Hot Shots! Part Deux

Infobox_Film
name =Hot Shots! Part Deux


imdb_id =0107144
writer =Jim Abrahams
Pat Proft
starring =Charlie Sheen
Lloyd Bridges
Valeria Golino
Richard Crenna
Brenda Bakke
Miguel Ferrer
Ryan Stiles
Rowan Atkinson
Jerry Haleva
director =Jim Abrahams
producer =Bill Badalato
Pat Proft
distributor =20th Century Fox
released =May 21, 1993
runtime =86 min.
music =
awards =
language =English
budget =
preceded_by = "Hot Shots!"

"Hot Shots! Part Deux" is a 1993 comedy spoof film, and a sequel to the 1991 comedy "Hot Shots!"

Directed again by Jim Abrahams, the film again stars Charlie Sheen, Lloyd Bridges, Valeria Golino, Richard Crenna, Brenda Bakke, Miguel Ferrer, Rowan Atkinson, and Jerry Haleva. Sheen, who portrays a spoof of action heroes, went through a heavy workout in order to gain muscles to appear authentic.

Abrahams and Pat Proft were the writers of the screenplay. Members of both men's families have roles as extras.

Plot

At the beginning of the film, a rescue team invades Saddam Hussein's palace to rescue a group of hostages. But things go wrong when they are ambushed by Iraqi guards who open fire. While the gunfight ensues, Saddam is awakened, with his blindfold on, and starts shooting blindly all around the interior of his palace. It is only when the rescue team is captured and subdued before Saddam runs out of his palace screaming and shooting wildly into the air before falling into the fountain.

Since his last adventure, Topper Harley (Sheen) has retired from the Navy and has become a Buddhist in a small Buddhist village in the wilderness. Colonel Walters (Crenna) and Michelle Huddleston (Bakke), CIA, arrive and watch a muscular Topper fight in a Muay Thai competition in a hilarious sequence which results in the crooked bookmaker's comical defeat. After Topper's victory, the Colonel and Michelle persuade Topper to come out of retirement in order to rescue a rescue party who went in to rescue a rescue party who are being held as hostages in Iraq. The leader of the Iraqi hostage operation is, of course, Saddam Hussein (Haleva).

At first Topper refuses, but when another rescue mission led by Walters also goes awry, he finally agrees and parachutes into an Iraqi jungle, close to the heavily guarded hostage camp, with Commander Arbin Harbinger and his two incompetent, yet comical, soldiers: Williams and Rabinowitz. They all land successfully, except for Topper, who gets snagged in a tree. He soon frees himself with his patented all-practical "Swiss Army" bowie knife (which becomes a running joke throughout the film). Their contact turns out to be Topper's former love, Ramada (Golino), who guides them to an abandoned fishing boat that she had prepared for their transportation, with fishermen's clothes in the wheelhouse. She and Topper briefly reminisce, and Ramada explains that she was married before she ever met Topper, but could not tell him about her husband, Dexter (Atkinson), for complicated reasons. She also informs him that Dexter is one of the captives being held by Saddam.

They all set off down the river. Later, an Iraqi patrol boat passes by and the Captain boards their fishing boat. After witnessing their poor fishermen impersonations, the Captain boards the patrol boat and is about to sail out of sight when he sees Ramada, in costume, enter the ladies room. He assumes they are cross-dressers and orders his fellow crew members to open fire. Topper's squad abandon ship at his word; Topper takes up the fight, but at the last instant runs out of ammo, to which the Iraqi Captain laughs sarcastically. Topper hurls a grenade, which lands in the Captains open mouth and explodes, destroying him and both boats. When Tug Benson (in the earlier movie an Admiral, now the American President) hears of the supposed failure of yet another mission, he decides to go to Iraq and take matters into his own hands.

The commandos all reach shore safely (Topper does not do quite so well). Ramada finds something Topper had dropped: a mole, given to him by Michelle after they had slept together. She seems to recognize the spot, and keeps hold of it. They eventually reach the Iraqi hostage camp, where an outrageous gunfight ensues, which the Americans win despite overwhelming odds.

While the squad evacuates the hostages, Topper enters Saddam's seemingly abandoned palace. He runs into Saddam, who pulls out his machine pistols and commands Topper to surrender. Topper quickly disarms Saddam and they engage in a heated yet comical sword fight. President Benson arrives and orders Topper to go and rescue Dexter, which he does, while Benson and Saddam pull out lightsabers and continue the duel. Benson eventually defeats Saddam by spraying him with a fire extinguisher, upon which Saddam and his dog solidify, crack and melt, only to form again as Saddam in a Terminator 2 fashion, but with his dog's head fur, nose, and ears.

In the meantime, being tired of waiting, the squad heads back to the army helicopter, where Ramada discovers that Michelle is the saboteur that imprisoned Dexter and reveals they used to be roommates at university. After a complicated revelation, Ramada returns Michelle's mole and then proceeds to chase her over an assault course similar to American Gladiators.

Dexter arrives with Topper and insists on taking a picture of Ramada and Topper, claiming "under other circumstances, you'd make a great couple." However, he backs away too far and topples over a cliff, at which point Topper and Ramada confess that he "really was a wiener". Colonel Walters arrests Michelle as President Benson joins the escapees. Saddam arrives and is about to bazooka the chopper when Topper and Ramada get rid of extra weight in the chopper by pushing a huge piano out of the open door, which crushes Saddam. Topper and Ramada smile and kiss as they all ride of safely (literally) into the sunset, although the chopper gets a little scorched from flying through the sun.

Cast

*Charlie Sheen - Topper Harley
*Lloyd Bridges - President Thomas "Tug" Benson
*Valeria Golino - Ramada Rodham Hayman
*Richard Crenna - Col. Walters
*Brenda Bakke - Michelle Rodham Huddleston
*Miguel Ferrer - Cmdr. Arvid Harbinger
*Rowan Atkinson - Dexter Hayman
*Jerry Haleva - Saddam Hussein
*David Wohl - Gerou
*Mitchell Ryan - Senator Gray Edwards
*Michael Colyar - Williams
*Ryan Stiles - Rabinowitz
*Martin Sheen - Capt. Benjamin L. Willard (uncredited)

Parodies

The film parodies action movies such as "Rambo", "Apocalypse Now", "Predator", "Missing In Action", and "Commando", with Richard Crenna's character acting as an homage to his own roles in the "Rambo" movies. It makes references to several "syndromes" or cliché plot devices common in action movies, including (but not limited to) the stormtrooper effect.

It also takes shots at, among other things, "Our Miss Brooks", ', "Kickboxer", "The Karate Kid", "Lady and the Tramp", "Casablanca", ', "Looney Tunes", "No Way Out", "Basic Instinct", "Platoon", "The Guns of Navarone", "The Wizard of Oz","The Godfather", "RoboCop", "American Gladiators", Disney's version of "Pinocchio", and the Energizer Bunny. And one scene where Lloyd Bridges' character, the president, is working his way to the rescue operation takes place underwater with a scuba-diving Bridges doing a voice-over narration, an homage to his best-known work on the TV series "Sea Hunt".

Charlie Sheen's father, Martin Sheen, makes a cameo, parodying his role in "Apocalypse Now". As Charlie is travelling up the river reflecting on his experience (a parody of his role in "Platoon"), he sees his father Martin travelling the opposite way and also reflecting in an inner monologue similar to the voice-over from Apocalypse Now. They both stand up, look at each other, and as they pass, both yell to each other "I loved you in Wall Street!", a reference to a film in which they both starred.

Bob Vila, then the host of "Bob Vila's Home Again", makes a cameo appearance as the tradesman who installed some insulation to Topper Harley's house in Thailand. When an Iraqi ship arrives to capture Harley and crew, we see that it is named "The Behn Gazzara", a reference to actor Ben Gazzara, and one of its captain's oaths (in the gobbledegook Iraqi language used by both this and the first film) is "Omar Sharif!".

The film also mocks past US history, such as George H. W. Bush vomiting on the Japanese prime minister and Jimmy Carter's failed rescue operation "Operation Eagle Claw" where the rescue mission to rescue the American hostages had to be rescued by another rescue mission.

Reception

Reviews for "Hot Shots! Part Deux" were mixed [cite web|url=http://au.rottentomatoes.com/m/hot_shots_part_deux/|title="Hot Shots! Part Deux" at Rotten Tomatoes|accessdate=2007-12-23] . Nonetheless, "Part Deux" was a financial success at the box office, grossing over $130 million worldwide [cite web|url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=hotshots2.htm|title="Hot Shots! Part Deux" at Box Office Mojo|accessdate=2007-12-23] .

Mockumentary promotion

As part of the film's promotion, a mockumentary was aired on Home Box Office. Entitled "Hearts of Hot Shots! Part Deux -- A Filmmaker's Apology", the mockumentary parodied "", the 1991 documentary about the making of the film "Apocalypse Now" (which starred Charlie Sheen's father, Martin Sheen). [ [http://tv.yahoo.com/show/11575 Hearts of Hot Shots! Part Deux - A Filmmaker's Apology Television show - Hearts of Hot Shots! Part Deux - A Filmmaker's Apology TV Show - Yahoo! TV ] ]

UK Version

The version of the film released in the UK has had over 1 minute of BBFC cuts. These however were re-instated for an uncut showing on ITV1 in 2007.

References

External links

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