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Top Secret! (1984)

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Farah Cheded

There are too many jokes of every possible kind to pick a favorite from here, but the simple “Is this the potato farm?” “Yes, I’m Albert Potato” is hard to beat.

What it's about

Before he was Jim Morrison, Iceman, or Batman, Val Kilmer made his big screen debut as Nick Rivers, the doltish American rock 'n' roll idol who is unwittingly embroiled in an East German underground resistance plot in Top Secret!. Skewering everything from WWII romances and Cold War spy thrillers to ‘60s popstar musicals, this delightfully silly spoof from the team behind Airplane! is jampacked with sight gags, double entendres, and multi-layered setpieces delivered at such a manic pace that you’ll need several rewatches to exhaust all of its comedy. Its lowbrow style means that some jokes are undoubtedly dated, but there’s a lot of timeless wit on display here, including zinging one-liners, tongue-in-cheek lampooning of cinematic clichés, and slapstick gags in the vein of masters of the form like Jacques Tati and Buster Keaton. Top Secret! is blessedly under no illusions as to what we want from a movie like this, so the fact that there’s no comprehensible plot in sight only adds to the enjoyment here.

What stands out

It’s impossible to pick just one standout gag — and besides, they’re best left unspoiled. To give you an idea of what comic delights are in store here, though, Top Secret! opens with a musical send-up of The Beach Boys and features unforgettable extended gags like the ridiculously elaborate saloon fight that takes place entirely underwater. The filmmakers use literally every tool in their arsenal to keep the laughs coming, switching from surreal forced perspective jokes to elaborate setpieces — such as the brilliant, many-layered Swedish bookshop scene starring none other than Peter Cushing — with such speed it almost induces whiplash.

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Mpaa rating, top secret (1984), directed by jim abrahams / david zucker / jerry zucker.

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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

Characteristics, related movies.

Top Secret! Review

20 Apr 1984

Top Secret!

Made and apparently set in 1984, this effort from the David Zucker-Jim Abrahams-Jerry Zucker team blithely melds time-periods and features one of Val Kilmer’s rare comic turns.  As usual, the ZAZ team offer a live-action MAD Magazine movie satire, throwing in jokes so stupid as to seem almost surreal, an amazing range of cultural referents and a smattering of genuinely witty conceits.

Rather than home in on one film-form like the disaster movie as in Airplane! or the cop story as in The Naked Gun, this sends up two apparently unrelated genres, the pop performer vehicle -- with Kilmer as a mutant crossbreed of Cliff and Elvis -- and the World War II spy picture.  This tactic sacrifices the vestiges of coherence found in their other, better-known films but is in itself so ridiculous it's hard not to warm up to it.  For the most part, the three-handed direction is merely functional, but several inventive pastiche songs (during one tear-jerker, Kilmer has to be dissuaded from suicide by his backing group) allow for a subtler approach and some gags are so ancient (‘I know a little German.  He's sitting over there’) you almost feel pestered into laughing.

*Among the inevitable star cameos are Jeremy Kemp, a villain seen perusing the Hermann Goering Work-Out Book, Peter Cushing, whose scene is played entirely backwards (and who wears a bizarre, half-enlarged facial prosthetic for the sake of a magnifying glass gag), and Omar Sharif, as a trench-coated spy who keeps turning up in unlikely places. Never mind that a high percentage of jokes misfire, there'll be a funny one along in a minute. *

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Blu-ray Review: Top Secret (1984)

Top Secret takes most of its inspiration from the WWII spy genre that was most prominent during the 1960s, with a splash of those corny beach-party movies that starred Frankie and Annette. With the plot making little sense, it’s very inconsequential as the main attraction are the endless parade of sight gags, most of which are pretty clever and of course, funny. Humour comes from a literal style as well as visual tricks that swerve the viewer’s perception; a neat little comedic art form that we don’t see a lot of in comedies nowadays. Val Kilmer proves himself a valuable triple threat as Nick, who is fraught with danger at every turn, but always has the time to belt out a rock ‘n’ roll fable for the ladies. His love interest, Hillary (Lucy Gutteridge) accompanies Nick on their perilous journey throughout East Germany, where the powers that be, have done well in recycling all those old Nazi uniforms. Kilmer and Gutteridge perform well together as they play it straight, which helps elevate the comedy and delivery of jokes, including one of the most impressive which takes take place entirety underwater. Cartoon villains and various stereotypes make up much of the supporting cast, but there’s a brief and memorable cameo from Peter Cushing in one of his final screen roles. His likeness in which, preserved via face-cast, would go on to be used in Rogue One over thirty years later.

VIDEO AND AUDIO

While this is indeed the first time Top Secret! has been on Blu-ray disc, it’s been available previously in HD via Amazon Prime and other streaming platforms, presumably the video source for this release. It’s far from the best 1080p has to offer, but to quote Better Call Saul’s Gus Fring in a recently bone-chilling scene, “It is, acceptable”, considering the film hasn’t gone under any restoration. Rating the image itself, there’s a slight milky washed-out quality, which isn’t instantly noticeable, but does limit the amount of depth and level the of detail Blu-ray usually offers, and colours are a little pale at times. Presented in 1:78:1 widescreen with English subtitles, dual audio tracks DTS-HD 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 are both very strong, especially during the numerous musical numbers and are both mixed and balanced well.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Group Audio Commentary by Directors Jim Abrahams, David Zucker & Jerry Zucker, Producers Jon Davidson & Hunt Lowry and Moderator Fred Rubin
• 4 Alternate Scenes
• 3 Storyboard sequences
• Coming Soon Trailer

I’m sure most of my fellow reviewers and collectors will agree that this Special Edition release is one of the best from Via Vision’s, more so among their format-debut titles. There’s a decent amount of extras for a film that lands on the more obscure side of popular with deleted scenes that are simply just more visual gags, although one could have been kept in for context. Storyboards aren’t always the most interesting of featurettes, but they’re a raw insight into the filmmaking process. If you regularly enjoy audio commentaries, then the group track listed above offers a lot of interesting trivia and is generally an easy listen for 90 minutes.

Top Secret! relies a lot on fan nostalgia as the genre has changed a lot since its release, some might even say it’s regressed. I would hope that with this new release younger audiences will make the blind-buy and enjoy this once-popular brand of spoof comedy, which in this case is wrapped around a technically well-made film.

TOP SECRET   (1984, director: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker & Jerry Zucker)

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Movie's ratings

• Kinorium 7.0 1000+
• IMDb 7.2 72 988
• Critics 76% 51

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Critique: 10

This movie will cheerfully go for a laugh wherever one is even remotely likely to be found.

Directors David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker have substituted chuckles for guffaws with less than side-splitting results.

Although there is no question that this free-swinging spoof… runs out of steam, it is a wonderfully flaky example of what Hollywood has to off...

The jokes leave you tickled, but never build to a comic crescendo.

The result is a non-stop barrage of gags, many of them inspired and hilarious themselves but scattershot in effect because the premise isn&rsq...

If you’re in the mood for some frequently inspired silliness (and have been weakened by the heat) you’ll no doubt find something to lau...

Not even half as funny as «Airplane!' but still… a lot more clever than most movie comedies made today.

It’s amusing enough in a Mad magazine sort of way to be worth a look.

lt’s as if «Airplane» were a jam session in which fine musicians, through their spontaneity and improvisational talents, made noticeable...

The plot combines the rock musical with the spy thriller (not to mention assorted other genres), and the comic invention is fairly constant.

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Funny, absurd, interesting! A simple story about a girl and her father normally serves as a backdrop for endless jokes, some of which are downright golden. Translated to English

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Top Secret!

When the free world is in danger, there’s only one man we can count on to lead the French Resistance and topple the East German regime - Val Kilmer in Top Secret! Jim Abrahams and the Zucker Brothers turn their focus from Airplane disaster movies to cleverly skewer Elivis movies, beach flicks, and classic WWII films in this wild and crazy musical-comedy. Kilmer’s debut film delivers the gut-busting hilarity - but its Blu-ray debut leaves much to be desired with a dodgy video transfer and a less-than-impressive surround mix and the same set of stale old bonus features. This one is Worth A Look strictly for the film and not at all for the A/V presentation. If you already have it on DVD - wait for a better run. 

In this outrageous comedy from the guys who brought you AIRPLANE!, Val Kilmer (in his feature film debut) is Nick Rivers, America’s hottest rock idol-turned-super-spy. Nick must race against time to save the world from destruction from the ultimate super weapon—the Polaris Mine. Packed with action, gags, and random musical interludes, TOP SECRET manages to do for war epics and Elvis flicks what AIRPLANE! did for disaster movies.

Storyline: Our Reviewer's Take

“are you lonesome tonight, is your kitchen a sight is your wardrobe all rundown and bare is your lipstick all smeared, are your stockings not sheer do they make your legs show all your hair do the tears on your pillow roll down as you turn do they short out the blanket and make the sheets burn is your heart filled with pain, will you come back again shop at macy's and love me tonight”.

East Germany’s power and might are on the rise. Under the leadership of the diabolical General Streck (Jeremy Kemp), they have a plan to use a new weapon designed by the imprisoned Doctor Flammond (Michael Gough) to destroy NATO and reunite Germany under one rule. Hiding their plans behind the disguise of a peaceful cultural festival, the East Germans didn’t count on the smooth tunes and the willpower of American Rock ‘n’ Roll icon Nick Rivers (Val Kilmer) to lead the French Resistance, save the girl (Lucy Gutteridge), and preserve freedom and democracy! 

The comedy minds of Jim Abrahams with Jerry and David Zucker are certainly a unique crew. You’re either onboard for their brand of comedy or it’s just not for you. After the successes of Kentucky Fried Movie and Airplane! - the trio turned their farcical attention to TV cop shows with the unsuccessful Police Squad! When that hilarious show failed to land an audience they pulled an ace out of their sleeves with Top Secret! Where their previous efforts aimed at one singular genre, this comedy spy war film musical fires a shotgun at a wide swath of popular genres from the 50s and 60s. Imagine if Elvis Pressley was cast in Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain and replaced Steve McQueen in The Great Escape with enough time to make it back to the beach for Blue Hawaii and a spin around the block for Blue Lagoon and Paradise .

Now, I think that setup is damned funny, but for some reason, this one just doesn’t stick with some folks. Perhaps the stupidest complaint I’ve heard is that Top Secret! isn’t as good as Airplane! . While that may be true to some degree, I think this movie slips on a dance belt and brisés to its own ballet delivering some of the funniest scenes ever committed to celluloid. If all you’re looking for is more Airplane! there’s Airplane II: The Sequel . I'd rather kick back and laugh at what this film delivers than whine about what it doesn't, but that's just me. 

“I’ve got a gunrack in my Chevy for when the surf and flack get heavy!”

Leading the cause for freedom in Cold War communist Germany is Val Kilmer in his screen debut. And it’s a hell of a first appearance. With pitch-perfect musical physical comedy timing, Kilmer proved early in his career he was a force to be reckoned with. Lucy Gutteridge plays well into the lady of mystery ensnaring our hero into a higher cause than his music. Jeremy Kemp (Picard’s brother) leans into WWII films as the evil Nazi/East German Communist-inspired villain. He’s not cracking the jokes but he plays well with some of the best sight gags. On top of these great performers, you have Michael Gough, Omar Sharif, Ian McNeice, Peter Cushing, Christopher Villers, and Jim Carter delivering their own deadpan performances. 

Now I’ll admit nostalgia hits hard for this one as I’ve watched it since I was a child. My uncle had the soundtrack and would run Kilmer’s “Skeet Shooting” and his version of “Tutti Frutti” over and over again. Removing nostalgia from the equation, I think it’s a damn hilarious comedy. Scattershot as it may be, it hits far more targets than it misses. From cows climbing through binocular cutouts to oversized phones to the East German Women’s Swim Team, I’m usually in pain from laughing so hard at all of the sight gags and one-liners and the genuine ridiculousness of the whole affair. 

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray Top Secret! finally breaks into Blu-ray from Paramount Home Video in a single disc Blu-ray + Digital set. Pressed on a BD-25 disc, the disc is housed in a standard case and loads to a static image main menu with basic navigation options.

Video Review

For all of those folks out there waiting for a reason to upgrade their old DVDs of Top Secret! , don’t recycle those discs just yet, you’re honestly better off keeping that disc. This 1080p transfer is a mess and all over the place from start to finish. From scene to scene it can look pretty damn good and a welcome upgrade, to the absolute pits. It has the look of an old HD master, probably the same one used for the DVD, that has been tinkered and fiddled with to death. For any given sequence you have smoothing, grain manipulation, edge enhancement, compression artifacts, macroblocking, crushed blacks, blooming whites, washed-out colors - you name it. To be fair there are quite a few moments where this does look pretty good and could have at least been a middling return for a deep catalog Blu-ray title, but as a whole, this is a misfire mess of a transfer.

Audio Review

Not fairing any better is this DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. Why it’s even a 5.1 track is beyond me; the mix almost never leaves the front/center channels and when it does it’s for odd spikes in sound effects or music cues that never lasts for long or has any logical reason for that particular effect or sound to appear in that specific channel. Dialog is at least clean and clear and Kilmer’s numerous songs come through without issue. So I’ll give it marks for that, but this isn’t much of anything to write home about. 

Special Features

As for bonus materials, what we have is a collection of extras that are ported right over from the DVD. You get the same audio commentary, deleted bits, the Bookstore Backwards sequence, and theatrical trailer. 

• Audio Commentary featuring Jim Abrahams, Jerry and David Zucker, Jon Davidson, Hunt Lowry, and moderated by Fred Rubin
• Alternate Scenes 
• Bookstore Backwards
• Theatrical Trailer

For this writer, Top Secret! is hands down one of the funniest movies ever made. It doesn’t matter where it is in the film, if it’s on TV I’ll watch it through to the end just to read the goofy credits. If I’ve had a bad week, this is a guaranteed laugh and a smile - and after this week I needed it. Val Kilmer makes an amazing debut performance as the hilarious song and dance man of action. Top Secret! is a laugh a second. Sadly, this amazing comedy hasn’t faired as well as Abrahams and Zuckers’ Airplane! on Blu-ray. This is an unfortunately genuinely bad A/V presentation. The video transfer has all the hallmarks you don’t want to see from a catalog release topped off with a bland sound mix. The bonus features are fine - the audio commentary is a hoot if you’ve never heard it - but they’re nothing new. This classic comedy deserves better. It’s Worth A Look if you need the film in your collection but if you already have the DVD you’re all set for now.

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the secret: dare to dream.

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We could all use a little hope these days. More than a little, actually. But you won’t derive much inspiration from “The Secret: Dare to Dream” besides some unintentional laughter to briefly brighten your day.

Based on the 2006 self-help book from Rhonda Byrne , which has sold tens of millions of copies with the help of Oprah Winfrey ’s blessing, this romantic drama is filled with vapid platitudes about the power of positive thinking. Director and co-writer Andy Tennant ’s film takes place in a generically quaint small town full of blandly nice people who are woefully devoid of characterization, even though they’re frequently stuck standing around explaining themselves to each other. Even something as potentially thrilling as an approaching hurricane can’t liven things up.

There is nothing new, exciting or particularly challenging about what “The Secret: Dare to Dream” is selling. You’d be forgiven for thinking you’d seen this movie before, as it hews so closely to the kind of comforting fare airing 24/7 on the Hallmark Channel. It’s also Nicholas Sparks-adjacent, with Madisonville, Louisiana, on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain standing in for North Carolina. This is the kind of place where the sun always sets just perfectly, the misty rays of light streaking through the dangling moss, and characters with names like Tuck and Bray wear puffy vests and button-down shirts with elbow patches.

Within this seemingly idyllic setting, Katie Holmes ’ Miranda Wells is buried under massive stress and debt. A widowed single mom of three kids managing a New Orleans seafood restaurant, she’s too broke to afford simple pleasures like pizza, so fixing the leaky roof is clearly out of the question. She’s also half-heartedly dating her boss, the blithely wealthy Tuck Middendorf (Jerry O’Connell), which is more of a source of pressure than joy.

Magically, Josh Lucas ’ Bray Johnson arrives, carrying a manila envelope with a red wax seal which must mean that it’s very important. (It also happens to be the logo of “The Secret.”) The handsome professor has traveled from Nashville to bring some life-changing information to Miranda, but ends up getting distracted when they meet cute during a fender bender. Not only does he cheerily repair her front bumper, he also patches up the roof on her house when the hurricane sends a tree crashing through her kitchen.

Too good to be true? But wait, there’s more! Along the way, the irrepressibly upbeat Bray insinuates himself with the entire family by offering pithy tidbits of wisdom to each of them. He begins by explaining the law of attraction with a magnet and a paper clip: “The more you think about something, the more you draw it to you,” he insists. So when Miranda’s tween son Greg ( Aidan Pierce Brennan ) rhapsodizes over the aforementioned pizza, a delivery man arrives with the exact kind he wanted. When sullen eldest child Missy ( Sarah Hoffmeister ) laments that no one’s coming to her 16 th  birthday, Bray easily convinces her that having only a few real friends matters. And when Bessie ( Chloe Lee ), the youngest, longs for a pony … well, you can imagine what happens.

“My whole life is like that gut feeling that something really bad is going to happen. And then … it does,” Miranda confides in him. “You know, things don’t have to be a series of unfortunate events,” Bray responds before popping over to the lumber yard to pick up some two-by-fours and a blower to dry the floors—which naturally will be right there waiting for him because he needs them, despite the fact that a hurricane has just blown through town.

This overly simplistic philosophy might seem borderline dangerous in these difficult times if it weren’t presented in such silly, predictable fashion. (Rom-com veteran Tennant co-wrote the script with Rick Parks and Bekah Brunstetter .) Got Covid? Just wish it away. Lost your job because of the pandemic like tens of millions of other Americans? If you want your dream gig badly enough, it’ll magically happen. Can’t pay the rent? Money will show up in your bank account if you put it on your vision board. In a place where birds chirp pleasantly and twinkly piano music accompanies the most banal of errands, anything is possible.

But wait, there has to be conflict somewhere, and it arrives in melodramatic form in the third act. This is one of those movies where everything would be resolved quickly if the two main characters had a basic conversation at the outset; because they don’t, Bray’s true identity and purpose emerge in front of a crowd during a happy occasion, as they are wont to do.

Holmes and Lucas give earnest performances and do the best they can with such flimsy material, but they have zero chemistry with each other. There’s just so little to these characters for them to work with. But at one point, I said out loud to myself in an empty room: “Oh my god, are they really going to kiss in a Waffle House parking lot?” And for one glorious, shining moment, I manifested my own happiness.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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The Secret: Dare to Dream (2020)

107 minutes

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Unfrosted is Netflix's #1 movie, but it's not great – try these 3 better spoof comedies instead

Unfrosted , the new Jerry Seinfeld and Melissa McCarthy movie about Pop Tarts, his popped it's way to the top of Netflix 's global movie charts, despite sitting on a decidedly undelicious 39% score on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Seinfeld's stated aim to make a brand-based movie that wasn't Barbie seems to have been achieved, with many reviews pointing out that Barbie was funny, well written and entertaining – while Unfrosted is "cluttered and unfunny" (InSession Film), "nothing particularly remarkable" (The Times of India), and a movie that "often seems aimed at people who died the moment Seinfeld ended, or at least whose TVs broke and were never fixed" (MattPais.com).

Unfrosted is supposed to be something of a spoof of the likes of Air or BlackBerry, but it lacks "snap, crackle and pop" (says CNN), so here are three much more entertaining alternative spoofs you'll find among the best Netflix movies .

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Benoit Blanc is back in another hugely entertaining comedy murder mystery, which is currently sitting at 91% from the critics and 92% from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes. As a repudiation of Seinfeld's claims that they don't make 'em like they used to, this is a distinctly old-school comedy with tons of charm, plenty of brains and some absolutely stellar performances – as well as what appears to be a particularly savage spoof of the antics of a certain social media-owning billionaire. 

CNET called it "hugely satisfying" and, like many critics, praised Daniel Craig in particular, who is clearly having the time of his life, while Empire gave it 4/5 stars: it's "a fizzy, gaudy, joyfully entertaining couple of hours. If there’s any right in the world, Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig will continue making films in the Benoit Blanc Cinematic Universe forever." (There is at least one more Blanc movie coming.)

Top Secret!

Imagine Airplane! , but with Nazis and a particularly memorable sex-toy joke. That's Top Secret! I've laughed myself insensible at this deeply silly movie many times, not least because the impossibly young Val Kilmer's star turn here is absolutely (and deliberately, but po-facedly) hilarious. Kilmer plays a popular US singer who travels to Germany and ends up mixed up with the Resistance, with frequently hilarious consequences.

The film sends up everything from Elvis movies to spy flicks and, like Airplane! , is so gag-packed that it doesn't matter if some don't land. As Gene Siskel wrote on its release, it's "not even half as funny as "Airplane!' but still... a lot more clever than most movie comedies made today"; the San Francisco Examiner said that filmmakers "Abrahams-Zucker-Zucker scatter the jokes the way farmers scatter corn around a chicken house. They're shameless." It's a very silly movie and a very funny one.

The Disaster Artist

Based on a true story, A24's The Disaster Artist tells the story of aspiring film-maker Tommy Wiseau (James Franco) and his attempts to make the really bad cult classic The Room . According to Filmmaker Magazine , " Disaster Artist is a one-joke movie, and that joke is a person, but it’s a very good joke"; Deep Focus Review says that it captures "the same balance of admiration, mockery, and craft as Tim Burton's  Ed Wood". The movie being made is "one of the worst ever films... it’s a film so terrible, so boundlessly, majestically surreal that it’s achieved cult classic status", NME says, but its story is "the subject of one of 2017's best". It's "a very funny, affectionate celebration of a man who did everything he could to make his dreams come true and failed".

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1 unfrosted: the pop-tart story cameo contains a weird casting secret.

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Where Was Unfrosted Filmed? Pop-Tart Movie's Filming Locations Explained

Jerry seinfeld's pop-tarts movie made a mistake by changing 1 huge detail from amy schumer's real character, melissa mccarthy's new netflix movie replaces a missing scene from her 13-year-old comedy that made $306 million.

• Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story features a star-studded cast, including Kyle Dunnigan playing both Walter Cronkite and Johnny Carson.
• Kyle Dunnigan's versatile roles in the film include providing the voice of Johnny Carson using deepfake technology.
• The film is packed with celebrity cameos and gags, with Dunnigan's dual role as two iconic figures being a standout surprise.

Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story is finally out, and the film contains a surprising cameo that contains a secret casting choice. The cast of Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story is absolutely star-studded, with it featuring some of the most well-known actors and comedians of the modern day. However, Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story pulled off an interesting trick with one of its actors, with them getting more screentime than viewers may have originally thought.

Jerry Seinfeld's Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story is finally here , with the highly anticipated comedy movie finally being released on Netflix. The film tells the not-so-true story of the origin of Kellogg's Pop-Tart product, with it focusing less on the facts and more on the comedy. Unfrosted is full of gags, celebrity cameos, and appearances from food and breakfast cereal mascots , with the film being packed full of easily missed gems. However, one of these hard to notice casting choices probably went unregistered by most viewers.

Walter Cronkite & Johnny Carson Are Played By The Same Actor In Unfrosted

Kyle dunnigan.

Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story features cameo actors playing all kinds of celebrities that were prominent in the 1960s, with impressions and gags surrounding these figures filling the film. Two of these prominently features celebrities are Walter Cronkite and Johnny Carson, with the news reporter and late-night talk show host being two of the most notable figures in the film. As it turns out, however, they are both played by the same actor.

Comedian Kyle Dunnigan appears in Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story as both Walter Cronkite and Johnny Carson , with him having some of the most versatile roles in the film. The comedian and actor, who has worked on projects like Inside Amy Schumer and Reno 911! , was cast as both characters in the Jerry Seinfeld film, although he looks completely different in the two roles.

Jerry Seinfeld's Netflix film Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story is out now, and here are all of the known shooting locations and what they stood for.

Why Kyle Dunnigan Plays Both Unfrosted Characters

One uses deepfake technology.

Although pretty much every other celebrity is played by a different actor, Kyle Dunnigan is the only one to play two in Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story , causing many viewers to wonder why this is. It could be because both celebrities were newsmen of the 1960s, with their roles in the film has television personalities being roughly the same.

Although Kyle Dunnigan truly plays Walter Cronkite in live-action, he actually only provides the voice of Johnny Carson , with this being the reason why he can play both characters. According to Jerry Seinfeld in a Vanity Fair interview, Johnny Carson is deepfaked in the film, meaning that no actor really plays him. Instead, impressionist Kyle Dunnigan was able to lend his voice to the iconic TV personality, allowing him to play two roles in Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story .

Unfrosted (2024)

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Unfrosted is a 2024 biographical comedy directed, written, and starring Jerry Seinfeld. The film takes place in 1963 Battle Creek, Michigan, where Kellogg's and Post are fighting to create a new world-changing breakfast pastry.

Review: Marvel's 'Secret Invasion' demands to be taken seriously. Too bad.

Marvel would like to sit at the grownups' table. Pretty please?

That desperate plea can be felt throughout "Marvel's Secret Invasion," the latest superhero series from the mega-franchise to hit Disney+. This isn't the wham-bam, whizzy-fizzy kids' stuff of Marvel past, the literally and figuratively dark series promises. This one is about politics. It's about identity. It's about espionage. It takes place in Russia, for goodness sakes. It must be serious.

Unfortunately, the six-episode miniseries “Invasion” (streaming Wednesdays, ★ out of four) fails in its aspirations to be Marvel for adults , mostly because it’s difficult to figure out what’s going on in any given scene. Whether you think the Marvel take on “Jason Bourne” is actually more mature and sophisticated than what came before it is immaterial, because it’s hard to tell who the so-called grownups are in the room. Sure, there’s Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the great-granddaddy of Marvel cinematic universe aspirations. But as charismatic and talented as Jackson is, his presence alone is not enough to carry a show weighed down by its own self-importance.  

The first two episodes made available for review are a whirlwind of characters, locations, fights and bombs, with very little stitching it all together. It is (somewhat) established that Fury, a former secret agent who's now a freelance good guy, is allied with “good” shape-shifting alien Skrulls (including Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos) against some very bad ones.

Those evil Skrulls are led by Gravik (​​Kingsley Ben-Adir), and they want to take over the world and make it a new Skrull paradise. (They lost their home world a few decades ago, and "Invasion" assumes you memorized the plot of 2019’s “Captain Marvel.”)

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Fury and his secret agent team (including Cobie Smulders and Martin Freeman) must stop the bad Skrulls from doing some very bad stuff, like starting World War III or worse, corrupting Talos’ daughter G'iah (Emilia Clarke). Omnipresent Olivia Colman is there too, chewing up scenery as a less-than-ethical MI-6 agent who belongs in an entirely different TV show. 

But left unclear is why Fury was hanging out at a space station at the start of the series, why some Skrulls are evil and others aren’t, how they’ve managed to accomplish their secret invasion in the face of a dozen or so Avengers kicking around and why any single character in this series is worth caring about.

“Invasion” is a collection of moods, not stories or characters. Fight scenes race ahead of any dialogue explaining them, faces jump in and out of the story without establishing a lick of background. Perhaps it would all make sense to a Marvel devotee who not only watched the previous movies and series but also took copious notes. But for a newbie or even the casually acquainted fan, “Invasion” is a pop quiz we’re destined to fail. 

Interview: Samuel L. Jackson revels in being a 'flawed' Nick Fury for Marvel's new 'Secret Invasion'

“Invasion” is emblematic of the problem of modern-day Marvel: It’s a franchise full of waste. It wastes the talent of the A-list actors it manages to lure into its clutches. Clarke, a force to be reckoned with on eight seasons of “Game of Thrones,” sleepwalks through her scenes, barely wasting time on facial expressions. It’s a waste of the source material, too. The comics storyline on which the series is based is a beloved and acclaimed thriller, but its adaptation has been squeezed of all intrigue and nuance. And more than anything, “Invasion” is a waste of the time for the viewer.

Lured by the promise of the stars, the aliens and the Marvel brand, they’ll leave only with a fuzzy head and six hours gone.

Samuel L. Jackson returns: All about Marvel's new Disney+ paranoia thriller 'Secret Invasion'

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The Secret to the Best Morning Ever in EPCOT

• Episode aired May 8, 2024

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The secret score, common sense media reviewers.

Few scares in magical story at teens' music conservatory.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

Introduces viewers to the existence of music conse

The series subtly promotes messages about self-dis

The young musicians hard work and are dedicated to

This is a Mexican production featuring a Latino ca

Violence is minimal and mainly revolves around mil

Some flirtation and romance, with central storylin

Mild insult language, e.g., "dimwit."

Parents need to know that The Secret Score is a Mexican production (available with English subtitles) that's a mysterious adventure story with little objectionable material. Teens briefly refer to liking to party, but drugs and alcohol are not mentioned. Violence is minimal and mainly revolves around mild…

Educational Value

Introduces viewers to the existence of music conservatory programs for young musicians.

Positive Messages

The series subtly promotes messages about self-discovery and embracing individual talents through its main character's journey at the conservatory.

Positive Role Models

The young musicians hard work and are dedicated to their craft.

Diverse Representations

This is a Mexican production featuring a Latino cast. It features progressive themes such as unisex bathrooms, reflecting modern views on gender norms and inclusivity.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Violence is minimal and mainly revolves around mild suspense such as the story of a disappearance of a corpse and the main character's boyfriend disappearing and then asking for help in a mysterious way.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Some flirtation and romance, with central storylines involving dating among the teenage characters.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Secret Score is a Mexican production (available with English subtitles) that's a mysterious adventure story with little objectionable material. Teens briefly refer to liking to party, but drugs and alcohol are not mentioned. Violence is minimal and mainly revolves around mild suspense such as the story of a disappearance of a corpse and the main character's boyfriend disappearing and then asking for help in a mysterious way.

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What's the Story?

THE SECRET SCORE follows a talented saxophonist as she attends a summer program at a prestigious music conservatory. Shortly after her boyfriend mysteriously goes missing, she and her new friends encounter magical events that propel them into an exciting adventure.

Is It Any Good?

A teenage mystery that's light on scares and heavy on whimsy. While The Secret Score boasts talented young musicians and a rapid narrative pace, it lacks in-depth character development and world-building. Viewers interested in music and mystery will likely enjoy it.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about pursuing passions. How might the show inspire viewers to embrace and develop their talents? Discuss the importance of dedication and perseverance in achieving personal goals.

What does the show's portrayal of a progressive school environment teach about diversity and acceptance? What are the benefits of inclusive settings in education?

How do the mysterious elements in the story enhance the viewing experience? Do you like the use of suspense and adventure in storytelling?

• Premiere date : April 17, 2024
• Cast : Val Dorantes
• Network : Disney+
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : High School , Music and Sing-Along
• TV rating : TV-PG
• Last updated : May 1, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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