Top Gun is the "iconic" film of the late 1980's that I've managed to avoid for the last twenty-three years. After hearing quotes from this in countless other films and television shows I'm a little bit disappointed with the end product. I'm also a little bit surprised that such a film that seems to have stood the test of time in peoples minds, doesn't appear to hold up to that high esteem on return viewings so many years later. I guess much like the music of Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer, you had to be teenager in that decade to really get caught up in the corny.
Tom Cruise stars as Maverick, a cocky fighter pilot who makes it into the Top Gun program and quickly finds himself in the real world where most pilots don't approve of his risky maneuvers and over confident attitude. It's here he learns some hard lessons that will help to balance him as a pilot.
Right out of the gate Top Gun had too much of a campy Saved By The Bell feel to it, with Maverick as Zach, Iceman as Slater and Goose as Screech. The repetitive use of the same handful of songs, the school yard rivalries and campy bro-mances had me wondering when Mr. Belding was going to show up and break it all up! This is supposed to be a film about the Air Force's top pilots right? The few occassions when the film actually did get a little remotely serious it was usually broken up by another round of "Danger Zone", or "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling", two songs I'll probably never enjoy again.
Top Gun is entertaining to a point but as a whole the film is pretty flawed. The acting is mediocre, the story is all over the place and the ending makes absolutely no sense. After one successful mission Maverick's offered any placement anywhere he wants, and he chooses to become a flight instructor!?! C'mon now. In the end, Top Gun is solely for those stuck in the 80's, stuck on Tom Cruises even worse acting in 80's, or stuck on films with horrible one liners and an overly repetitive 80's soundtrack. Since I fall into none of those catagories if it's another twenty-three years before a see Top Gun again it will be too soon. While it might have been terribly popular in the 80's add this film to the list of everything else that went out of style by the start of the 90's.
5/10
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6 Comments:
We can agree finally! You might be the only blogger who didn't mention the rampant homo-eroticism, but that's really a non-issue with the quality of the film. That might be the reason to see the film since it's just so hilariously misplaced.
Well I did mention the "bro-mance". Which I would associate with what everyone thought to be "homo-eroctic". I just found it to be extraordinarily campy bro-mance.
This movie has aged so poorly, everyone thought it was so cool 20 years ago. It's rather funny if you think about it.
It's hard to lend any credibility to a movie review that gets what branch of the military every single character in the movie is in wrong. Just sayin'.
@Anonymous - It's hard to lend any credibility to a commenter who posts anonymously... just sayin'.
Air Force or Naval Aviator, you're just nick-picking now, doesn't change the review or my opinions at all. Still thanks for mentioning that mistake, but if you can discredit my opinion for that alone, then I think I can discredit your anonymous comment. You obviously didn't think much of it to take credit for it, you just wanted to be a smart aleck.
Top Gun is awesome. Top Gun's soundtrack is legendary. End of story.
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