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!

Name a genre of political or social satire. It is in this movie. Name a sacred cow that needs to be kicked in the udders. A swift kick is delivered in this movie. Here's a sample. Loretta Swit is selected as vice president of the US because it is "PC". His first day in office the president dies. Our first female president is faced with some serious foreign policy decisions and decides to seek the advice of the former president, Murray Hamilton. You get the first hint of outrageous satire when her limo arrives at the gates of a federal prison. Hamilton portrays a hilarious amalgamation of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon in an understated performance that borders on genius. He takes a break from busting rocks and advises Swit with a lot of film-flam and jibber-jabber, then embraces the two Secret Services agents. They walk back to the limo talking about how the former president is the salt of the earth. When they turn around you see he has stolen the shirts off their backs while leaving their neckties and suit coats in place. After that the outrageous satire comes rapid fire in every scene. After every scene you think, "They can't upstage that." Then they do. In spades and doubled. It doesn't end until the end of the movie. See it with some friends. Laugh out loud.

I bought this film on VHS in the late eighties and thought it was hilarious; after many years I thought I'd see if I'd still enjoyed it... I did! The film opens with the fascist Central American Republic of Maguadora invading a small British colony in the Caribbean; a task force is deployed and the colony is retaken. That isn't the end of the matter though; the Maguadorans employ the world famous terrorist Lacrobat to kidnap Princess Wendy and threaten to kill her if Britain doesn't had the colony to Maguadora. Once she has been kidnapped it is a race to find her before she is killed; an act that Prime Minister Sir Mortimer Chris says will be met by swift nuclear retaliation! If that wasn't bad enough it is learnt that the Soviet Union has its own secret missile base in the Caribbean which they promise to use if Maguadora is attacked.

I found this film as hilarious as I did when I first watched it; sure some jokes don't work as well as others but they come thick and fast so if you don't laugh at one joke another is coming very soon. The main plot is clearly inspired by the 1982 war to liberate the Falkland Islands after the Argentinean invasion and there are other sections inspired by real events such as the SAS storming of the Iranian Embassy and even the Cuban Missile Crisis. Funny moments are too many to list but highlights include solving unemployment by getting people in work to jump to their deaths off Beachy Head, the public crucifixion of cabinet ministers and best of all the storming of a wax museum by a squad of overly enthusiastic, dim-witted SAS soldiers. The cast includes a fine array of acting talent including Peter Cook, Ian Richardson, Loretta Swit, Rik Mayell, Herbert Lom and Alexi Sayle; some like Mayell are hilariously over the top but most play their parts straight which given the material makes it even funnier. While I expect most people will find this amusing it isn't really suitable for younger viewers or the easily offended as it includes such things as an accidental castration, a travelling sex toy salesman and a pile of severed heads!