The story this time is pretty much RAMBO III where Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen)
is now a ripped Buddhist monk/stick fighter in Thailand. A military
Colonel Walters (played by Richard Crenna, who also played Colonel Trautman in
RAMBO III) asks Topper to sneak into Iraq and save some POW's. He
initially refuses, but after Walters himself is taken prisoner at the same camp,
Topper agrees to go in. Along the way he runs into his old flame from the
first film, Valeria Golino, but by now he's having a fling with a supersexy CIA
operative Brenda Bakke.
Part Deux is, of course, directly related to the original HOT SHOTS!, but since
they shifted gears away from TOP GUN and parody more on the Rambo franchise it
feels really fresh with tons of new material to mine for jokes. The humor
is more absurd, the story broader, Charlie Sheen is probably the funniest he's
ever been, Lloyd Bridges is hilarious, even Richard Crenna (who I've never
thought of as a comedic actor) was surprisingly funny and the beautiful Brenda
Bakke's presence didn't hurt anything...except the tensile strength of my pants
in the crotchitoldal area!
As enjoyable as the first film is, I think Part Deux might be just a
little bit better. Just to be sure, I better go rewatch them both.
Part 1 - Hot Shots! (1991)