The Kentucky Fried Movie and Airplane! team of Jim Abrahams and David and Jerry Zucker is a touch off-form with this Cold War spoof that has an Elvis Presley-style musical grafted on.
Part of the problem is the absence of Leslie Nielsen. Instead, Val Kilmer makes his feature debut, playing Nick Rivers – a rock star who becomes involved in a plot to reunite Germany when he plays a gig at a cultural festival behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany in the 1950s.
There are cameos from Peter Cushing, Jeremy Kemp and, hilariously, Omar Sharif, while others dress up as cows, re-enact The Great Escape (1963) and shoot clay pigeons while surfing – it’s not as funny as it should be, but it’s entertaining enough.
Nick Rivers
Val Kilmer
Cedric
Omar Sharif
General Streck
Jeremy Kemp
Colonel von Horst
Warren Clarke
Hillary Flammond
Lucy Gutteridge
Dr Flammond
Michael Gough
Major Crumpler
Tristram Jellinek
Bookstore proprietor
Peter Cushing
Albert Potato
Sydney Arnold
Du Quois
Harry Ditson
Nigel
Christopher Villiers
Deja Vu
Jim Carter
Director
Jim Abrahams
David Zucker
Jerry Zucker