As spoofs go, this is an adequate vehicle for the handsome and charismatic Val Kilmer to squeeze into his 501s and take on the mantle of American rock star "Nick Rivers". He is invited to take part in a cultural exchange concert in the still militaristic East Germany and so, under the watchful eye of "Gen. Streck" (a super-hammy Jeremy Kemp) he has to stay out of trouble until his gig. Easier said than done though when he meets and falls for the feisty "Hillary" (Lucy Gutteridge) and is soon embroiled is a plot to rescue her scientist father (Michael Gough) from the scheming communists before he is forced to create a weapon to end all weapons. The joke looks pretty squarely aimed at Elvis this, and Kilmer makes a decent fist of the gyrating and hair-spraying. Indeed, had we a bit more of these scenes and less of the rather obvious and clumsy espionage malarkey, it might have been a better film. As it is, though, it plays the parody hand just a bit too heavily for me and after a while the cultural clashes appeared to be as much between the star and his largely British supporting cast as much as having anything to do with scheming generals. It's not a film that needs your concentration, it has a reasonably toe-tapping soundtrack and if you aim low, you ought not to be disappointed.

_"In women's tennis, I always root against the heterosexual."_

I thought this film had more seriousness than _Airplane!_, the _Naked Gun_ trilogy, and _Hot Shots!_ even though there was less of a story than in the latter two. There didn't seem to be as many gags as in those films. Or at least most of them didn't seem as outrageous. Because of that, I enjoyed this film the most; it wasn't overwhelmed with gags, and the placement was better.

At the same time, it was somewhat average. I don't think that impacted my outlook toward it; as I said, I enjoyed it. But it's hard not to notice that this film is average. The other films were, more or less, the same, where the gags held them up. But with the others, they did too much. With this one, there was more of a balance, which I liked. And I'm sure this film's WWII/spy setting/narrative helped a lot; that's more interesting.

Val Kilmer was, by and large, the life of the (film) party. His performance was arguably the best part, rather than the gags/comedy. I liked all the songs/musical numbers, and my favorite song was 'Straighten The Rug.' He embodied the spoof portrayal of Elvis, of whom I've only seen snippets. I haven't watched the Elvis film with Austin Butler, who seemed to nail it based on what I've seen, but 1984 Val Kilmer would've done the same.

I don't think this film was necessarily hilarious, or rather, I didn't think it was hilarious, although some instances did do the trick. And while some people may attribute that to the lesser usage of gags compared to the other films, I thought that was preferable; I don't think an overwhelmingness of them is necessary for hilarity. This film does seem somewhat overrated with how an alarming number of people think it was hysterical. The main thing is that I enjoyed it, especially compared to those other films. It seemed to flow better; easier to get in sync.