To me, this movie is perfection.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Lampooning the first three 'First Blood' moves, Charlie Sheen reprises his role from the original 'Hot Shots!' movie, called upon in this instance to come out of seclusion and rescue war prisoners held hostage in the Middle East. As per the first 'Hot Shots!' film, the gags vary in effectiveness, but this is a funnier movie overall as it not only parodies Rambo, but also pokes fun at the clichés and conventions of motion picture sequels; "I had to come ... it was a sequel" states Valeria Golino upon appearing halfway in. Lloyd Bridges is also on hand once again and more absentminded than ever and Martin Sheen has a great small bit as his own iconic war antihero from 'Apocalypse Now'. It might seem easy to complain about the mindless action at hand here, however, this is something that the film itself acknowledges, with soldiers actually dressed with targets before Sheen guns them down and subtitles that compare the body count to that of 'RoboCop' and 'Total Recall'. Simply put, the film has more clever audience winking and genre nods that the first film by a golden mile. Bridges is arguably funnier in the first film and Sheen does a better Tom Cruise than Sylvester Stallone spoof; generally speaking though, this is a superior film through and through. Richard Crenna is even on hand to parody his own 'First Blood' series character!

It is rare that a film based on sight gags can get released period, much less spawn a sequel. Look at the "Airplane" movies. The first one was hilarious and deserves a place in the "greatest comedies of all-time" category. The second effort? Not so much. Remarkably, though, "Hot Shots 2" actually exceeds its predecessor by spoofing a specific film genre: the action flick.For a basic plot summary, "Hot Shots 2" sees Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen) once again called to serve his country to aid a rescue mission in the Middle East (this film was produced during the Gulf War era). While carrying out the mission set forth by President Benson (Lloyd Bridges), Topper must also deal with his feelings for Ramada (Valerie Golino).What sets this sequel apart from the original is its more effective spoof of the Sylvester Stallone- type action films, especially the Rambo series. Heck, it even stars Richard Crenna! There are some scenes spoofing parts of Rambo 2-3 that could be almost frame-for-frame remakes, and they are hilarious. If you're not a fan of the action genre, you'll laugh AT it. If you are a fan, you'll laugh WITH it.This movie also succeeds character-wise (something comedies usually quickly discard) by building on plot themes from the original. For example, Topper still struggles through his feelings for Ramada and ultimately comes to a hard conclusion, showing more character development than a typical gag flick.Also, who can forget the screen presence of Lloyd Bridges in these films? Without him, the series would be lost, as his lines/actions are easily the funniest.Thus, as with the original, this is a film that you'll either get, or you won't...there's no middle ground. You'll either find it incredibly insipid/stupid, or raucously funny.

One of the advantages of a sequel to me is that it always gives a franchise a second shot, either at continuing on or being even better than before. This is my seventh favorite film in the parody subgenere. It's also another childhood gem as I was a kid of both the 80's and 90's and I was a big fan of the action films and Rambo franchise. Having a parody based on those things to me was a dream come true.The plot line is straightforward but it's really not that important by it's nature it's a clothesline (which is true with most action films) it's what happens and what the characters do that really matters. This film was just a complete laugh fest it's literally a live action Mad Magazine cartoon, it not just parody on the Rambo franchise but a lot of other action films and some of the clichés and elements in them.Llyod Bridges is great at playing the gruff and tough president, I really like his role in this movie more because he has a lot more to do. It was just great as he was parodying on his old role from an old military TV show he use to do, the fact he did it made it all the more funny.But of course Charlie Sheen is great as well, this is one of my favorite roles from him, it's just funny seeing him play the action protagonist archetype Topper whom is tough but he's a real duffus as he seems to be a bit unsmooth in his field of expertise.There are just a lot of visual and verbal jokes, as well as some reference in jokes as well, just like the amount of ammo discharged in a shootout the jokes just come really fast and rarely run out. I won't give too much away so I'll just say a few of them.I really like the kickboxing match scene which was a reference joke to both the arnise match scene in "Rambo 3" as well as the final match from the film "Kickboxer". It was just funny seeing as both were practically missing each other and instead of beating each other up they were beating up the audience unintentionally. Either they had poor martial arts training or both of them are just have bad aim.The sword fight between Sadam and Topper along with the President was fun and funny, which was a parody on the Robin Hood film with Errol Flinn but also "Star Wars". Boy just like the film franchise jokes on it just never get old, let alone the fact it's almost referenced in most to every parody I know.But of course my absolute favorite scene and one of my favorite shootouts of all time is the big shootout. I was both excited and laughing my ass off as we see Topper is just mowing down bad guys everywhere and we see a body count counter that is just continually counting down even when Topper isn't killing the amount displayed and all of the baddies are just piling up like junk heaps as their going down like flies. The whole shoot out plays out like a live action video game kinda like "Operation Wolf" or "Contra" with the constant action and scoring going on. Though what makes this even funnier are what each graphical message says which cracks me up; the writer was clearly a fan of Paul Verhoven films.If your a fan of the action film genre or the Rambo franchise, or even a fan of the parody subgenere in general and feel like a laugh this film is one you can't miss with.Rating: 4 stars

The first "Hot Shots", whilst not exactly bowling the critics over, remains a popular addition to the spoof genre. But despite having seen the original many times, the sequel had largely passed me by. I guess I wasn't that bothered by it - how many spoof sequels can you think of that match the original - but thankfully, I shouldn't have been that worried. By switching its focus from mocking "Top Gun" to the likes of "Rambo", "Robocop" and "Commando", the film retains its delightfully silly outlook on things but still goes for the jugular against a soft target.Rock God from Mars Charlie Sheen returns as Topper Harley who has now left the military and is living a simpler life in a Tibetan monastery after having his heart broken by his former squeeze Ramada (Valeria Golino). But Topper is soon back in action after President Tug Benson (Lloyd Bridges) sends Colonel Walters (Richard Crenna) and CIA agent Michelle Huddlestone (Brenda Bakke) to get Topper leading a rescue mission in Iraq to free the guys who were sent to free the guys who were sent to free hostages from the first Gulf War. But as before, there is a saboteur in the side and soon, Topper must seriously rack up the body count in order to get the job done."Hot Shots: Part Deux" is not a film to take seriously - this is as stupid a film as I can recall. Like the first, it crams every scene with sight gags, one liners and slapstick and also like the first, a fair number do raise a smile if few out-and-out laughs. It isn't anything like as funny as its spiritual predecessors like "Airplane!" or "The Naked Gun", despite the director being one of the three responsible for them. However, it is funnier than modern spoofs like "Scary Movie" or "Meet The Spartans" but to be frank, I find the BBC News channel funnier than those films. Sheen is surprisingly funny as Topper, aping Sly Stallone perfectly despite launching a chicken from a longbow with intent, and so is Crenna who is basically playing his "Rambo" character for laughs instead. The rest of the cast do OK, mainly following Bridges lead but he does provide another link to the earlier, better movies. It's as if the film makers were pleading for legitimacy, saying that this is a proper spoof even if there is no Leslie Nielsen in it.I understand that "Rambo"-style films aren't exactly hard to spoof but "Hot Shots: Part Deux" does a decent job of bringing them down a peg or two. It isn't a laugh-a-minute mickey-take but it does make you smile and remind you how utterly stupid most action movies from that era actually are. Even compared to the first "Hot Shots!", it holds up pretty well but I couldn't escape the sense that they were trying a bit too hard. What made the likes of "Airplane!" so special was the screenplay which was simply hilarious on its own. There was no need for special effects besides the crude aeroplane model being buffeted by lightning - the lines and performances were enough. Here, the gags are almost drowned out by the explosions and fire fights - each scene simply takes its cue from scenes in other films but replays them for laughs. Nothing wrong with that, as such, but I just preferred the earlier spoofs to these ones. And remember, it's been a long time since spoof movies enjoyed this level of success.