Preacher Movie Review: Top Gun

[Skully]

And as long as I’m on my soapbox, my first thought about Maverick in the diner scene was that it was a direct ripoff from the movie The Right Stuff…where we see a battered but unflappable Chuck Yeager emerge from the fireball crash of his X-1 rocket with parachute neatly tucked under his arm.

I thought the same thing!

 

[CharlieO]

I thought the same thing!

And I bet that was exactly what was intended.

 

[Toto'sDad]

So Preacher was at the movies again. I almost decided to not give a review, but what the heck, I enjoy it and if you don't like it keep scrolling.

So I saw the original Top Gun just as I was to graduate High School. I was an avionics nerd from the time I was twelve so I was invested big time in that movie. I actually went through ROTC during HS and had meetings with an Air Force recruiter to go to the AF Academy in Colorado Springs once I graduated. Everything was pointing in that direction until the summer after my Junior year when I grew six inches. I met with the recruiter before my Senior year and he told me that at 5'9" I was pushing it for a fighter pilot, at 6'3" I would not fit into conventional fighter aircraft as if I ever ejected they would have to call me "stumpy". He did say that I could fly C130s or maybe helicopters if I wanted but that fighter school was out of the question.

Well I gave up on flying fighter jets until I saw Top Gun right before I graduated. That lit the fire again so I decided I would follow my dad's suggestion and become a Naval Aviator. I had all the grades so I marched down to the Naval Recruiting office, giving a big screw you salute to the Air Force office as I passed by, and had a meeting. My dad was a Navy Vet, my grades were great and maybe I could go to the Naval Academy and pursue the dream of flying Navy planes.
The recruiter heard my speech, looked me up and down and said, "how tall are you?".
I replied, "6'3" SIR!"
He said, "well son, you can't serve as an aviator, you are too tall. You probably can't even serve on a submarine as you are too tall and too wide, and you probably don't want to serve on a ship as you are going to hit your head on everything imaginable. You sure you want to join the Navy?"
I replied, "Maybe not sir." The recruiter told me to think it over and get back to him.
I left feeling despondent and decided to become an architect instead.

Anyway I digress, Top Gun - Maverick Review (no spoilers allowed!)

We fast forward 36 years and find Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchel still flying like his hair is on fire. Maverick is still the same old guy (haha he's pushing 60, see what I did there with "old" guy ), with the same old rank, and the same old chip on his shoulder. But the Navy still needs him, just not as much as he thinks.

Tom Cruise- I think this is probably the best acting that Tom has ever done. I forgot he was Tom Cruise, superstar, action hero, scientologist, whatever. He was "Maverick" on the screen the entire movie. His commitment to this film and this role is one that I think might be his crowning achievement. He is just so good with just enough Cruise Cheese in the film to make him endearing and not over bearing. We get the typical shirt off moment where he gets to show his hip bones and his bulging clavicles but not enough to see the softness that has hit his midsection, I mean the guy is almost 60 so give him a break with the shirt off moments! We get to see the stare off into space, you know the one where he flexes his jaw making the muscles around his temples pop up and down like the Rock does with his pecs. And we get the Cruise smile with those pearly whites. We get all of that cheese, but we also get Maverick, the underdog, the "I just want to fly fast and dangerous" throughout the entire movie.

Val Kilmer - Val of course reprises his role as "Iceman". I wasn't sure how they were going to accomplish this but let me say it was beautiful. You will have to watch the movie for more, but Val plays "Iceman" to Tom's "Maverick" and I can say that it was the most emotional I think I have gotten in a movie in a while. For the limited amount of time that Val is in the movie, his moments are huge even when he is not on screen.

Miles Teller - Miles plays "Rooster" a jet jockey whose father was "Goose", Maverick's late REO who dies in the first Top Gun (OK I said no spoilers but if you haven't watched the first movie over the last 30 years, that's not my fault, you had time). Miles does a fabulous job playing the orphaned kid who comes to face with the man who was part of his father's death. There are so many similarities that Miles plays off of that you don't have to think too hard that he could be "Goose's" son. Although there are other movies where I think Miles' acting was better, he does a great job with what he has been given with this role.

The Planes - I almost did not do this part but how can you not mention the planes? They are the real actors in this saga. The big star of the original movie, the F-14 Tomcat sadly has been retired and put out to pasture so we have to find a new rocket ship for our pilots to ride. The F-14 is paid its fair share of respect for this film, and in my opinion it is still one of the most breath taking planes in the Navy's history.

P51 Mustang - talk about a throwback to Naval history. The first plane you are introduced to is Mav's P51 WWII era Mustang. Mav is wrenching away on the old war bird trying to keep something alive that has expired long ago. However, there is just nothing more beautiful than a P51 Mustang sitting in a hangar.

SR-71 - Blackbird - however in this film they call it the prototype SR-72 "Darkstar" (prototype as the SR-71 was retired and a successor has not been forth coming) which is a hypersonic scram jet that is trying to break Mach 9. The SR-71 could break Mach 3 so they were essentially trying to create a plane that could fly three times as fast as the original Blackbird. Purely fictional, the Blackbird was de-commissioned in the late 90's and it still makes my heart flutter when I see its shape on a tarmac or in the sky.

FA-18 Super Hornet - the Super Hornet is the star of this show as it's two seat configuration allows for a pilot and weapons specialist to work together. The replacement to the F-14 it only makes sense to have this new star replace the original.

F35 - Lightening - You would think that the F35 would be Justin Bieber to Justin Timberlake's outdated F18 but because of the two seat ability of the F18 we only get to see the F35 in a side role on this film. So for this film the old dog gets to keep his role, for now.

Sukhoi SU-57 - These are the bad guy's jets. A beast of a single seat stealth fighter that would give any aircraft a run for its money. Not as sexy as the Mig29s in the original movie, but these jets look deadly and sexy all at once. Although the bad guys in the movie were not named, they do have some fancy aircraft.

There are a number of other parts with actors you would be familiar with, like Jon Hamm as the Top Gun Commander, Ed Harris as one of the admirals and Lewis Pullman (BOB) who I expect to get some more big time jobs after his role here.

All in all, I give it three thumbs up because I don't have four.

My son sent me a text this afternoon and asked if I could make a 6:15 pm to see Maverick. I said sure and met up with him, and we saw the movie together. It was just like in the old days when we went to the movies, except I think maybe he's the dad now. I really won't try and add anything to your review, I can only say at the end of it, we both said we enjoyed it very much. There are some logic holes in it big enough to drive a truck through, but hey, it's a movie, it's not a class in logic. All in all, I loved it, and think I probably liked it better than the original.

PS:

I ALWAYS like the popcorn and soda pop!

 

[Colo Springs E]

The death dream sequence sounds to me like a lame attempt to generate controversy and keep people talking about it…much like the ending of The Sopranos.
However, unlike The Sopranos (where it worked very well), Top Gun is a fairy tale and has nowhere near the moral gravitas.

Well, that's certainly one opinion of that ending...

 

[Tonetele]

I met with the recruiter before my Senior year and he told me that at 5'9" I was pushing it for a fighter pilot, at 6'3" I would not fit into conventional fighter aircraft as if I ever ejected they would have to call me "stumpy".

True. I had a friend who I took out on my boat fishing. He was short and a fighter pilot. Reason- size of the jets they flew, nothing to do with ejection in the RAAF.

 

[Jay Isler]

I saw it yesterday. It was cheesy, predictable and generally awful.

 

[jvin248]

... Look how small that P51 looks compared to the F35!!

One of the things that always surprised me about the original Top Gun-80s was how huge the Navy planes were. That was the feature that took the most effort for a suspension of disbelief -- because I knew those were real planes. All the rest of the antics were movie magic and I expected that. By design you want an aircraft carrier to carry as many planes as possible, and those planes were huge.

Those big planes in the original movie just wallowed around like a 1950s Chevy not a modern nimble sports car. Sure, you can toss a huge rocket engine in the back and take care of the mass like they did to make it work, but you could do the same with smaller planes. And the need to use two pilots in each one was also excessively expensive for a fighter plane function -- make a better 'User Interface' on all the complex controls and double the active fighter pilots in the air.

The De Havilland Mosquitos were laughed at for being small and made of wood, but they were extremely fast for their day and still loaded with a surprising number of weapons to frighten the European battlefronts.

... my wife and I went because she loves going to the theater and has no taste in movies or television, so she literally doesn't care what we watch....

Lol!

As far as the movie, TG-22 is causing a frenzy in Hollywood right now. They cannot understand how such a movie is selling so many tickets. And scrambling trying to figure out which piece of the film is drawing viewers. Which results we'll see in about two years. From what I've seen the secret is 'fun' with a bit of nostalgia.


.

 

[Festofish]

Did he have his pajamas on under his wardrobe the whole time?

 

[ellielo]

I saw it yesterday. It was cheesy, predictable and generally awful.

It is a little cheese, but still good in my opinion.
Haven't seen the original movie but this version enjoyed a lot. Looking forward to rewatch it again at home when it is gonna be possible. With the firestick and few good Kodi Addons from this list https://www.firesticktricks.com/best-kodi-addons.html it's gonna be probably possible very soon.

 

[ChazFromCali]

"....just enough Cruise Cheese in the film...."



I'll probably see this, just for laughs.
Tom Cruise can actually act (Collateral, Valkyrie) it's just that he seldom does.

 

[Fenderdad1950]

Thank you to everybody here, for being backers of our servicemen.

 

[soundchaser59]

However, you are totally wrong on this point and I must rub your nose in it. A P51 is most beautiful at WOT with the gear up, several feet overhead...

Spot ON!

 

[GuitarsFromMars]

It was entertaining and had enough plots/subplots to make it fun. I liked the tone.