VS.
Some war movies lend themselves to parody and some
beg to be satirized. “Hot Shots!” and
“Meet the Spartans” fall into the latter category. That is because the movies they are making
fun of are almost parodies in themselves.
And who can resist making fun of two movies that were huge successes in
spite of the critics. It would have been
incredible if no one had taken on “Top Gun” and “300”. All you can hope for as a war movie lover is
they don’t blow the opportunity.
“Hot Shots!” came out five years after “Top
Gun”. It was directed by Jim Abraham of
“Airplane!” fame. Abraham also did the
underrated war movie spoof “Top Secret”. "Hot Shots!" cost $26 million and made $181 million. The movie stars Charlie Sheen, Cary Elwes,
and Lloyd Bridges (who replaced George C. Scott). Although a parody of “Top Gun”, the movie has
its own plot involving the corruption of the military-industrial complex (I
think that’s what they were targeting, right?) and Operation Slippery Weasel which
involves a mission against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. The arc of Topper Harley’s (Sheen)
daddy-issues therapy with comely Ramada (Valeria Golino) mimics the romance in
“Top Gun” and is actually more realistic. At least there is some chemistry here. There is also the spoofing of the competition between the two hot shot
pilots as Topper’s nemesis is Kent Gregory (Elwes). ( I don’t why he didn’t get a funny name or nickname.) Stumbling through the proceedings is Adm.
Benson (Bridges). One of the running
jokes is his litany of war wounds which include his bladder on Guadalcanal, his
head on Pork Chop Hill, ear canals on Corregidor, forehead in Normandy, and eye
balls on Okinawa. The movie takes on
several air combat movie clichés including the love triangle, the fight in the
bar, the doomed flyer (“Dead Meat”), and the ubiquitous motorcycle. As per the subgenre, it parodies movies like
“Dances With Wolves”, “Rocky”, “Gone With the Wind”, and “Superman” - all well-known classics.
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| Can you guess which movie is being spoofed? |
“Meet the Spartans” came out just one year after
“300”. It was directed by Jason
Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. They had
made names for themselves in similar movies like “Date Movie” and “Epic
Movie”. The movie cost $30 million (try
to figure out where the money went) and made $84 million. Not a bad profit for so little effort. It stars Sean Maguire, Carmen Electra (of
course), and Kevin Sorbo. The movie
attempts to lampoon each of the iconic scenes in “300”. These include the training of Leonidas' (Maguire) son, the “pit of death” scene, the visit to the prophetess (Ugly Betty),
the first encounter (a dance contest), the
opening battle (a “yo mama” contest), and the battle involving the monster
(Rocky Balboa). Meanwhile, back in
Sparta, Queen Margo (Electra) squares off with Traitoro (Diedrich Bader). The main running gag is that the Spartans are
gay, but don’t realize it. Besides “300”
the film targets more TV programs than movies.
It is mainly interested in trashing celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and
Paris Hilton and making numerous snarky pop culture references.
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| The two dudes kissed! Hilarious! |
This post came about because my coverage of the
Battle of Thermopylae and references to “300” caused some of my students to
prod me to watch “Meet the Spartans”.
They assured me it was hilarious.
I have to admit I should have done my war movie duty and have seen it
before. However, I trust critics and
“Meet the Spartans” has a 2% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Sometimes critics are wrong and teenagers are
right, but not this time.
“Hot Shots!” is very much in the “Airplane!”
model. There are lots of silly jokes and
sight gags. It is large quantity and some quality. Not as high a percentage as "Airplane!", but that would be asking too much. Most of the jokes are
more smilers than guffaws, but the movie is consistently funny. If you are like me and think “Top Gun” was a
terrible movie that needed to be made fun of, you won’t be disappointed. But the movie is not mean-spirited and can be
enjoyed by undiscerning movie-goers who like “Top Gun”. The ribbing of clichés is a nice touch to go
along with the movie parodies. The
attention to this starts with the title and includes the nicknames given to the
stereotyped characters like “Wash Out”. Special kudos to the parodying of “Top Gun”
style music.
“Meet the Spartans” starts off strong with the birth
of Leonidas and then a montage of his brutal training of his son which includes
chasing him with a chain saw. I did laugh
out loud a few times in the first twenty minutes, but not again after
that. I don’t necessarily sneer at silly
(having grown up with Monty Python), but this is infantile silly. The level of humor is evidenced early when
Leonidas battles with a giant penguin (a dig at “Happy Feet”). Watch the unrated edition if you want more
lewd penguin humor. Although “300”
should have been easy to parody, “Meet the Spartans” is too lazy to do it
right. It is a botched attempt at a
sitting duck. For example, it is the
height of laziness to include “yo mama” jokes, but you could go on the Internet
to find many that are funnier than the ones used in the movie.
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| "Meet the Spartans" offers more than it delivers |
“Hot Shots!” wins this match hands down and it is
partly due to who it is aimed at. The
target demographic was not limited to the 14 year old boys who were the main
audience for “Meet the Spartans”. This
means the level of humor is slightly higher and it is slightly lower on the
silly meter. “Hot Shots!” has a huge
advantage in acting and casting. Compare
the top five billed actors to see what I mean.
No offense to Sean Maguire, but he’s no Charlie Sheen. You can argue who is hotter between Valeria
Golino and Carmen Electra, but one of them can act and the other is Carmen
Electra. By the way, a point in Golino’s
favor is the catching of the olive from
her navel was not trick photography.
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| No CGI was used in this scene |
Most importantly, if you were to choose to watch
either one today, “Hot Shots!” is clearly the better choice. It holds up much stronger due to the choice
of targets. Making fun of Lindsay Lohan
and Kevin Federline may have been hilarious in 2008, but talk about old
news now. It is like watching an episode of
“Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In”. Whereas
everyone is familiar with the classic movies “Hot Shots!” parodies, the
TV-centric targets of “Meet the Spartans” are too lightweight. Speaking of old news, 2008 was not that long
ago in years, but the gay jokes that populate "Meet the Spartans" are already
squirm-inducing. If you are going to
build a movie around pop culture references, you can’t expect it to have long-term entertainment value. The war movie clichés that “Hot
Shots!” takes on will always be with us, but who the hell cares about Sanjaya
Malakar.
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| Cast rating: 8+6+8+7 = 7.25 avg. |
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| Cast rating: 6+2+5 = 4.33 |
HOT SHOTS! = B
MEET THE SPARTANS = F
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