Hot Shots!

The gang that created Airplane! and The Naked Gun sets its sights on Top Gun in this spoof. Topper Harley is a talented but unstable fighter pilot with an axe to grind: clearing the family name. His mission is to avenge his father and save a mission sabotaged by greedy weapons manufacturers. He also gets involved in a relationship with Ramada Thompson, a woman with an unusually talented stomach. Hot Shots! makes fun of a variety of other films, from Dances with Wolves to The Fabulous Baker Boys.

A gleefully stupid spoof of Top Gun and action-movie excess, Hot Shots! earned solid approval from critics who found its rapid-fire gags and Charlie Sheen's deadpan comic work more than enough to sustain the joke. Press scores were warmer than audience reaction, suggesting the film's anarchic silliness played better with critics hunting for craft in its chaos than with general viewers expecting something closer to a straight comedy.