Of course I've seen this 80's-tastic movie before; it's just that the
last time had to be around 2008, when there was a revival screening of
it at a Regal Cinemas in Orlando. As there is a sequel coming in the
summer, might as well get on board and take flight with this again.
The movie is cheesy and slick entertainment, but I can still say this is fine. The lead is a reckless aggressive person who of course has a buddy in the Top Gun program, who of course has a skilled rival, and of course has a love interest. It's a stock story which has such things as a crises of confidence, motorcycles, gruff instructors at the academy, an enemy that is implied but never explicitly stated to be the Soviets and yes... like many 80's films, homoeroticism. It's not just “the volleyball scene”, which even back in '08 when I saw the movie theatrically w/ a small crowd, most of them started giggling right as that infamous bit started. For a long time, people have laughed at how that scene plays years after the fact.
Even I had to look up the movie's title, but the reason why anyone would know the otherwise obscure 1994 film Sleep with Me is that none other than Tarantino has a cameo as a random guy talking to one of the film's leads about how Top Gun is “one of the greatest scripts” because it is “a story about a man's struggle with his own homosexuality” where everyone else at the academy is gay while Kelly McGillis represents heterosexuality and several moments in the movie represent this opinion, including the ending line said by Iceman to Maverick, “You can be my wingman” (which QT either accidentally or on purpose for authenticity's sake gets wrong in the monologue). It is exactly the sort of speech you would expect from Quentin and for most of the time that YouTube has been around, there are multiple versions of that scene floating around.
As cliché and goofy as the movie is, at least it is a fun watch. Tom Cruise's charisma as Maverick of course goes a long way, and there are plenty of quality actors bringing those characters to life; some of them I actually forgot were in this, such as James Tolkan and Meg Ryan. Harold Faltermeyer creating a score incredibly of its time was a positive for me (along with a nice soundtrack) and naturally, all of the aerial sequences and dogfights you see are aces as it's real instead of phony CGI. Who knows if the sequel will be worthwhile but at least this-one of the biggest movies of the entire decade-is not too cringeworthy to enjoy in 2020, no matter if you interpret the story as intended or think it's about Maverick wrestling with his sexuality.
The movie is cheesy and slick entertainment, but I can still say this is fine. The lead is a reckless aggressive person who of course has a buddy in the Top Gun program, who of course has a skilled rival, and of course has a love interest. It's a stock story which has such things as a crises of confidence, motorcycles, gruff instructors at the academy, an enemy that is implied but never explicitly stated to be the Soviets and yes... like many 80's films, homoeroticism. It's not just “the volleyball scene”, which even back in '08 when I saw the movie theatrically w/ a small crowd, most of them started giggling right as that infamous bit started. For a long time, people have laughed at how that scene plays years after the fact.
Even I had to look up the movie's title, but the reason why anyone would know the otherwise obscure 1994 film Sleep with Me is that none other than Tarantino has a cameo as a random guy talking to one of the film's leads about how Top Gun is “one of the greatest scripts” because it is “a story about a man's struggle with his own homosexuality” where everyone else at the academy is gay while Kelly McGillis represents heterosexuality and several moments in the movie represent this opinion, including the ending line said by Iceman to Maverick, “You can be my wingman” (which QT either accidentally or on purpose for authenticity's sake gets wrong in the monologue). It is exactly the sort of speech you would expect from Quentin and for most of the time that YouTube has been around, there are multiple versions of that scene floating around.
As cliché and goofy as the movie is, at least it is a fun watch. Tom Cruise's charisma as Maverick of course goes a long way, and there are plenty of quality actors bringing those characters to life; some of them I actually forgot were in this, such as James Tolkan and Meg Ryan. Harold Faltermeyer creating a score incredibly of its time was a positive for me (along with a nice soundtrack) and naturally, all of the aerial sequences and dogfights you see are aces as it's real instead of phony CGI. Who knows if the sequel will be worthwhile but at least this-one of the biggest movies of the entire decade-is not too cringeworthy to enjoy in 2020, no matter if you interpret the story as intended or think it's about Maverick wrestling with his sexuality.
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