Mafia! (1998)

AKA: Jane Austen's Mafia!

The Godfather films were ripe for parody, and there was none better to come along and skewer it than Jim Abrahams (of ZAZ), in what would become his final film. Weaving The Godfather Part II and Casino into its pastiche, the plot is little more than skin deep...but it's funny, god damn it. Severely underrated and overlooked at the time of its release for seeming stale and outdated, and yet, everything is relative; after watching a string of bad spoof films, this sticks out like a diamond in shit. And yes, it's still better than The Godfather Part III.

3 wishes on a falling star out of 5

Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993)

Inexplicably changing gears from Top Gun to an all-out assault on Rambo, we trade the military air base for the jungles of Iraq (?), where Topper (Sheen) is lured out of retirement in order to infiltrate a POW camp. It takes great care to lampoon other hits of the zeitgeist, such as Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, Basic Instinct and Terminator 2. Some of the novelty may have worn off by this point, but this is still an above average, top notch spoof comedy. Featuring unapologetically sophomoric, lowbrow humor, you either love it or hate it.

3½ Geronimos out of 5

Hot Shots! (1991)

Director Jim Abrahams launches a full-scale barrage on Top Gun and other popular films of the era in another high benchmark of the spoof comedy genre. Firing on all cylinders, this is in some ways even funnier and more relentless than Airplane! and The Naked Gun. Charlie Sheen and Lloyd Bridges understood the assignment and completely lean into the buffoonery. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think there may be TOO many jokes; but when the hit rate is this high, you can't really complain. At a breezy 82 minutes, you can watch this movie over and over again, and notice new gags each time. You can't take any part of this film seriously, and that's perfectly fine with me.

4½ Bogies out of 5

Ruthless People (1986)

Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker reunited on one last film before going their separate ways in the '90s. In a departure from their previous spoof style, they tackle a dark plot involving kidnapping, blackmail and murder which goes all sorts of wrong. Danny DeVito plays a man who despises his wife (Bette Midler) and plans to have her killed, when he finds out she's been taken and held at ransom by two desperate captors who don't know what they're doing. In some ways, this satirical black comedy feels like a precursor to Fargo. The result is wildly uneven at times, even though it contains many memorable moments.

2½ Stockholm syndromes out of 5

Top Secret! (1984)

What happens when you mishmash Elvis Presley musicals, WWII and Cold War-era spy films together? A highly uneven effort from Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker.

Val Kilmer makes his auspicious film debut as American rock 'n' roll star Nick Rivers, who gets invited to East Germany to perform, where he inadvertently becomes mixed up in the resistance. The plot is largely irrelevant, as it merely provides the framework for a quick-fire series of gags and non-sequiturs. This is a movie I always think I'll like a lot more than I do, but what counts most is that it's relentlessly funny, which is really all that matters in a spoof comedy.

3 Swedish bookstores out of 5

Airplane! (1980)

From the brainchild of ZAZ (Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker) comes a spoof classic that is so immensely quotable and laugh-a-minute funny, it belongs on the pantheon of great comedy movies. What began as a humorous send-up of disaster films such as Zero Hour! (1957) and the Airport series ended up as the blueprint for every parody movie to come. It comes at a time when serious actors like Peter Graves and Lloyd Bridges weren't afraid to take the piss out of themselves. Of these, Leslie Nielsen (known for dramatic roles at the time) made his transition to deadpan comedy icon. Packed to the brim with slapstick, sight gags, puns, one-liners and clever wordplay, it's a relentless barrage of lowbrow silliness that is still considered one of the funniest films of all time.

5 Shirleys out of 5

The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)

The classic sketch comedy movie from the Kentucky Fried Theater troupe (David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker) is presented as a series of highly irreverent programming on a local TV station, with fake commercials, news segments, movie trailers and a "feature film" (the Bruce Lee parody "A Fistful of Yen"). It's only the latter segment which weighs the middle of the movie down by being a bit too long, although it's filled with memorable moments that have persisted in my memory. It's gleefully profane and "of its time," and the type of humor you wouldn't be able to get away with nowadays, which is its main selling point. As with the nature of all sketch comedy, it can be hit or miss at times, but this is mostly hit. There are so many overlaps between this and The Groove Tube, I think one must have influenced the other.

3½ "Films at 11" out of 5