To a young kid obsessed with everything 007-related, the late 60s spy spoof Get Smart – whose reruns once aired, conveniently, right before bedtime on Nick at Nite – was about the coolest thing on television at the time.

Sure, some of the gags were probably over my head, but all the goodhearted swipes at the Bond series were always appreciated, and even at that age I could recognize the late Don Adams’ innate and inimitable comedic genius – that man could pop off catchphrases with the best of them, and nobody’s ever gotten more comic mileage out of talking into a shoe.

With all that in mind, I have to say I’m a little wary of this week’s Hollywood remake of my beloved show. Yes, I think Steve Carell was the best possible choice to play Maxwell Smart, and he should be well matched by co-stars Anne Hathaway and Dwayne “Sorry, But I’m Still Going to Refer to You as ‘The Rock’” Johnson, but I enjoyed Bewitched and Scooby Doo on the small screen, too, and look what happened when they got made into big-budget summer movies. Get Smart had a madcap comedic energy that was all its own, and I can’t imagine that would be an easy thing to duplicate and/or update for modern moviegoers – though I’ll be the first one to sing the filmmakers’ praises if they actually get it right.

As big-screen spy spoofs go, however, fans of the old-school Get Smart series could do a lot worse than the 1984 comedy Top Secret!, featuring a pre-Iceman Val Kilmer in his first movie role. Written and directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker – the guys responsible for Airplane!, still probably the greatest spoof movie of all time – the cult favorite is wall-to-wall packed with clever visual gags, and makes today’s unfortunate glut of shoddily-constructed spoofs (which Abrahams and the Zuckers, sadly, are partially responsible for) seem even lamer than we already know they are.

Kilmer stars as an Elvis-like American rock-and-roll heartthrob named Nick Rivers who’s just hit the top of the charts with his hit song Skeet Surfin’ – a Beach Boys-esque tune about, well, surfing and shooting skeet (simultaneously, of course). In the film’s world, East Germany is run by some nefarious Nazis, who’ve invited Nick to perform at a concert that’s actually a smokescreen for a world-domination scheme involving the requisite kidnapped scientist, a magnet that attracts submarines, and a whole lot of cackling. Never mind the plot, however, since even the filmmakers admit that it’s just an excuse to string together gags that leaves no form of silliness unturned – from hilarious gibberish posing as German to an unexpected (and spot-on) parody of the 80s trash classic The Blue Lagoon to a ballet sequence that seemingly anticipates the arrival of Viagra more than a decade before it was invented. My personal favorite: a gag involving an industrial-size “marital aid,” the easy-to-miss punchline to which is the funniest line in the movie (it’s amazing what you could get away with in a PG-rated flick back then). A cameo by Pac-man ranks a close second.

Never as consistent or laugh-out-loud hilarious as Airplane!, Top Secret! is inventive and energetic throughout and showcases one of the most charismatic performances in Kilmer’s career – he even does all his own singing and dancing. The supporting cast is mostly game (and screen legend Omar Sharif has some very funny moments as an ill-fated secret agent) but the film’s appeal lies not so much in the performances but in the inspired goofiness of the sight gags and production design, both uncommonly good for a comedy of this type. You’ve just got to love a movie that includes the only underwater barroom brawl in film history, and in which East German stationery bears the slogan “Better Government Through Intimidation.”

Easily and pretty cheaply available on dvd, Top Secret! is exactly the kind of movie that Get Smart should be, and has rightly earned its status as a classic yukfest of the VHS era. They simply don’t make spoofs like this anymore, but they sure ought to.