Fox Home Entertainment presents

Hot Shots! (1991)

Harley Topper: I got the sky, the smell of jet exhaust, my bike.
Pete "Dead Meat" Thompson: A loner.
Topper: No. I own it.- Charlie Sheen, William O'Leary

Stars: Charlie Sheen, Cary Elwes, Valeria Golino, Jon Cryer, Kevin Dunn, Bill Irwin, Lloyd Bridges
Other Stars: Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Kristy Swanson, Charles Barkley, Bill Laimbeer
Director: Jim Abrahams

Manufacturer: Panasonic Disc Services Corp.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for (language, sensuality)
Run Time: 01h:24m:37s
Release Date: 2002-08-06
Genre: comedy

Style Grade	Substance Grade	Image Transfer Grade	Audio Transfer Grade	Extras Grade
A	B+	A	A	C

 

DVD Review

Jim Abrahams, together with the Zucker Brothers, made some of the great comedies of the 1980s. That it wasn't just the Zuckers is made amply clear by this gut-busting comedy that takes the Top Gun genre and lets loose with rapid-fire gags that mostly are right on the money.

Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen) is a hotshot Navy pilot who has retreated to a reservation, obsessing over his failure that mirrored the fatal accident of his father. Called out of retirement by Lt. Commander Block (Kevin Dunn), he's assigned to the Sleepy Weasel project that requires the best of the best. Once out, he has to deal with his sexy psychiatrist Ramada (Valeria Golino), her jealous boyfriend Kent (Cary Elwes), their demented admiral (Lloyd Bridges) and a military contractor, Wilson (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) who wants to sabotage the project.

That synopsis doesn't begin to do justice to this picture. Almost immediately there's a barrage of effective humor, absurd and slapstick, all played perfectly straight, which heightens the comic effect. Sheen gives a performance reminiscent of an obsessive Tom Cruise, and his straight-arrow persona works great in the role. The real standout is Lloyd Bridges as the admiral whose body parts litter an endless parade of battlefields. He takes a clueless page from Leslie Nielsen's shtick as he wanders into pratfalls and seems completely oblivious to his surroundings.

The PG-13 rating strikes me as a complete mystery. While there's a little rough language and a couple of cannibalism gags, it's not too extreme, and there's no nudity, sex or violence beyond slapstick. There is an erotically charged love scene, but it's played entirely for laughs by the time Harley begins frying bacon on Ramada's stomach. I found the film to be quite inoffensive. Considering the usually raunchy nature of comedy these days, that makes Hot Shots! a particularly welcome breath of fresh air.

The one drawback to the presentation that I noted is that the onscreen subtitles during the segments in the phony Indian language (including such phrases as "LaToya Jermaine Tito") are player-generated. This is distracting and does damage to the film.

Rating for Style: A
Rating for Substance: B+

 

Image Transfer

	One
Aspect Ratio	1.85:1 - Widescreen
Original Aspect Ratio	yes
Anamorphic	yes

Image Transfer Review: The anamorphic widescreen picture looks great. There is a load of fine detail, and color is excellent and natural in appearence. Black levels are very good, but there is plenty of shadow detail as well. A very occasional speck might be seen, but by and large this looks brand new. The fact that this fairly short film is presented on an RSDL disc allows for a high bit rate, which certainly doesn't hurt.

Image Transfer Grade: A
 

Audio Transfer

	Language	Remote Access
DS 2.0	French, Spanish	yes
Dolby Digital 5.1	English	yes

Audio Transfer Review: The 5.1 sound (advertised incorrectly on the keepcase as Dolby Surround) is also first-rate, with the jets providing both excellent directional sound and a ton of deep bass. No hiss, noise or distortion was noted. Dialogue is crystal clear throughout.

Audio Transfer Grade: A 

Disc Extras

Static menu
Scene Access with 24 cues and remote access
Subtitles/Captions in English, Spanish with remote access
1 Original Trailer(s)
4 Other Trailer(s) featuring Kung Pow, Dude, Where's My Car?, Freddy Got Fingered, Monkeybone
1 Documentaries
Packaging: Amaray
Picture Disc
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: RSDL
Layers Switch: 00h:52m:59s

Extras Review: The primary extra is a promotional documentary (25m:03s), The Making of an Important Movie. This consists of about half clips of the best gags from the movie and half from tongue-in-cheek interviews with the cast. Not as funny as the main feature, there's still more entertainment here than one finds in the usual puff piece.

Besides that, there's a set of trailers. That for the feature is pan & scan, as are all of the others except Kung Pow, which is nonanamorphic widescreen. Chaptering is quite thorough.

Extras Grade: C
 

Final Comments

A fun comedy with a nonstop barrage of gags in a terrific transfer. There's an entertaining documentary to boot, so this one is recommended.

Mark Zimmer 2002-08-07