Like sands through the hourglass, so too does our taste in movies change over the years. When I was little, I couldn't get enough of the movie Top Gun. I think I watched it at least a dozen times. Over the years, I believe time has actually been quite kind to this high speed movie that catapulted Tom Cruise's acting career into celebrity status. But for me, the novelty of the film has long since worn off. If I am ever at someone's home and I see the video box for this movie among the possibilities of what to watch, I'll usually opt for any other movie.
The tale is universal. Daredevil boy knows his father was a great pilot but there is murky untold family history that needs to be discovered. Boy grows up to be a pilot like his old man. Boy meets girl instructor. Boy shags girl instructor. Boy almost quits flight school but comes through when it really counts. Boy gets one last grin at the camera as the credits are rolling. You don't get any simpler than this. And yet, there are moments of real involvement in Top Gun. Not many, but they are there.
Tom Cruise plays Maverick, and Anthony Edwards is his flying buddy Goose. Together they are offered a chance to go to the top flight academy and be "the best of the best". There are obstacles along the way, including hard-nosed instructors (Tom Skerritt and Michael Ironside), persnippity civilian love interests (Kelly McGillis and Meg Ryan), and rival pilots (Val Kilmer and Rick Rossovich). They must also compete with a glaring and incessant 80s score throughout most of the movie too.
Top Gun is directed by Tony Scott (The Last Boy Scout and The Fan... eep!), who excels at making the aerial scenes quite spectacular. On the other hand, the snappy one-liners that pepper the screenplay sometimes hit the mark, but more often than not come off as false tough talk when spoken at the wrong time. There are several real groaners too (if you recognize the quotations "Crash and burn", "I feel the need - the need for speed", or "You don't have time to think up there. If you think, you're dead," then you've probably seen this picture as often as I have). In a way, this is the male version of Dirty Dancing; lots of corny dialogue sandwiched into a movie about machismo and believing in yourself.
It isn't trying to be Citizen Kane though. It's a popcorn movie, and within that category, it's a fine entry. No one acts or talks like these characters in the real world, but hey. It would be pretty cool to be able to woo a woman in a bar with an offkey rendition of a Righteous Brothers song or take Polaroids of people while flying above them, upside-down, in a jet. As I typed that previous sentence, something became quite clear to me. Yeah, two and a half stars sounds about right.
