Hot Shots Part Deux (1993)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

• An Adventure in Filmmaking Featurette
  
• Early Awareness Featurette
  

Topper Harley (Sheen) was the hero of the last movie...er...war, but has since retired to a life working quietly in a Buddhist monastery in Thailand. But the Army has one more mission for him: he needs to go in and rescue the men who were sent in to rescue the men who originally went in to try to assassinate Saddam Hussein (this of course, being the last time we were going into Iraq...under the other President Bush). Harley at first says no to the mission, but after they go in without him...okay...wait...this sounds way too serious. I guess to lighten the thing up I should mention he uses a chicken as a lethal weapon or something.

It's one of last of the funny movie spoofs of its time. Most of the parody-a-minute flicks that have come out since this one have really fallen flat (see almost anything recent with Leslie Nielsen), but this one hit every mark it aimed for. For cryin' out loud, any movie that has Charlie Sheen spoofing Platoon and Martin Sheen spoofing Apocalypse Now and has them come together for a brief instant and say in unison, "Loved you in Wall Street!" has got to be funny.

You only need to take a look at the cast list to see the raw potentiality for funny this movie has. Ryan Stiles is perfect as the explosives expert on the mission. I can remember watching this movie when it first came out and thinking that he was going to go places. Lloyd Bridges reprises almost every role he's had since the first Airplane! movie and, as always, he's brilliantly hilarious. Rowan Atkinson has a very small role as the primary hostage they are trying to rescue, but to have him in the cast was a coup. All I have to do is look at him and I start laughing. Maybe you have that issue as well. The dialogue is not deep but it is clever for the most part, which is what you should expect from a good satire.

So, why do I only recommend a rental on this one? Well, the DVD presentation could have been better. There are essentially two features of this DVD. The first is called An Adventure in Filmmaking and it's in Spanish...well, most of it. The interview sections are in English, but for the longest time, I couldn't figure out if I was doing something wrong or if it was just some joke I wasn't privy to. So, it wasn't much good to me. It seemed to be like the standard "making of" fare that we're all quite familiar with. The other is called Early Awareness and it's in English (at least)--and I can say that it most definitely is the standard "making of" fare. And that's all you get. No commentary track with the director or even Sheen.

So, it's this last part that is keeping it off the purchase list. Until they come out with a better DVD treatment, just rent it, and reminisce about the old days when we were bombing the crap out of Iraq...the first time.