It’s been a couple of decades since I last watched Top Secret! I remember from my time working in a video store that it was a perennial favourite of my friend Ted. And with the passing of Val Kilmer, I felt it was definitely time to take it in again.

And wow, did I laugh.

I mean how could you not. It was made by the people who brought us Airplane! and Naked Gun.

Val Kilmer stars as Nick Rivers an American rock and roll star who has been invited to East Germany to partake in an Cultural Festival. Part musical, part spy thriller, part war movie, all comedy, Top Secret! is a hoot.

Nick finds himself caught up in a resistance fighting against the Nazi-esque German powers, falling for a beautiful girl, Hillary (Lucy Gutteridge) whose father, Dr. Flammond (Michael Gough) was held in the same prison as Nick.

As an aside, I love that Gough and Kilmer worked together here before doing Batman Forever.

Throw in betrayals, old boyfriends, underwater fights, great sight gags, hilarious dialogue, and an absolute winning performance by Kilmer and you can’t help but enjoy this film. Poking fun at anything and everything, Top Secret! holds nothing sacred, and Kilmer and the cast seem ready for all of it.

On top of the creators and directors of Naked Gun and Airplane! the film has a score by Maurice Jarre, great 50s and 60s inspired tunes belted out by Kilmer and production design by the legendary Peter Lamont!

With a film filled with countless moments, and quotable dialogue, it’s hard to pick a favorite, but Daisy the Cow may be my choice.

Still, there is so much to love. Character names to silly tropes, to gags to dance sequences to great homages. Top Secret! is a joy. It was a joy when it first came out, and I remember seeing it way way back in the day on videocassette. And it’s a joy now.

Kilmer could do comedy and make it look so easy. This film and Real Genius (which I really need to watch again soon) are beloved for the reason that they are damned funny, and that they endure because of their comedy, and because of Kilmer’s roles in them.

It’s too bad they never did a sequel to this one, I would have loved another Nick Rivers outing, but it was not to be. And that makes this one all the more important because of that.

If you’ve never seen it, it’s time to fix that. If you have seen it, isn’t it time to see it again?