didn't fit comedy (or in fact anything!). The supposedly comic lines were delivered miserably by him.
Speaking of which, if you noticed well, you would discover that the-stiff-face choice was kind of a habit of the (Abrahams, Zucker and Zucker) team. From (Val Kilmer) in (Top Secret! - 1984), to (Charlie Sheen) in (Hot Shots! - 1991) and (Hot Shots! Part Deux - 1993), ending with (Jay Mohr) in (Jane Austen's Mafia! - 1998). Maybe the studio used to demand a young handsome guy as a lead, whether had a talent for comedy or not! Sure (Leslie Nielson), a regular - and better - face in that team's movies, wasn't always satisfying for the producers as only handsome guy (young age beats talent is an old Hollywood story!).
2 things live from this movie: its actively ironic spirit out of the movies' exposed tricks, along with few marginal jokes. It's not a perfect movie in the first place; just a quick rehearsal for (Hot Shots 2) later. After parodying the 1940s and 1950s war movies in (Top..), they would parody the 1970s and 1980s war movies in (Hot..). Btw, character actor (Miguel Ferrer) was in the 2 movies, playing nearly the same role. The only difference was that the last one was funnier and more like a movie as well.