the picture or they wouldn't have cared. The mere fact that they've bothered to trouble some of their relationships with exhibitors shows their faith in the picture." Box office The film was considered a box-office bomb, though it still earned $20 million. A 1991 article speculated two possible reasons – the performance of Airplane II: The Sequel (although it had different producers from the original), along with "the lack of any clear sense of period, something that may throw viewers who insist on comedic nonessentials like interior logic. It's basically a parody of World War II-French Resistance movies, but along the way it also skewers '50s rock 'n' roll films ... '60s "Beach Party" movies and 'The Blue Lagoon,' among other lampoon-worthy source material." "The lesson we took from Airplane! was just fill up 90 minutes with jokes, and you have a movie", reflected David Zucker later. "With Top Secret, it's very funny, but it really isn't a good movie. It really didn't have a plot or real characters or real structure." Critical reception On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 76% based on 50 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Top Secret! finds the team of Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker sending up everything from spy movies to Elvis musicals with reckless, loony abandon." Roger Ebert rated it out of 4 stars and applauded the humor, noting that "to describe the plot would be an exercise in futility" and "This movie will cheerfully go for a laugh wherever one is even remotely likely to be found." "Weird Al" Yankovic considers this his all-time favorite movie. Jay Bauman of Red Letter Media described it as the best ZAZ film and "maybe one of the best comedies of all time." Cinema historian Leonard Maltin's review of the film was mixed, he gave it a score of 2.5 out of 4 and described it as: "Likably silly, with lots of laughs but not much momentum ... and where's the ending?" References External links Weird Al Yankovic on Top Secret at The Dissolve 1980s action comedy films 1980s spy comedy films 1980s spy films 1984 films American action comedy films American parody films American spy films 1980s English-language films Films about Nazis Films about music and musicians Films about the French Resistance Films directed by David Zucker (director) Films directed by Jerry Zucker Films directed by