Top Gun: Maverick – Has It All!

Tom Cruise is a Scientologist who is anti-psychiatry, but I love the guy anyway.  He's a very under-rated actor who has starred in some of my favorite films, including "Risky Business" (1983), "Top Gun" (1986), "Rain Man" (1988), "Jerry Maguire" (1996), and the film that has been, up until now, my favorite Cruise movie of them all: "The Last Samurai" (2003).  This is not even including the terrific "Mission: Impossible" franchise. "Top Gun" is an iconic film, and it took immense balls to make a sequel 36 years later and "top" it, too!  I am giving it a 9.0 because I don't recall ever seeing an action movie that l liked better and was more fun than this one.  It needs to be seen on the B.S., not only for the great jet fighting sequences, but also for the soundtrack.  (It's worth the trip to hear the jets going faster than Mach 8, obliterating the sound barrier!)  It's not just a MUST-SEE – it's also a MUST-HEAR!  The movie is a hybrid between "Top-Gun," "Mission: Impossible," and "Star Wars."  Robin and I watched the original "Top Gun" the day before we saw this in order to to refresh our memory.  I'd recommend doing this because there are subtle and not-so-subtle references to the original film that you won't necessarily pick up otherwise.  Unlike in "Top Gun," Cruise's love interest in this film is Jennifer Connelly (as Penny) rather than Kelly Mcgillis.   Miles Teller (as Lt. Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw) is also terrific. Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell is still in the Navy Aircorp, but has remained only a Captain, despite his distinguished service and amazing pilot exploits, primarily due to his frequent insubordination.  Almost kicked out of the Navy for good, "Maverick" is given the assignment to teach the best "Top Gun" pilots, in only a few weeks, how to fly into an enemy country's territory and take out a nuclear plant which is about to go on-line. Supervising Maverick, however, is Vice Admiral Cyclone (Jon Hamm): a "go by the book," low-risk-taking man, the antithesis of "Maverick."  Whereas "Maverick" doesn't merely push "the envelope," but rather rips it to shreds, Cyclone won't even look at it!  Cyclone's plan is to take out the facility, but no pilot will make it back alive.  Maverick's plan is riskier and demands more from the pilots, but it at least has the possibility of bringing them back alive.  It's a "Mission: Impossible" for the pilots, and the way they have to take out the nuclear plant is very similar to what the resistance had to do to destroy the "Death Star" in "Star Wars!" Prediction: "Top Gun: Maverick" will easily be the best of the summer blockbusters.  Cruise is a "Macher" at making great action movies!