Just watched the new DVD of Top Secret!, a movie I (and most people) thought had a rather clumsy storyline and jokes of widely-varying mirth. It was fascinating to listen to the audio commentary track and hear the film's producers and directors say essentially the same thing. The tone is along the lines of, "Jeez, why did we do that?" After experiencing too many self-congratulatory narratives on DVDs, it was somehow refreshing to hear a bunch of talented guys discussing how and why things didn't work, and without trashing their co-workers or blaming the studio. Actually, a lot of the movie does work, though not as well as Airplane!, which was the previous motion picture most of the same people.
The DVD is well-assembled, with the usual kinds of special features and such. There's a gallery of storyboard panels, many of which (they don't point out) were drawn by the acclaimed cartoonist, Carol Lay. There's also an "Easter Egg" special feature that is most welcome. One of the sillier scenes in the movie is one that runs backwards so that the dialogue sounds like the actors are all speaking Swedish. If you know where to look, you can access a copy of that scene played forward — i.e., the way it was filmed.
Here's a link if you want to buy this movie from Amazon.Com. I suggest this not only because I enjoyed the film but because if you buy it through that link, I get money. And, speaking of me getting money…