Whoops Apocalypse (1988)

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Blistering performances.

Blistering performances.

but there are some very funny bits in this: Rik Mayall's manic SAS agent, Ian Richardson's Rear Admiral Bendish (you may need some familiarity with British slang to get the joke, but it's made clear soon enough), the incomparable Peter Cook's crazed Prime Minister and several other performances lend this sometimes fairly juvenile outing a good deal more comedic mileage than it probably would have gotten from a less talented cast. The ending does come close to ranking up there as a bit of a classic, and overall it's a pretty entertaining piece of silliness. It's not going to knock 'Dr. Strangelove' off of any pedestals for stinging anti-war satire, but it does supply some genuine laughs.Michael Richards' portrayal of Lacrobat can't come close to John Cleese's handling of the role in the 1982 television series, but he gets some amusing business in; and the somewhat oddly cast Loretta Swit does a better job with her role as President Adams than might have been expected.

I hadn't seen this for years and just brought it on DVD. I've got up off the floor now! This film has it all. Insane politicians, evil terrorists (wanted for releasing the recipe for airline lunches, a crime that rates alongside killing), demented journalists, the SAS blasting the London wax museum (Madame Tussards) to pieces and a British princess enduring unenviable treatment at the hands of the baddie. I think anyone over 30 or those who survived the Thatcher/Regan era should see this film, it is just toooooo funny for words. Most of the jokes are still funny now and I will never ever make a cup of tea using a Liptons tea-bag ever again. Ian Richardsons camp admiral and Rik Mayalls SAS captain are guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes whilst Peter Cook as the PM is so funny you'll laugh till you burst your ribs. A classic and I'm off to watch it again right now!

What an utter disappointment. Forget this abysmal film and get hold of the TV series instead. What on earth were they doing making the American president relatively sane? ALL the politicians should have been bumbling buffoons (Peter Cook is good as the British PM). It lacks the biting satire of the original, going instead for "lowest common denominator" slapstick. 1 out of 10 if I'm being generous! This is unfortunately yet another example of a remake which totally misses the point of the original, the difference with this one being that they were both written by the same people.

There's a genre of spy thriller which involves Presidents, Prime Ministers and other heads of government, top police and spymasters, an assassin like Carlos the Jackal, and the imminent outbreak of WWIII. Whoops Apocalypse is one of those.Just as Airplane is a disaster movie.Not that Whoops Apocalypse is as funny as Airplane - there are too many scenes when the plot advances in a reasonably pointful fashion for that - but there are some inspired spoof scenes. There's a beautiful one when the Navy Officer gets his orders to report to his ship by nightfall - there are reasons why this isn't quite as poignant as the similar scenes in b&w 1942 movies.Some bits of it may well seem inexplicable unless you remember that it was made in Britain in 1986, with the Falklands War still fairly fresh in people's minds, Di-mania a-booming, and Margaret Thatcher still running the country in demented fashion.The highlight of the film is Peter Cook's portrayal of Prime Minister Sir Mortimer Chris: a high-powered Sir Bufton Tufton, fearfully right-wing and, as we discover, stark staring bonkers. Loretta Swit plays the US President a la Carol Channing, and a number of others kick in with decent cameos.I'd like to see it again, to find out whether I got all the jokes the first time round - Airplane must have taken a dozen viewings before I'd spotted some of the really subtle touches. I suspect there is less to discover in this second and third time round, but it's not a bad attempt, overall.