It's still a beautiful looking movie

“Top Gun” is the movie that made Tom Cruise an action hero; a preface to a Lifetime Achievement Award montage that will count dimples and intense running as it’s best atributes.

Here he plays Maverick (real name not important). He’s chosen to an elite Navy fighter pilot school where he finds rivalry with Val Kilmer’s Iceman (real name also not important) and love with an instructor (Kelly McGillis).

Now for the interesting part. This movie has some of the best aerial sequences ever put to film. Maverick’s hot shot air maneuvers are tricky and death-defying and check all the boxes for all out excitement, and what makes them even better is that we can really picture the actors playing pilots in these situations making decisions and experiencing the moments.

This is a Jerry Bruckheimer movie in every sense of the word, and for director Tony Scott, it became a sure-fire example of how he was one of the better students of the formula. This is a movie that looks seductive not just in the power and speed of a fighter jet but also in the beautiful horizon backdrops.

On the ground, do you think I remember anything Cruise and McGillis actually say to each other? Nope. But they have a sex scene that looks like a perfume ad. Does a volleyball game between Cruise and Kilmer mean anything? Nope. But if you didn’t feel the homoeroticism between them before, you will now. This isn’t rewatchable because it’s great. It’s rewatchable because it hits all the bases of sexy, Cruise’s cocky renegade who lives by his own rules and a mega-watt smile chief among.

Characters played by Anthony Edwards, Meg Ryan, and Tom Skeritt are well-played but there only to serve plot conventions and no conflict is ever so serious as to detract from what is a beautiful, dumb movie that has an awesome soundtrack.

**Part of a series i'm doing on 1986 in film, part of a larger review/ranking series on the 80's.

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