Movie theatres worldwide owe a debt of gratitude to Tom Cruise. Top Gun Maverick has brought the masses back in droves with box office takings to the sequel of the 1986 original closing in on US$350 million, after only a week of release.
It’s a certified blockbuster that spent two years on the shelf due to the pandemic and Cruise waiting for just the right time to unleash it. This is a movie to experience in full ear candy sound, forget about your streaming wars at home, go back to the movies, buy that popcorn and settle in.
Is this the best action movie ever made? No. But if you have any connection to the original, as you probably do, it will take you back in just the right way through aviator sunglasses, synth music, Maverick on his Kawasaki Ninja, fighter jet battles and oiled up bodies.
It may even bring a tear or two to the eye.
Heck, what’s not to love? Ed Harris as Rear Admiral Cain, who is trying to shut down Maverick’s speed bending test pilot program, there’s Jon Hamm as the grumpy Admiral Simpson, who reluctantly has to work with ‘Maverick’ on a new mission, and a radiant looking Jennifer Connelly as ‘Penny’, a local bar owner.
Then there’s Miles Teller, you will recognize him as ‘Al Ruddy’ the Producer of the ‘The Godfather’ on Paramount’s excellent ‘The Offer’. Here he plays Goose’s son ‘Rooster’, a young hotshot pilot who has ‘issues’ with Maverick.
Also, look for a heart-tugging cameo from Val Kilmer as ‘Iceman’, who has now become Commander of the US Pacific Fleet.
The dialogue can be clunky and a storyline or two unbelievable but none of that matters as you’re locked in to the white-knuckle scenes in the cockpit. They are as real as can be, with cameras mounted on the fighter jets. Cruise led the actors through a three-month flight course to prepare them for what was to come.
Navy pilots flying the actual jets at ungodly G-forces with actors playing out their scenes high in the sky, it’s a trial by jet, which makes it very real by Hollywood standards.
In the movie once you know the parameters of the mission, as Maverick explains it to the Top Gun recruits, you understand how these scenes are playing out through mountain ranges and life ending missiles. The objective is to bomb an illegal enriched uranium site of an unnamed enemy. This is a politics free movie, which actually makes for a nice change.
Director Joseph Kosinski has got the mix just right, an emotional throwback to the mid 80’s with just the right amount of cheese. Top Gun Maverick has given moviegoers exactly what they want, and need.
hallymustang rating : 4.5/5 🎥🎥🎥🎥🎞