Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

[foxfreakinmulder]

I loved it and preordered the dvd. Yes I still buy dvds :-)

[norcalgal]

2 hours ago, foxfreakinmulder said:

I loved it and preordered the dvd. Yes I still buy dvds :-)

No shame in that.  I do that too, and will also buy the TG: Maverick DVD when it comes out.

[Avabelle]

Does anyone know why Kelly McGillis wasn’t back? Does she still act? I would have preferred to at least known what happened with hiM and Charlie.

i thought miles teller was really well casted as Gooses son. I watched the original right before the sequel and it gave me all the feels.

[Anela]

2 hours ago, Avabelle said:

Does anyone know why Kelly McGillis wasn’t back? Does she still act? I would have preferred to at least known what happened with hiM and Charlie.

She said that she thought they didn't contact her, because she looks her age. That's what I remember from earlier this year. 

[Avabelle]

That’s disappointing. i would probably have preferred her to Jennifer Connelly but she was ok I guess. I had a feeling it was to do with her not looking as glam as she was in the 80s. 

[oliviabenson]

What a great movie ! TC is a true action star.  I didn’t care for Tom and the love arc but that’s just me. 
 

I especially enjoyed the football game at the beach. Tom should have kept his shirt on lol.

[norcalgal]

9 hours ago, oliviabenson said:

I especially enjoyed the football game at the beach. Tom should have kept his shirt on lol.

I’ve never been attracted to Tom - even before any rumors about his sexual orientation, but for a guy his age, he looks AMAZING!

[oliviabenson]

On 9/13/2022 at 9:55 AM, foxfreakinmulder said:

I loved it and preordered the dvd. Yes I still buy dvds :-)

I still have dvds !

[AngieBee1]

On 12/14/2022 at 3:35 PM, norcalgal said:

I especially enjoyed the football game at the beach. Tom should have kept his shirt on lol.

Cruise has that old school Jack LaLanne build. For that era he is fit but compared to the standards of male bodies today he's stocky. 

I attended a q&a with the director and the majority of the cast (everyone except Cruise and Connelly). The director intended for the beach scene to be shirts vs. skins but the actors -thinking it was to be shirtless- had all worked out and fasted for the scene and pushed for shirtless. For character purposes Lewis Pullman kept his shirt on.

Edited December 17, 2022 by AngieBee1

[theredhead77]

On 10/15/2022 at 7:41 PM, Avabelle said:

Does anyone know why Kelly McGillis wasn’t back? Does she still act? I would have preferred to at least known what happened with hiM and Charlie.

 

On 10/15/2022 at 9:47 PM, Anela said:

She said that she thought they didn't contact her, because she looks her age. That's what I remember from earlier this year. 

Either Cinema Wins "Everything Great About" or "Fandom" touched on this and said for the story it made sense that Charlie and Maverick weren't still together 30 years later.

Personally, I loved that they brought in Penny and completely bought their on-again-off-again relationship and history. They started off as a fling, or something that didn't work out due to Maverick's emotional immaturity (we don't know much from the OG throw-away lines) but were two people drawn together over the years.

 

Edit: Found it! Cinema Wins did it. It's around minute 23:25

 

On 12/17/2022 at 5:26 PM, AngieBee1 said:

Cruise has that old school Jack LaLanne build. For that era he is fit but compared to the standards of male bodies today he's stocky. 

I attended a q&a with the director and the majority of the cast (everyone except Cruise and Connelly). The director intended for the beach scene to be shirts vs. skins but the actors -thinking it was to be shirtless- had all worked out and fasted for the scene and pushed for shirtless. For character purposes Lewis Pullman kept his shirt on.

The shirtlessness felt organic and Maverick putting his shirt on when he was done was based in reality. It also made sense that Bob kept his shirt on and Hondo wore a jersey.

Paramount released a 3 hour loop of the football scene. Happy everything to us!

 

Edited December 27, 2022 by theredhead77

[Irlandesa]

Top Gun was a movie I saw.  Basically liked.  But it's not something I rewatched or had much nostalgia for and didn't feel like a sequel would be must see for me.  But the reviews for the sequel got me because when Tom Cruise nails a blockbuster, he realllly nails a blockbuster.

I am not much of a theater-goer so I waited until streaming and now I wish I had gone to a theater because this was really good on a small screen.  It would have probably been even more amazing on a big screen.

It started with a bunch of blockbuster cheesey lines "let's do Mach 10 then" but the longer it went on, the better it just clicked in and I felt so completely satisfied by it all. 

I'm not even nostalgic but one thing I liked the most about the movie is that it started with the theme the minute they showed the Paramount logo.  And even though I said I didn't have much nostalgia for the original, I can't ignore that the theme just sounds like the soundtrack of my youth.  I was right in it all.

But even though it was a sequel, this is also a movie that stands alone.  The original doesn't need to be seen to get the background which propels the action in this movie.  The background provided is similar to what other movies provide without a prequel/original to look back on.

For me, the nostalgia is that for better or worse, they don't make movies like this much anymore and I'll be sad when Cruise stops making them.

 

 

[anna0852]

Nominated for Best Picture!

https://tvline.com/2023/01/24/oscar-nominations-2023-full-list-academy-award-nominees/

[norcalgal]

5 hours ago, anna0852 said:

Nominated for Best Picture!

https://tvline.com/2023/01/24/oscar-nominations-2023-full-list-academy-award-nominees/

Well deserved, but I highly doubt it will win.  The Academy just doesn't reward these kinds of popcorn films with Best Picture.  Alas,  TG: Maverick will have to settle for "it's an honor just being nominated".

[Sarah 103]

 

On 6/1/2022 at 9:31 AM, MaggieG said:

I think Miles Teller did a great job and I like that they gave him the hair and mustache. He looked a lot like Anthony Edwards.

It wasn't just the physical appearance, it was the way he moved and carried himself too. I think casting did a great job, but also that Miles Teller did his homework. 

I enjoyed the football scene and the fact that it had more of a plot motivated reason to exist than the vollyball scene.  

I enjoyed this movie. It was pure summer blockbuster fun. I didn't see it until it came out on DVD, but I throughly enjoyed it. It felt like a throwback in the best possible way. I gave a DVD copy to my dad because I knew he wouldn't get Paramount+ for just one movie.   

[SlovakPrincess]

Finally saw this (on a plane, no less, lol).  Cruise's performance, the Iceman scenes / references, the cinematography, and the final mission at the end really saved this movie.  I loved that Maverick and Iceman developed a deep friendship.  As for the nitpicks:

I was pretty disappointed they didn't do more to develop Rooster's character -- they found an actor who really resembles Goose but gave him few opportunities to seem like a real person.

I also could not get into the Penny character.  She was just a bundle of movie stereotypes: sassy bartender / the lover the hero won't commit to / etc.  ZZZZZ, boring.  

I can believe Maverick and Charlie wouldn't have lasted long-term as a couple, but I would've liked a cameo or update on Kelly McGillis' character.    

And how do you have Jon Hamm and Ed Harris in a movie and give them such boring, nothing characters and uninspired dialogue?  In the original, everyone had their own personality, even supporting and minor characters like Iceman, Slider, Tom Skeritt's character, Goose's wife, the bald commander at the beginning, Cougar, etc.  Really made me appreciate how well-written the original was. 

But again, I'm nitpicking.  It's a fun movie in its own right.

[Sarah 103]

15 hours ago, SlovakPrincess said:

I can believe Maverick and Charlie wouldn't have lasted long-term as a couple, but I would've liked a cameo or update on Kelly McGillis' character.

That seems totally fair and reasonable. All it would have taken is a few lines of dialogue, and I think the movie could have found time for them. 

[SlovakPrincess]

1 hour ago, Sarah 103 said:

That seems totally fair and reasonable. All it would have taken is a few lines of dialogue, and I think the movie could have found time for them. 

Exactly!  

Agreed that Miles Teller must've done some research to move like / have mannerisms reminiscent of Goose.  Wish they'd given him a lot more dialogue though (since the Rooster / Maverick conflict is the main story, really)!  That frustrated me.

[Bastet]

Military propaganda is very much not my thing, so I've always been puzzled by how much I enjoy the original.  But, since I do, I knew I had to give the sequel a try.  I wish I'd been able to watch it before it was nominated for Best Picture, because every time the writing was bad - which was often - I got distracted by anger over the nomination.  Come the hell on.  This is a good film, but a Best Picture contender with all that clunky exposition, repetition (they explain the entire mission twice!), and ham-fisted conversation?!  Not to mention woefully under-developed characters.

Penny was a pointless collection of empty female movie character stereotypes, so I wish they'd left that relationship out altogether if they weren't going to put in any more effort than that.  And, while the original characters had a charm to their arrogance, Hangman was so one note I was actually rooting for him to be killed.  All the characters other than Maverick being under-developed was noticeable, but only a distraction for me when it came to Rooster, since their dynamic is the whole point of the film.

Nice callbacks to the original scattered throughout (my favorite being Maverick telling Rooster "there will be others" like Viper had told him, but I also love buzzing the tower), although I could have done without the actual flashbacks; if someone is watching this without having seen the original and thus doesn't know why Rooster playing "Great Balls of Fire" is making Maverick look like that, oh well.

It doesn't have the rewatchability factor of the original, but it's better than I expected it to be.  The scene between Maverick and Iceman was great, especially "It's time to let go" and "This is a nice moment; let's not ruin it".  And I loved the football scene combining nostalgia for the iconic volleyball scene with being an important part of the team development.  Visually, it was incredibly well done; I'm as shocked it didn't get a cinematography nomination as I am it got nominated for Best Picture.  A couple of times things moved so fast I couldn't tell who was doing what, but that created the right feel.  As do the cockpit sequences actually shot in the air -- again, stunned by the lack of a cinematography nomination.

I spent the whole film trying to figure out where I recognized the actor playing Hangman from, but I was watching in bed and too lazy to get up and check IMDb, so I finally did that now -- as John Glenn in Hidden Figures.  Talk about two different characters!  I've never seen the actor playing Rooster in anything, but he was perfectly cast as Goose's son; the physical resemblance alone wouldn't have been enough, but he clearly did his homework and emulated the way Anthony Edwards moved.

[SlovakPrincess]

Rewatched the original and - while parts of it are certainly outdated and a little goofy - Top Gun really is a tighter, better, more emotionally satisfying script than Maverick.  

BUT ... Maverick did try, and mostly succeed, in recreating the thrill of the flying scenes, the tensions and camaraderie between the pilots, and the overall feel of the franchise.  

As a side note, I had forgotten how incredibly sweaty everyone is throughout the original Top Gun.  

[Taryn74]

Finally watched this on Prime with hubby and our oldest son the other night. I don't think I had even watched a trailer for it, although from the reviews I knew I would eventually get around to watching the movie, LOL. Loved the original as a teen. We ended up making a double feature night out of it, son enjoyed it enough that we rolled directly from this into the original.

Solid movie, though you could really see how today's movies have lost the charm of giving supporting characters a more fleshed out personality, especially watching these two back-to-back. It was obvious that Hangman was supposed to be this movie's Iceman, but we never got even a glimpse into his personality other than Alpha Male Prick Who's An Asshole For No Reason. At least with Iceman we knew that he didn't like Maverick because he thought Maverick was too much of a loose cannon and that would eventually catch up with him and potentially put ALL of them into danger. He wasn't just an asshole for the sake of being an asshole. Hangman, not so much.

I felt like they shoehorned a close friendship with Iceman into this for nostalgia's sake, because he and Maverick really do have clashing personalities, but because of Val Kilmer's real life health struggles I was okay with it. It was nice to see him again. (Son called me a liar when I told him that was the same guy who played Doc Holliday though, ha!) 

Saw some comments upthread that it would have been nice to at least get an update on Charlie. I disagree, I couldn't stand her in the original movie (she seriously had about as much charisma and charm as wet sand) and even in the original it was obvious she and Maverick just had a short-term fling that wasn't going to go anywhere. It would have felt REALLY forced to even bring her up in this one. 

I never would have made a connection between Penny and the briefly mentioned "Admiral's daughter" from the original, so nice catch to whomever pointed that out. Their relationship was handled nicely, I thought. No OTT fireworks, no 'OMG you're the one I should have been with all along, how could I have been so blind!', nothing overdramatic like that. Just two people with a believable on-again, off-again relationship.

Miles Teller was 100% believable as Goose's son, but I just never could get into him, which made me sad as I LOVED Goose. I did LOL at his "You told me not to think!" when Maverick was chewing him out for coming to rescue him. Heh.

A- overall. Good flick, great one by today's standards tbh.

[Moose135]

33 minutes ago, Taryn74 said:

Alpha Male Prick Who's An Asshole For No Reason

As an old Air Force pilot, I can tell you that you just described half the fighter pilot community... 😉

[Taryn74]

1 hour ago, Moose135 said:

As an old Air Force pilot, I can tell you that you just described half the fighter pilot community... 😉

Ha! Okay, fair point. 😅

[Raja]

On 5/25/2023 at 1:43 PM, Taryn74 said:

Solid movie, though you could really see how today's movies have lost the charm of giving supporting characters a more fleshed out personality, especially watching these two back-to-back. It was obvious that Hangman was supposed to be this movie's Iceman, but we never got even a glimpse into his personality other than Alpha Male Prick Who's An Asshole For No Reason. At least with Iceman we knew that he didn't like Maverick because he thought Maverick was too much of a loose cannon and that would eventually catch up with him and potentially put ALL of them into danger. He wasn't just an asshole for the sake of being an asshole. Hangman, not so much.

Having just rewatched the scene where Maverick lost control of his class it does seem like Iceman was the only one who truly believed that they were headed into a suicide mission in an obsolete aircraft.  And he was the only pilot willing to push to the extreme while Rooster was saying his caution made him the only one to reach the target. Until Maverick's against the clock run proved to the others that they and the plane could take it.

If Maverick didn't end up as mission lead you were looking for the perfect balance between Iceman and Rooster