It’s been 36 years since Top Gun. The house where Tom Cruise seduced his flight instructor, Kelly McGillis, is now a pie shop on the grounds of Hyatt’s Mission Pacific hotel.
Now it’s been rebooted and aviation geeks may find it “two thumbs up, five stars, and a must-see.” It’s close-up aviation scenes and cinematography. That’s also all it is [very few spoilers].
Top Gun is classic Tom Cruise. Days of Thunder, the Color of Money, The Firm and A Few Good Men were all about a young phenom – in three of those cases, whose defining feature was an ego and lackadaisical style. And in the original Top Gun, Maverick’s ego was writing checks his body couldn’t cash.
In many ways it’s a remake of the original, transporting you back in time and stripped of its 1980s patriotic politics.
Though the cast is more diverse than the original the movie “is not so much anti-Woke as pre-Woke, with cliched ethnic characters and adoring women waiting for the heroic men to come back from mission.” It is meant to be inoffensive yet may offend progressives at the same time.
The movie never even tells you who the enemy is. There’s a new threat. Young pilots need the tutelage of an ace veteran. They have to stop an ‘unauthorized’ weapoins facility in the mountains of somewhere. The Soviets were the enemy in 1986. You might expect it now to be China, the Taliban, or Russia (again). The movie isn’t even screening in China, which only accepts a limited number of U.S. films and presumably wouldn’t want to highlight a gung ho picture about the U.S. armed forces. For Taiwanese audiences Tom Cruise wears the flag of Taiwan on his jacket though we don’t get to see that.
It’s a generic film that will offend almost no one (just the Chinese government, a little bit) featuring a major star with a presence matched perhaps only by George Clooney, so unsurprisingly turnout was “unusually strong” in “Tennessee, Oklahoma, Utah, Oregon and northern Florida.”
In some ways it’s the ‘feel good’ summer film we all want after two years of not going to the movies. But it’s not going to be any kind of classic like the original, cult or otherwise. It does, however, contain enough nods to the original to keep fans entertained for 2 hours and 11 minutes. I’m jus grateful it was a sequel and not a Point Break or Red Dawn remake.
The movie could have had a hot plot with a mutinous, Trump-supporting group of American fighter pilots being the enemy threat to the US and patriotic American fighter pilots taking them down.
From start to finish, Top Gun has a very classic movie soundtrack that just can’t be matched nowadays.
It’s a great American feel good movie and entertaining for all aviation enthusiasts. Tom Cruise at nearly 60, still knows how to draw people to the big screen. Well acted and filled with lots of action and great cinematography. Who cares what the secular progressives think. Most Americans are sick and tired of crappy WOKE HOLLYWOOD LEFTIST VIRTUE SIGNALING BORING AND DULL MOVIES. Americans have spoken and Top Gun Maverick is already a HUGE box office commercial success. God bless the USA
“Mind candy”. It’s like when I asked my students why the U.S. got into WW2 and they said, “Pearl Harbor”, and then I asked them why the Japanese attacked us and got blank looks. The same thing with asking the vast majority of Americans why 9/11 occurred or how come the Iranian government has serious issues with Washington. Generally speaking, people in this country are great at looking at effects and pretty terrible at considering causes. And if it’s a movie with jets shooting and the flag and some bad guys or other being stopped (they could have come in flying saucers for all anybody cares), well what the heck. So long as nobody considers this John Wayne hype justifies vast military expenditures…oh, wait.
Wow Gary, you just opened a troll smorgasbord.
“For Taiwanese audiences Tom Cruise wears the flag of Taiwan on his jacket though we don’t get to see that.”
Huh? So we (here in US) are *not* seeing the version with the restored flags of RoC and Japan on Maverick’s jacket? How does that make any sense? Whom are Paramount afraid of offending, here in US?
Agree with @Christian. Standby to standby.
Actually, it is a movie of its time. It shows a US desperately clinging on to its top nation status as its empire wanes, with uncertainty creeping into its establishment. It doesn’t need to skirt the precise identity of the enemy – we can figure that out ourselves.
A baby boomer’s movie review. Seems like it should be on the AARP website.
Me encantan las películas en las que aparecen jóvenes ágiles y sensuales.
@GU wonder. I think this is a better plot: A rogue group of entitled, Biden-supporting, millenial pilots has taken hostage of a US airbase demanding US government to spend trillions of dollars to convert aircrafts to all electric, climate-friendly, carbon free, noise pollution free (capable of only doing subsonic speeds so that we won’t be buzzing control towers, disturb ducks flying in V-formation and kill exotic insects sensitive to sonic booms) then getting these prima donnas bombed into oblivion. This will make at least a billion dollars in the box office.
The US clinging to top nation status as US relative power wanes is exactly what the world needs at this time. The last thing the world’s less populous countries need are having neighbors like Xi’s China, Modi’s India, Putin’s Russia, or Bolsonaro’s Brazil having unchecked regional hegemony. The US holding the ultimate balance of power status is critical to the maintenance of liberal democratic norms and a relatively peaceful world order being maintained. But of course this all presupposes an unlikely reality: that another Trump-like (or even worse) US President isn’t in the country’s future.
And how long has this fatso blogger served in the military (asks this ex-Army helicopter pilot combat veteran) and therefor contributed to the narrative?
@GUWonder — “The US holding the ultimate balance of power status is critical to the maintenance of liberal democratic norms and a relatively peaceful world order being maintained. But of course this all presupposes an unlikely reality: that another Trump-like (or even worse) US President isn’t in the country’s future.”
Contradict yourself much?
The *only* way that US will recover its former stature on the world stage is for someone like Trump (if not Trump, himself) to come back and provide *true* leadership once more! Notice how the world is now literally falling apart everywhere (but especially in US), now that Trump is no longer in the White House?
Wake Up to Reality and Eliminate your Trump Derangement Syndrome!
Trump Derangement Syndrome is what the dishonestly-named “StrictlyFacts” is supplying by trying to peddle their Trump-supporting deranged thoughts.
In fact, it’s under Biden’s leadership that the US allies in and out of NATO are strategically closer to the US than they collectively ever were under Trump, Obama, GW Bush, or Clinton.
The insurrection-supporting Trump fans are the people who have been infected and infections others with their Trump Derangement Syndrome. The “enemy within” is a risk far greater now in the US than when Top Gun came out during the Reagan Administration.
MaxGross, people serve the country in different capacities. Maybe “fatso blogger” has paid collectively more in federal income taxes than you or some of his critics here have?
Spoiler Alert!!!
The enemy in the movie is Iran. Pretty sure they are the only other country with operational F-14s. Left over from the days of the Shah. The mission is to destroy enriched uranium storage. They may not have 5th gen fighters but eventually will get them from Russia or China. At least that’s my guess.
Great cinematography, amazing aerial work, soundtrack, etc. Good nuggets from the original. A few good laughs. Plenty of adrenaline. What more do you want from a movie? It was more entertaining than 99.99% of them. And isn’t being entertained the point? If you want depth read a book.
@GUwonder
“The last thing the world’s less populous countries need are having neighbors like Xi’s China, Modi’s India, Putin’s Russia, or Bolsonaro’s Brazil having unchecked regional hegemony”
And who is encouraging these nutcases to do what they are doing right now? Exactly. That current demented, air-handshaking , feckless POTUS.
Putin invading Ukraine…what does he do? Respond with STAGGERED useless sanctions. “Putin you do these, we add this sanction. No, no, no….if you advance your army by this much I will add this sanction”
He could have just straight up told him “you do this and I will crash your economy and make sure your country won’t be trading with most of the countries in the world”
XI: “Oh, those are the only consequences for invading a country? Useless sanctions? Pfft….. what is he gonna do, not buy anything made from China? Ok, let me take these advance microchips from Taiwan then. Xièxiè Mr. Biden!”
@GUwonder You know that the amount of taxes you pay is relative to how much you make, right? Higher income = higher tax bracket.
Maybe the blogger makes much more money (pay more taxes) than MaxGross but the army helicopter pilot pays his taxes too PLUS Served/defended his country as well.
You are not as smart as you think buddy.
@GUWonder — “In fact, it’s under Biden’s leadership that the US allies in and out of NATO are strategically closer to the US than they collectively ever were under Trump, Obama, GW Bush, or Clinton.”
ROFLMAO! So let’s see … *why* did Putin *not* invade Ukraine while Trump was in office? And *why* did China *not* engage in unprecedented incursions into Taiwan’s ADIZ while Trump was in office? And *why* did NoKo behave itself while Trump was in office? And also Iran? And *who* got NATO nations in Europe to *finally* cough up their 2% of GDP commitments that they had so willfully neglected, so that *now* they can even help support Ukraine vs Russia?
Do you understand *anything* about geopolitical alignments? Those countries are *now* “closer” to US because they *now* realize just how neglectful they’ve been in the past, with their self-defense programs that did *not* meet real-world requirements! Unfortunately, *this* POTUS is actively *destroying* our military from the *inside* … just as Obama did during his unfortunate tenure!
This POTUS is merely continuing in Obama’s footsteps to engage in *pernicious* behavior against our nation! How are you enjoying your currently rampant inflation and energy/food shortages that this POTUS caused *solely* through his willfully damaging policies? And NO! Putin had very little to do with the woes that currently befall our once-esteemed nation! Why? If you are awake enough to remember history correctly, *all* of our woes started on the first day that this POTUS took office … long *before* Putin invaded Ukraine!
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“The insurrection-supporting Trump fans are the people who have been infected and infections others with their Trump Derangement Syndrome. The ‘enemy within’ is a risk far greater now in the US than when Top Gun came out during the Reagan Administration.”
ROFLMAO again! You’re either willfully ignorant or truly blind-as-a-bat! I guess you never learned what the word “insurrection” *truly* means — I suggest that you learn some *real facts,* first, before you make such *inane* accusations against Trump supporters!
Bread and circus
@GUwonder
“In fact, it’s under Biden’s leadership that the US allies in and out of NATO are strategically closer to the US than they collectively ever were under Trump, Obama, GW Bush, or Clinton.”
HAHAHAHAHA!
If this is the case, then Putin should have been more cautious invading Ukraine since “NATO is MORE united” under Biden according to you. Putin knew your president was a feckless Costanza thats why he invaded. How do you come up with these rationales? Is that you AOC?
Given that the U.S. and Western countries in Europe are controlled by globalists, nothing U.S. government foreign policy wise or military wise is good.
As a White Christian Man, my only priority is the freedom and betterment of my people in our own countries. China, India, Iran, and etc. are not allies and not helpful to our cause. They also aren’t inevitably enemies. What they do in their own backyard is their own business. Our concern ends at the ancestral homeland of Europe and Western countries from the U.S. to Australia to Argentina even where significant White populations reside.
The biggest threat to freedom is right at home from leftists. Criminalizing speech, bankrupting bakers for not baking a cake, forcing criminals into our schools, banning a means to defend ourselves with gun bans, and pulling our daughters on the side of the road by threat of gunpoint for not wearing a seat belt is not freedom. Democracy is not freedom. 51% dictating to 49% is still a dictatorship just with more dictators. Conservatives are brain dead until they stop supporting the police who enforce leftist laws and realize leftist laws can’t be enforced without the police.
The movies released the last 10 years have been awful. Very few good ones. Hollywood is toxic. We do much better with tv series as there are still good ones from Europe and they are more palatable in the U.S. Putting aside that the U.S. military has been the culprit used by the globalist elite instead of the defenders of freedom, Top Gun is a fun movie.
@Jackson Waterson
“globalists”
“White Christian Man”
“ancestral homeland of Europe”
“The biggest threat to freedom is right at home from leftists”
“Democracy is not freedom”
“leftist laws”
“U.S. military has been the culprit”
“globalist elite”
May God have mercy on your hateful and deluded soul.
Putin continued to invade and occupy parts of Ukraine during the Trump Administration. Inconvenient fact for the misleadingly-named “StrictlyFacts”, Trump-worshipping figure.
@GUWonder — “Putin continued to invade and occupy parts of Ukraine during the Trump Administration.”
ROFLMAO! Do you understand the difference between “occupy” and engaging in a *new* “invasion”? When did Russia last actually “invade” Ukraine and take control of Crimea? 2014? And just *who* was POTUS at that time, to “encourage” Russia in its invasive “adventures”? Obama? And now Biden is POTUS? Is history now repeating itself?
BTW — just so you understand — ongoing “skirmishes” do *not* constitute an “invasion”!
USvet1,
Are you one of those Trump-supporting January 6 insurrectionists? I am not.
Putin miscalculated what he would face from his attempted invasion and occupation of the whole of Ukraine this year. And it’s Putin’s miscalculation that created this extreme crisis that provided Biden a unifying opportunity that wouldn’t have otherwise happened as it has under the Biden Administration. Do you think Biden could have managed to get Sweden and Finland to want to apply this spring to join NATO if it weren’t for Putin’s miscalculation in this matter? It wouldn’t have happened. And if Trump were President still, at least Sweden would have been way more reluctant to consider putting in its NATO application to Belgium even with Putin’s miscalculation in play.
Expanded invasion took place this year. There was also expanded invasion and even periods of expanded occupation of Ukraine taking place during the Trump Admin.
Inconvenient facts for the Putin-supporting Trump supporters.
@GUwonder
“Putin continued to invade and occupy parts of Ukraine during the Trump Administration.”
Name one city/part of Ukraine!?
If you are referring to Crimea then maybe you should read more. Crimea was invaded during Obama’s administration.
TRY AGAIN
To get back on topic, I saw good reviews in WaPo, but it seems like another remake that may not hold candle to original, ultimately diminishing the effect of the 1st one (and sending a depressing reminder that equally good original filmmaking seems harder to come by).
Add to that the scientology factor. Hard pass…
The film had a great release financially, and is in the top 40 for an opening weekend despite the headwinds from global developments and inflation. And for a Memorial Day period release, this movie was even better than barely making the top 40. Maybe all those people who enjoyed the original Top Gun during the Reagan Administration have the money and kids to have a re-run at the classic now that the pandemic wasn’t playing out in a way to further delay this movie’s initial release.
The enemy in the original Top Gun wasn’t called out as Russia/USSR, and sort of the same this time around too. Iran or North Korea with a fifth generation fighter jet with the F-14 look? Not happening. In the original, “the MIGs” were fictional too.
@GUwonder
Trump insurrectionist? Resorting to name calling?Somebody is losing the argument. The fact that you call everyone that disagrees with you a Trump supporter/insurrectionist confirms that you do not take losing very well. And this is just an online debate, imagine if you and I are on a stage. You’ll be using word like “racist”, “bigot”
Thanks for playin. Hahahaaha
USvet1,
“Are you one of those Trump-supporting January 6 insurrectionists? I am not.”
Afraid to answer this simple question?
@Dom
“May God have mercy on your hateful and deluded soul.”
How tolerant coming from a person who I assume is religious?
@GUwonder
“USvet1,
“Are you one of those Trump-supporting January 6 insurrectionists? I am not.”
Afraid to answer this simple question?”
NOPE. Not at all. I am not a Trump supporter. I am not an insurrectionist. I did not even vote last election. Happy?
What about you? Are you a lying Biden propaganda machine? Were you lying about your anwers and twisting the facts?
You have not answered our previous questions too.
@Usvet1
I have love of God’s mercy, but no tolerance for lies and hate. I respect people who live their faith in God, and question those who claim they are religious.
@GUWonder — “There was also expanded invasion and even periods of expanded occupation of Ukraine taking place during the Trump Admin.”
ROFLMAO! Apparently you’re *not* very literate on reading what I had pointed out to you earlier about the difference between “occupation” and “invasion,” so go back and re-read again … you’re desperately grasping at straws on this one! Just because you like to “fantasize” that something is thus, does *not* mean that it is, therefore, true! Got any *proof* of your contention on this?
———————————————————————–
With respect to another prior post from you — “Do you think Biden could have managed to get Sweden and Finland to want to apply this spring to join NATO if it weren’t for Putin’s miscalculation in this matter? It wouldn’t have happened.”
Aha! Gotcha! So you *do* admit that this entire “unifying” meme regarding NATO countries, along with Sweden and Finland, was *totally* instigated by Putin’s misguided “invasion” of Ukraine … so this coalescing of NATO countries had *nothing* to do with Biden’s personal “appeal” with those countries … finally some honesty! You must, therefore, also admit that such coalescing would have occurred under *any* POTUS (even more so under Trump, since we would *still* have a *much* stronger military that is *not* so obsessively focused on being Woke/C.R.T.)!
———————————————————————–
Also from that same prior post — “And if Trump were President still, at least Sweden would have been way more reluctant to consider putting in its NATO application to Belgium even with Putin’s miscalculation in play.”
ROFLMAO! And just *how* do you discern this tidbit of DIS-information? Have you personally asked Sweden (and also Finland, for that matter) about *their* perspectives regarding joining NATO after Putin’s misguided “invasion” of Ukraine? Or are you just engaging in your “fantasy” proclamations again?
@GUWonder
The trump supporters are the fighter pilots.
The military doesn’t support people like you.
Koggerj,
Actually DOD has and still does support me. 😉
Misleadingly-named “SimpleFacts”, perhaps you can find out from this site’s blogger who is his most prolific supplier of comments made from Sweden in the run-up to Sweden sending in its NATO application. 😉
@ Usvet1
“…I did not even vote last election…”
So, are you not a US citizen entitled to vote?
Or, you couldn’t be bothered, despite your manic ramblings herein?
Just curious, because you gotta call out people who get all fired up about political stuff on a blog, but when it comes to excising their right to vote in a country who’s democracy they claim to have defended, they wilt and discard their right to vote. Priceless!
PS. Do you think I should go see the movie or not?
Oh my gosh, the nuts really came out today!
@GUWonder — “… perhaps you can find out from this site’s blogger who is his most prolific supplier of comments made from Sweden in the run-up to Sweden sending in its NATO application.”
So what? You prefer views from a Swedish commenter over the official position of the Swedish government on this issue of joining NATO? How does that even compute? Or are you suggesting that that Swedish commenter is an official spokesman for the Swedish government? But, if not, then what’s your point?
@GUwonder
YOU STILL HAVE NOT ANSWERED MY QUESTIONS.
Who is afraid to answer questions now?
Must be hard for you being confronted by people who call you out for all the lies you are spreading. Admit it, people like you can’t stand facts. You live in your own delusional world hoping your lies/twisting of facts will convince people to believe you. Too bad, many Americans are smarter than you.
@GUwonder
“So, are you not a US citizen entitled to vote?”
So is this an immigration issue now? I am a naturalized citizen that migrated from a third world country…..so yes, I can LEGALLY vote.
“Or, you couldn’t be bothered, despite your manic ramblings herein?:
I just did not like Trump nor Hillary. So is it illegal to NOT vote?
“Just curious, because you gotta call out people who get all fired up about political stuff on a blog, but when it comes to excising their right to vote in a country who’s democracy they claim to have defended, they wilt and discard their right to vote. Priceless!”
As a person who actually who grew up in a country that ACTUALLY suppresses voting by threatening your family if you vote for the other party, you have no idea what a real voter suppression means. There is nothing wrong if you vote “none of the above” But for you, I will vote in 2024 just to get rid of this current demented president.
“PS. Do you think I should go see the movie or not?”
You should. Maybe see it twice so you can appreciate the very blanket of freedom that you enjoy our military personnel provide to you everyday.
PS. You seem to have a short term memory issue. First person to comment:
“GUWonder says:
June 1, 2022 at 3:21 pm
The movie could have had a hot plot with a mutinous, Trump-supporting group of American fighter pilots being the enemy threat to the US and patriotic American fighter pilots taking them down.”
Me? Manic rumblings? HAHAHAHAHAHA…. and here you are pretending that you only wanna talk about Top Gun movie .
So pretentious.
I am mainly here for the comments
@joe
“Are you not entertained?!”
-Maximus (Gladiator)
@GUwonder
“Koggerj,
Actually DOD has and still does support me.”
DOD?
Department of Democrats?
Department of Disabused?
No way it is………
Department of Defense.
@Max Gross You served our country in part to protect the free speech entitlement of fatso bloggers who choose to bloviate about dumbass action movies. Thank you for your service.
@GUwonder
“In fact, it’s under Biden’s leadership that the US allies in and out of NATO are strategically closer to the US than they collectively ever were under Trump, Obama, GW Bush, or Clinton.”
And yet it is Biden, not Trump, who was officially held in “Contempt of Parliament” by the U.K. for his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. The resolution called the withdrawal “catastrophic” and “shameful”, with members further accusing Biden of “throwing us and everybody else into the fire”.
THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is how you alienate America’s allies. Putin is the one who brought NATO together not Biden…..Biden’s initial “leadership” was offering the Ukrainian President an escape flight while the Europeans led in the initial weeks. And before you say anything I voted for that idiot Biden…you apparently can’t seem to see past your political talking points at the utter chaos this administration has brought, much more so than the last. Many of us that voted for him clearly see our mistake.
@ Usvet1
Your lengthy post addressing the wrong poster. Just how dumb are you?!