JB and I had tickets to see Top Gun: Maverick on Memorial Day. But then the Killer Martian Death Flu came along for us both, and we ended up spending our holiday weekend feeling awful.
But life goes on! Today, I present for you a review of Top Gun: Maverick, the long-awaited sequel to 1986's Top Gun, which we finally saw this week on $6 Tuesday. I was 10 years old when the first movie came out, and over the years, I've learned that women around me tend to salivate if you merely mention the words Top Gun and/or Tom Cruise. They looooove that movie. A lot.
Admittedly, the first movie had some cool parts. It was a bona fide slice of the '80s and of all of the burly masculinity associated with that decade, from Tom Cruise's and Val Kilmer's shirtless sand volleyball match to the derpy love song by the band Berlin (which somehow, someway actually won an Academy Award for Best Song ... I can't explain how), to Tom's soprano-ish voice warbling through "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" to Anthony Edwards actually having hair and a mustache before he went on to being a doctor on "ER" and lost all that hair in a tragic blow drying accident (I honestly don't know; I didn't watch the first couple of seasons).
Anyhow, this Top Gun sequel brings us back, 36 years after the original. Maverick is still a dangerous dude and keeps pulling his renegade tricks. When he's not soaring through the skies, he's still speeding around on the roads on his motorcycle, not wearing a helmet. He's still just a captain in the Navy because of his insubordinate attitude, but the guy can still fly planes. His girlfriend from the first movie went back to being Amish and is nowhere to be found in this one.
Maverick is now a teacher at Top Gun, instructing 12 of the country's best pilots on preparing for a dangerous mission (you might even call it an "Impossible" Mission ... ba-dum-ching!) against a menacing foreign adversary developing long-range weapons.
With me so far? Only things (surprise!) don't go well at first. There are attitude and teamwork problems to be solved. Will they unite under Maverick's daring leadership to do what needs to be done?
It's worth the price of admission to find out. I give mad respect to Tom Cruise for performing many of his own stunts, which he does throughout this movie, too. Visually, it's wonderful to watch on the big screen. And in addition, I found the film to be refreshingly patriotic and uplifting—sadly, a rarity these days. There are no political points to be scored nor agendas; the plot revolves around Americans working together to do one of the things America does best, which is to make the world safe(r) for democracy.
Paco's rating: 6 out of 10 (I gave the original 4 out of 10.)
The Good: Tom Cruise has found Dick Clark's Fountain of Youth, because he basically never ages. Val Kilmer, who is currently going through some severe health challenges in real life, is great in a brief scene as the only other cast member to return for the sequel. Jennifer Connelly is also very good in a supporting appearance.
The Bad: Not too much, really. I can't think of any major flaws at the moment.
The Ugly: some profanity, including 1 F-bomb, and a sex scene. It's rated PG-13 for those reasons and for scenes of action/peril. Yes, I deduct points for tomfoolery between unmarried people; Paco's rating scale is one of both family-friendly content and quality. (Without the aforementioned scene, it would be an 8 or 9.)
