The Reel Rejects - TOP GUN: MAVERICK Movie Review!!

Episode Date: May 26, 2022

Tom Cruise is back for a Top Gun sequel 30+ years in the making!! Featuring a brand-new ensemble of hotshot pilots, Maverick must prepare them for an impossible maneuver and maybe a learn a little, himself, in the process. Featuring some TRULY INCREDIBLE aerial sequences and committed performances all-round, this movie is everything you've been hearing & MORE! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-reel-rejects/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I did cry a couple times. It touched me in multiple ways during scenes and during action scenes. Don't cry. Don't cry until the end when the characters are crying to let us know it's okay to cry in the theater. Not until Alpha cries. The horror comes down from Tom. Then crying's cool, man.

You just look like a chunk. What up, Reject Nation. Greg and John here today. We switch sides. Oh, no. Just got to mix it up on the channel once in a while. We just saw Top Gun Maverick. You guys know me. I love me some Tommy Cruz. There's one thing I know between John and I. I'm definitely a bigger Tom Cruise fan generally yes in fact i would credit you with making me a tom cruise fan and really being my portal my

gateway into the cruise i convert people to tom cruise you do tom cruise converts them into something else guys if you can leave a like that'd be very much appreciated here's the first thing i think we should say you got to watch this in the theaters if you're going to watch this watch it in the theaters on the biggest most clearest screen possible or if you're a reaction channel wait for it to come out on streaming and react to it from your computer get views get someone to shake your seat around sometimes to make it feel more vital, like it's a D-box or something. This was so immersive and transportive. I don't think you would have to have seen the first Top Gun film,

but you'd one million percent appreciate this more if you have seen the first Top Gun movie. There's going to be things that happen in here that just flat out you won't really care that much about unless you've seen the first Top Gun film. And it takes place, like, I don't know, when was it on Top Gun come out, like 88 years ago? Yep. 88 years ago today. What were you? 1986 so like 45 years ago

400 years ago so yeah Maverick is now in his late 70s Maverick is on his deathbed in an aircraft Yeah he just can't quit He's gonna fly into the sun You need to go to the hospital You were dying

Your art is failing and you're gonna crash You're gonna kill innocent people That's what I do And I'm gonna go down the way I lived I'm gonna switch me and call him Tom Cruise and Maverick is he's now going to be the new top gun instructor. Incredibly risky operation they have to do, so they bring in the best to train this new crop

of top of the top pilots to go on this incredibly impossible mission. You know, when I was walking out of this movie, I was thinking, you know, one title you could have called this is Maverick's Top Gun. You know what I mean? Like he wrote and directed it himself. Yeah. You could, because it really is Maverick's movie

and it really is tied into his both, journey since the past movie and his journey past the point where we meet him here. It is as much as it is an ensemble piece in ways like Top Gunn. It is very focused in on the emotional core of Maverick. Yeah, because Maverick in this movie, without giving too much away,

Tom Cruise gives an amazing performance in this film. That's one thing that really dawned on me watching this. It was like, we all know that Tom Cruise loves to commit to the stunts. He loves to commit to learning how to do things he's never learned before in order to bring it to the big screen, but it's not just watching a guy pull off cool action

and stunts. He always brings his A-game with the performances. Like, it seems like the more invested he isn't pulling that realistic, crazy stuff off of. That makes his performance better throughout. There's a lot of just great scenes of him having just dialogue moments, quiet moments, dramatic moments. Sometimes he's like really funny in that sort of dry, unexpected way you don't see from Tom Cruise that often. Like, yeah, I don't forget Tom Cruise can be a pretty funny guy. This movie itself is structurally very similar to the first Top Gun movie. Except for some beats in the finale, like the finale is when, without giving anything away, the finale is when it takes a, like, the finale is awesome.

It expands. It opens up the wings. It's an amazing finale. It's not a repeat of act three of that movie because this film structurally is very similar, yet I would also say that I only saw Top Gun one for the first time a couple months ago. So I'm not like a big fan. I don't have this crazy nostalgia for Top Gun. Watching this, 40 minutes in, I'm like, this movie was way better than the first one.

I mean, don't offend anyone, but I was watching it going, this movie is much better. It just has much more of a heart. I take it really serious. I get really truly invested in the characters. The action is just beyond phenomenal. I've never admired aviation so much, and I've never wanted to not do aviation so much at the same time. It looks so, those shots are there. The G-Force, and I'm blacking out, and I'm like, this just looks like the most horrifying.

Plus, you got lights going off, and you got. things exploding. How many retakes it this in this movie? Because they had these guys really fly. And even though you know they probably weren't flying at exactly the same conditions, it very much convinces you that they are. And they do build a pretty strong ensemble based around that. And I think that's something with this movie.

Like the original Top Gun obviously has it. It has some amazing aerial sequences for the time especially. But this movie uses that to make everything more tangible and more visceral. And then because of that, you appreciate just the value of life that much more. and that bolsters the ensemble of characters, I think. Well, I think the first Top Gun movie, the kind of vibe was bros. Yeah, like, bro rivalry. But because this is from Maverick's perspective now, where he has become the instructor,

one thing I admired about it was it's one of those rare movies where it seems like Tom Cruise is willing to play a character of his age. They actually leaned into that specifically, as opposed to the Mission Impossible films where, I remember watching Ghost Protocol and going, guy's kind of aging. No one's talking about it. Then you watch him here, and you're like, he looks amazing. He looks amazing.

Especially, next to all these young people. Everyone's pointing out, he's old. Yeah, yeah, totally. And, I mean, they use his growth. It has a coming of age quality, even though you do meet Maverick at a point in his life when he is more sage

and has a bit more experience and wisdom on him. It's not this dark. Imagine there was a bunch of Top Gun movies in the 80s, and this was the Logan of the Top Gun films. Just a much more introspective version of this guy. He still has that Maverick ego and cockiness, but much more care and clearly has a lot of pain. What I loved about Tom Cruise's performance was whatever that gap is,

you can feel that Tom Cruise filled all that in, and that's the weight he's carrying in his performance. Before watching this movie, I was mainly expecting to come out of here going, The flight! And that's all amazing, you've heard a billion people say that, but a lot of credit goes to Tom Cruise's amazing performance in this movie. He gives an incredible performance. He brought his 100% A-game in terms of acting,

and it is one of those, you know, it is like a bro cry and a bro-hug movie, but in a very different way from the original. And I like that Tom Cruise is... Older bro, looking after younger bros. Exactly, trying to impart a little knowledge and help the younger bro grow into the best bro he can possibly be. Or she, there are female pilots as well in here.

By a couple, we mean one. It's good character, I liked it. And it gets really emotional, you know, I think I saw you crying. I did cry a couple times. It touched me in multiple ways during scenes and during action scenes. Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry until.

the end when the characters are crying to let us know it's okay to cry in the theater. Yeah. Not until alpha cries. The horror comes down from Tom. Then crying's cool, man. Yeah. You just look like a chunk. There were times I caught myself where I didn't realize I was, I was actually, my fist was clenched for a large portion in so many of the sequences, especially in the finale. Nipple chills. I was really into it and I couldn't believe how intense it was. Now, Jennifer Connolly is a good stand-in for someone pretty to look at it. There is some of that 80s cheese, and I wouldn't say cheese in a bad way. There is some of that 80s pulpy emotionality that I think really suits the movie well and tempers it

because there is a soaring heart swell that I think the original Top Gun does encompass, especially through the music and the motifs of the iconic songs in it, and there is a love story at the core of that, and you have all these big personalities of the pilots, So there is some of that cheese, and I feel like some of that comes in through Jennifer Connolly because it is so kind of idyllic the way that they capture that relationship and that longing. But I want to stress, I feel like it wouldn't be Top Gun without that. It's updated well enough for today that it's not super cheesy and it's not trying to emulate the 80s. It just feels like it's akin to what came before it from the 80s.

I agree. That's a great way to put it. I mean, though, I think Kelly McGinnis was a great character, though, in the first one. See, I felt like Kelly McGillis, and that was in the 80s. I thought she was like a great character. And then here, Jennifer Connolly, while I think Jennifer Connolly and Tom Cruise have just a natural great chemistry because clearly their charisma bounces off of each other. I found myself going, why is she like, I don't like, I don't understand what her character is.

She's just idyllic dream girl. She really is. It starts becoming like tone poem for her. It really does. What is this performance of her watch here? She's teaching him stuff and she runs her own bar and things and it's all idealic. I forget about you. They try to implement that thing of.

I might not come back alive. Like, I forgot you existed. She's out of a sunswept montage set to saxophone music a little bit, but it does add, again, like a nice element of heart. Even though she's not as much of a character. And you can levy that as a gripe because Kelly McGill is like, it's an actual character in a different way. The most that Jennifer Connolly's character gets is just like,

don't break my heart again. A lot of smiling. The one who surprised me is Miles Teller. He plays Goose's son, goose's son who's called Rooster. What? Yeah. There's a theme. I have a weird relationship with Miles Teller.

Every time I watch Miles Teller in a movie, my first thought for like the first 10 minutes on screen is, I bet this guy's a real prick like that in real, that's where I go. My mind just goes, I hate this guy. He's just such a snobbed. And then almost every movie I watch him in, that's my first reaction. And then I'm like, you know, this guy's a pretty damn good actor. This guy's a great. Miles Teller, always winning me over.

In any movie Miles Teller, my mind just works that way with him. He especially, at first, you know, it's like, it's been reveal that he plays Goose's son. I started thinking, like, nah, it was whatever. Halfway through, like, it was whatever. But in the last half, he does some great stuff. He's a, he becomes like a really strong character and a big heart. So, yeah, guys, it's a really strong recommendation for Top Gunn Maverick. Beautifully shot, wonderfully acted, no action movie like it other than the first Top Gun.

That movie made Tom Cruise famous. This is Tom Cruise with power, and here's how he was going to produce this into a victory lap. This is like practical effects. It's insane how they pulled this off. This is one of those movies. As I was watching it, I was going, I want to see the making of. This looks absolutely terrifying to put your actors through. This had a big bleeding heart.

It had incredible action sequences, a great Tom Cruise performance, a great ensemble, and it checked all the boxes I personally would want out of a Top Gun movie while also elevating that, honoring it in a way that's not obnoxious. I would absolutely recommend seeing this on the best possible screen. All right, guys, we will see you all soon. Thank you.