JUNE 2022:
Something Old…
In his May 16, 1986, review of the film Top Gun, Roger Ebert gave the film two and a half stars, and described the movie as hard to review because the film had its good and its bad. The good parts are the best parts of the film while the bad parts of the film go on and on in a relentless fashion. He compares the aerial dogfights with those of Clint Eastwood’s Firefox, writing that the aerial scenes in the Tom Cruise film are as electrifying and absolutely the best in comparison. He goes on to say the viewer will enjoy the aerial scenes more than they will enjoy the scenes that involve Cruise and Kelly McGillis or any scenes that involve talking as he put it.
He describes the “on the ground” love story scenes with Cruise and McGillis as “grimly predictable” saying that the movie knows exactly what it is doing with the aerial dogfighting scenes but not so much with the love scenes:
“It knows exactly what to do with the special effects but doesn’t have a clue as to how two people in love might act and talk and think.”
– Roger Ebert
Although he gave the film a low star rating, he talks highly of the aerial flight scenes and how they benefit the viewer watching:
“We’re used to seeing things within a frame that respects left and right, up and down, but the fighter pilot lives in a world of 360-degree turns. The remarkable achievement in “Top Gun” is that it presents seven or eight aerial encounters that are so well choreographed that we can actually follow them most of the time, and the movie gives us a good secondhand sense of what it might be like to be in a dogfight.”
– Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert may have not thought it was a great movie of substance, but pulled off the action superbly, we all know it won’t matter and people will love it anyway and make it a timeless classic of the 1980’s that viewers will want a sequel to. And we also know it would be three decades after the review was written and the film was made before fans would see that happen.
You can read Roger Ebert’s review of Top Gun from 1986 below by clicking on the picture of him:
SOMETHING NEW…
Ebert was a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. But his film reviews live on through his website. A staff of freelance writers and critics still review films with his stamp of approval and brand attached to them on RogerEbert.com. That includes a review for the new Top Gun sequel in 2022. Tomris Laffly posted a review for Top Gun: Maverick on May 27, 2022 and gave the sequel four stars. It is a higher star rating than Roger Ebert gave the original in 1986.
In her review, Laffly said:
“In ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ the breathless, gravity and logic-defying “Top Gun” sequel that somehow makes all the sense in the world despite landing more than three decades after the late Tony Scott’s original, an admiral refers to Tom Cruise’s navy aviator Pete Mitchell—call sign “Maverick”—as “the fastest man alive.” It’s a chuckle-inducing scene that recalls one in “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,” when Alec Baldwin’s high-ranking Alan Hunley deems Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, “the living manifestation of destiny.” In neither of these instances are Cruise’s co-stars exclusively referring to his make-believe screen personas. They are also (or rather, primarily) talking about the ongoing legacy of Cruise the actor himself…”
– Tomris Laffly
The legacy she is referring to pertains to Cruise’s Hollywood showmanship and the consistent commitment he has always given to it, while also still being able to pack theaters in a film culture that’s shifted to streaming with less viewers going to the movies and waiting for a film’s digital release. It also helps that he has reached Bucket List levels of physicality in an unfailing manner when making a film. He is well known for insisting he do his own stunts. He has been insured out the wazoo as a result due to that commitment of honesty in his filmmaking. In the review, Laffly compares that commitment of method to that of the actor Daniel Day-Lewis. And states that his stunt ability in films, which are often the reason viewers flock in droves to the theaters to see his movies, has often overshadowed his gifted and versatile ability to move from dramatic films into comedy without a flaw. But Laffly also states that it is because of his dedication to filmmaking that he is a household name and can guarantee a movie event of epic proportions at the cineplex every time. She listed Born on the Fourth of July, Magnolia, Tropic Thunder and Collateral as the likes of his films that you can view his versatility and gifted ability as an actor.
Laffly writes that all this makes the viewer feel right at home while watching Top Gun: Maverick directed by Joseph Kosinski. Calling the film, a “witty adrenaline booster” that indeed solidifies Tom Cruise, who also serves as a leading producer, as the action star he has become. While the sequel carries the nostalgia of the 1986 original, Top Gun; including the credits title card from the original film explaining what exactly a “Top Gun” is in the world of Navy Pilots. Along with the Kenny Loggins classic “Danger Zone” we begin a new journey with Maverick.
Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell is now a test pilot in the US Navy and with no surprise, is called back to Top Gun for one last mission, to teach the newest graduates of the school for a mission that seems a mission almost impossible to pull off. Pun intended. The film stays true to the original by keeping the enemy they are facing obscure and left open to interpretation. But just like with the first film and mission, it is some unnamed enemy that must be destroyed through a flight plan that sounds crazy and require the pilots to be successful for it to work. It will require the Top Gun Pilots to fly at very low altitude to avoid being shot down from the sky and alerting the enemy of their presence. While the mission seems like a long shot and not able to be pulled off, you’ll have to watch the movie to see if that is in fact the case.
But it wouldn’t be Top Gun or a Tom Cruise film unless it seemed to be a long shot operation which seems inevitably doomed for its characters. Laffly writes:
“But you will be surprised that more appealing than the prospect of the bonkers mission here is the human drama that co-scribes Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie spin from a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks.”
– Tomris Laffly
SOMETHING BORROWED…
To add to the nostalgia of the film and that human drama Laffly speaks of, one of the potential recruits for the mission includes Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, played by Miles Teller and with perfection. He is the son of the gone but not forgotten co-pilot ‘Goose’, played by Anthony Edwards in Top Gun in 1986. His accidental death still haunts Maverick in the sequel. Just as much as it still gets us fans to this day rewatching the original. Miles Teller even looks like Anthony Edwards did in the original, mustache and all. There is also a great scene for nostalgia of Rooster playing the piano singing an old song you might remember that Maverick and Goose sung in the Top Gun frequented bar of the original film. But Rooster’s distaste and blaming of Maverick for his father’s death is what drives the human drama this time around. But, you’ll have to get yourself to the theater to see Maverick and Rooster’s fate.
Jon Hamm joins the Top Gun Franchise, as Admiral Beau ‘Cyclone’ Simpson and is a skeptic of Maverick’s ability and credentials and can’t understand why he would be recommended by his school foe-turned-friend and confidant Admiral Tom ‘Iceman” Kazansky, played once again by Val Kilmer, would insist on him training the mission recruits. The film like its predecessor, throws in a love interest for Maverick, this time played by Jennifer Connelly. She portrays Maverick’s on-and-off romantic interest Penny Benjamin who now owns the local bar that the new recruits of Top Gun gather at to make memorable sing along scene. While she is a new character introduced in Top Gun: Maverick, Penny was prominently name-checked in the original film by Maverick.
SOMETHING SKY BLUE…
Having seen Top Gun: Maverick, I can tell you, I think it’s one of the best this year! This film soars to the highest of blue skies! It is being called the best sequel of all time by some, as well as the best blockbuster of the year. It could have turned out to be overdone and too macho man with its few outdated tropes and major action sequences, but Kosinski has a way of packaging an action film in a way that the plot works and it’s not just actors running around looking for a reason to blow stuff up and assert their masculinity. Kosinski’s directing has always found a way to package his films with a fine balance of vanity dosed with good humor and quotes worth remembering, while also pulling off self-deprecation and emotional moments that catch you off guard in action films. In this film he highlights concepts from the first film like friendship through perseverance and lifelong loyalty despite a difficult past trauma, while allowing romance to exist in this fast paced sky high world and showing that bromance is a thing we should love and embrace in a good quality action film. While Maverick and Goose are the bromance fans have often emulated and mourned by the original films end, I am smitten with Maverick’s new bromance with WO-1 Bernie ‘Hondo’ Coleman, played by Bashir Salahuddin. I loved the scenes him and Tom had together, and the writers did a great job of developing a relationship of the two that you don’t see on screen but understand runs deep and matters deeply to both. He is in essence Maverick’s new ‘Goose’ I hope that if there is a threequel in the future for Top Gun, they explore their bromance a bit more. I was curious to know how they came upon the bond of brotherhood that already exists in the first scene they have together.
Laffly ends the review by saying how well those concepts come togther to make this great sequel you can’t miss:
“In some sense, what this movie takes most seriously are concepts like friendship, loyalty, romance, and okay, bromance. Everything else that surrounds those notions—like patriotic egotism—feels like playful winks and embellishments towards fashioning an old-school action movie. And because this mode is clearly shared by the entirety of the cast—from a memorable Ed Harris that begs for more screen time to the always great Glen Powell as the alluringly overconfident “Hangman,” Greg Tarzan Davis as “Coyote,” Jay Ellis as “Payback,” Danny Ramirez as “Fanboy,” Monica Barbaroas “Phoenix,” and Lewis Pullman as “Bob”—“Top Gun: Maverick” runs fully on its enthralling on-screen harmony at times. For evidence, look no further than the intense, fiery chemistry between Connelly and Cruise throughout—it’s genuinely sexy stuff—and (in a nostalgic nod to the original), a rather sensual beach football sequence, shot with crimson hues and suggestive shadows by Claudio Miranda.”
– Tomris Laffly
Top Gun Love Renewed…
The film flew into theaters on May 27, 2022, and is currently still atop the Box Office and looking to hit the billion dollar mark in just its third week of premiering. So, if you haven’t seen it yet, you just might be missing out on what movie everyone will be talking about this summer! Feel the need for speed and strap into a seat at your local cinema to check back in with Maverick!