TOP GUN: MAVERICK (2022)

TOP GUN: MAVERICK (2022)

Tagline: None.

(Action, Drama, Gravity Defying) [PG-13]

Look, I'm going on this mission, but if you get kicked out, you leave us flying with Hangman. Talk to me, what the hell was that?

In this one, we find Pete ‘Maverick’* Mitchell as a test pilot 30 years after the first TOP GUN movie. He is asked to return to TOP GUN to train the best of the best Navy pilots for mission impossible (see what I did there). They are about to go on what is essentially a suicide effort to take out a nuclear facility in the works and the stakes are incredibly high. To add to the challenge Maverick’s history with Goose’s son Bradly ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw is strained and he is one of the trainees for the mission. 

First off, I was never a huge TOP GUN fan. I have only watched it twice and gave that one a 4 out of 7. Pretty much the only reason I went to see this one is that I had heard good things from people I trust that watch movies. 

What works about this movie is that it’s deeper than the first installment and we care about ‘Maverick’ himself more. Whatever you think about Tom Cruise personally, he embraces this character and really takes us on this ride with him. The effects are mind-blowing and given that Tom Cruise is actually a pilot this film feels genuine. Miles Teller (Whiplash) plays a likable ‘Rooster’ who is not just trying to live up to his father’s legacy, but to overcome it in some ways. The banter between ‘Rooster’ and ‘Maverick’ as this movie moves along is fun to watch. Adding Glen Powell (The Dark Knight Rises) as a cocky pilot with the call sign ‘Hangman’ harkens back to Val Kilmer’s original portrayal in a cocky pilot role as ‘Iceman’ is a stroke of genius and giving us the real Val Kilmer reprising his role as ‘Iceman’ with his real medical issues in tow is a nice touch that brings heart to this thing. It was also nice to see Jennifer Connelly in the role of Penny Benjamin. It added just enough romance to the movie without feeling hammered in there after the fact.

To top that all off we get some amazing aerial photography this is just mind-blowing and heart-pounding without feeling forced. I felt like this was a serious thing and I was rooting for this team of pilots to pull it off. I also think it’s pretty cool that the cast got to pick their own call signs. 

Where this movie kind of goes sideways is nowhere. Seriously, it all just works. I don’t have a single complaint about this thing and the added “danger zone” touches at the end were just more icing on a cake that already had just tons of icing.  Everything they could get to be real in this movie was done that way including getting the cast used to riding in an F-18 fighter jet. 

Even if you are not gung ho, pro-military this movie has a bit of everything for drama, action, and truly good storytelling fans even though the mission in the movie borrows a bit from the 1964 film 633 SQUADRON. I loved the characters, the edge-of-your-seat flight sequences and the heart this thing had to offer. 

This thing is a clear 7 out of 7 and it deserves the accolades it’s getting. 

*The Navy pilots all have “call signs”. ‘Maverick’ is one of the. ‘Phoenix’, ’Payback’, and ‘Hondo’ are some other examples. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF SKYDANCE MEDIA AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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