There was a time when spoof movies were funny. They relied on visual gags. They relied on jokes. They relied on ridiculous situations, funny characters and subverting expectations. In short, they relied on comedy to sell the product. Then filmmakers got lazy. Really lazy. Instead of carefully crafting a joke or scene they went for pop culture references that immediately date the movie and make it unwatchable a few years later. But during the 80's we had a series of gems of the genre and this is possibly one of the funniest.
The story, if you can call it such, deals with a young man played by Val Kilmer who's the biggest rock star of his time. His big hit, "Skeet Surfing" where people take to the waves on their surfboards and try to hit their targets while wielding shotguns. Silly? Of course. That's what this movie is all about.
His adventures take him to Europe where he fights against the East Germans, falls in love and Pac Man shows up in one scene for no readily explained reason. The jokes and sight gags come at you very fast sometimes in the foreground, often times in the background and everywhere else. One example is he goes to a fancy restaurant for dinner but they won't let him in without a jacket. So instead of pulling some musty old jacket out of the closet, they bring in a tailor to make him a tuxedo which is ready in five minutes so he can have dinner. Some of the jokes land, some don't but they're all played straight and no attention it called to them. It's as if nothing is out of the ordinary which makes it much funnier.
This movie is in the style of classics such as Airplane, not whatever Selzter and Friedberg monstrosity has come out this year. It's funny. You should give it a watch.
