TOP GUN: MAVERICK – A Review by John Strange
Top Gun (1986) launched a million fantasies of being a naval aviator aka Top Gun pilot. I know. I was one of them. The ensemble cast made the story one that people can watch over and over again, enjoying the character’s storylines.
In the years since the story first premiered on theater screens, we have listened to Tom Cruise telling us he would like to make a sequel to the story. We lost the original film’s director, Tony Scott. Many of us believed that this was a death knell for the project. I am so thankful that it didn’t.
Top Gun: Maverick finds Pete Mitchell (Tom Cruise) aka Maverick still a naval aviator and only a captain. All his peers are either admirals or retired.
The Navy has given a tasking, a mission, that no current pilot is trained for. To get the team of young Top Gun aviators prepared for the mission, they turn to Captain Mitchell. Or rather, they are ordered to turn to him.
The back story and the tension between Captain Mitchell and Lt. Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw (Miles Teller), one of the pilots, is well scripted and well played. The flying scenes, both during training and on the mission, are excellent. But I have to say that seeing Val Kilmer as Adm. Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky was the icing on the cake of a great evening at the movies.
There is so much I want to shout but we are asked not to give away the film and I absolutely agree with the filmmakers on this. Anything else I could say would reveal too much. What I have said was alluded to in the trailers and pre-release interviews so I feel safe in making the statements.
Top Gun: Maverick met, and exceeded, my hopes and desires for this film. This is a sequel that is every bit as good as the original! A definite 5-star film!
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Cast: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Charles Parnell, Bashir Salahuddin, Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Greg Tarzan Davis with Ed Harris and Val Kilmer
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for sequences of intense action, and some strong language)
Selig Rating: 5 Stars
Runtime: 131 Min.
Release Date: 05/27/2022
Local Release Locations: Wide
Movie Site: TOP GUN: MAVERICK Official Site
Trailer: TOP GUN: MAVERICK Trailer
The Selig Rating Scale:
5 Stars – Excellent movie, well worth the price.
4 Stars – Good movie
3 Stars – OK movie
2 Stars – No need to rush. Save it for a rainy day.
1 Star – Good that I saw it on the big screen but wish I hadn’t paid for it.
