Grove City Messenger - June 12th, 2022

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June 12, 2022 - GROVE CITY MESSENGER - PAGE 11
In Entertainment
“Top Gun: Maverick” soars with nostalgia
When Paramount Pictures announced
they had greenlit a sequel to the 1986 aviation-action
classic “Top Gun,” my initial
reaction came with a full-bodied shudder of
terror — one that would make any Academy
Award-winning actor envious of my dramatic
capabilities.
Like most humans in this world, I do not
spend enough time working on my mental
health, but that one thing I have (semi)
successfully accomplished throughout the
last two-and-a-half decades was suppressing
traumatic childhood memories related
to forced viewings and inescapable listening
parties to the movie so named above.
Needless to say, but this news unleashed a
cascade of horrible memories: I immediately
hated “Top Gun: Maverick” on principle
alone.
You see, my late father loved “Top Gun”
to the point of driving everyone in the
household nuts with his obsession. It
seemed like it was always being rented at
the video store, always on when it hit the
basic cable channels, and its soundtrack
was certainly blasted on a loop whenever
he would go into the basement to exercise.
(He refused to put on the headphones, stating
the wires got in the way of the
NordicTrack skis or the treadmill belt.
Note: He was totally lying.)
While this may seem like a cute collection
of little stories, ask yourself these
questions: If you had to watch the same
movie over and over again — regardless of
the wonderful and iconic beach volleyball
scene therein — wouldn’t you be a little
miffed by having these memories unlawfully
dredged up by a movie studio looking for
nostalgic-induced cash? And if you had to
listen to the instrumental anthem, and the
songs “Danger Zone,” “Playing with the
Boys” and “Take My Breath Away” (the
regulated cool down tune) every day for
months on end, wouldn’t you feel a little
peeved by the revival of the film that
caused so much childhood angst?
From the jump, I was completely committed
to ignoring the existence of this film
and I would not be swayed from my path
despite the use of advanced technology to
bring the audience into the cockpit of an
F/A-18 Hornet, or by the fact that Tom
Cruise and his charming smile would be
reprising his role as the cocky and reckless
fighter pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, or
by the assurance that Kenny Loggins and
his catchy torture music would be limited
on the new soundtrack.
Naturally, I found myself having to go
see it and, against my better judgement,
was completely blown away by the spectacle
and the story within. Had my father
been alive to see my reaction to this film,
he would have laughed just as loudly as the
soundtrack he played ad nauseum in the
basement.
What makes “Top Gun: Maverick” work
so well is that it fine-tunes the best elements
in Tony Scott’s original movie and
applies them to today’s modern audience.
The result is a film that is saturated with
the latest technological advances that put
you right in the skies with the pilots on
their missions, but it is also infused with
enough humor, drama, and heart to make
it emotionally rich and engaging as well.
When the film opens, we are re-introduced
to our titular call sign character
(Cruise), who may be older but is not exactly
wiser as he continually pushes boundaries
and ticks off admirals with the same
unrepentant attitude he had back in his
heyday. For the past several decades, he
has been working as a test pilot for the next
generation of fighter jets, trying his best to
stay under the radar with his personality
while simultaneously trying to elevate the
importance of these programs when he
learns they are in line to be scrapped for
unmanned drones.
After a test in front of another admiral
goes terribly wrong (well, technically, it
The Reel Deal
Dedra Cordle
went right until
Maverick decided to
push the fighter to
its breaking speed)
and he is braced for
a swift firing, his
bacon is saved by his
old friend Tom
“Iceman” Kazansky, now the Commander
of the Pacific Fleet. Maverick’s new mission:
to train a cohort of young aviators for
a top-secret assignment that combines a
number of precision skills that Maverick
possesses. It is made abundantly clear he is
not to lead the dangerous mission himself,
but only determine who will be chosen to
undertake the life-endangering task.
Among the candidates for the mission
are a mirror image in Hangman (Glen
Powell), the studious Phoenix (Monica
Barbaro) and her second-seater Bob (Lewis
Pullman), a semi-brash Payback (Jay Ellis)
and overly eager Fanboy (Danny Ramirez).
There is also Rooster (Miles Teller), the
grown-up son of Maverick’s late friend
Goose (played in the original by Anthony
See TOP GUN page 12
I’M JUST LIKE YOU!
I work hard here. I play here. I live here.
Michelle Marie REALTOR®
Call Michelle today at 614-270-9909
mmrealtor4u@gmail.com michellemarie-realtor.com