I spent most of my K-12 years heavily committed to school and dancing, which significantly limited my ability to watch a lot of movies. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does elicit a lot of "What do you mean you haven't seen The Godfather?" and "You haven't lived if you haven't seen Mission: Impossible." "OMG..." *Commence exclusive talk about when he said yadda yadda and then the big plot twister where blankity blank happens.*
Well, one of those movies that has come up a lot is Top Gun, so today I donned my wings, feathered my bangs, got my wingman (Mark!) and watched it.
- I do love that Tom Cruise is seemingly cool and not all Scientology-ed out, saturated in boyish charm, and, well, a Maverick.
- I loved all the fighter pilot scenes because those guys are certifiable badasses.
- I especially loved Kenny Loggins rocking out throughout, to the obvious, Danger Zone, but even more, the ever-so-slightly homoerotic scene where the fighter pilots are playing beach volleyball to the tune of "Playing with the Boys."
- I'm glad I got to see what all the fuss was about with "Take My Breath Away."
But with all these pluses, I can't say that I loved it as much as I hoped I would. I guess I was taken away by all the fuss and didn't get that "O-M-G" moment. Hype gets the best of me. It always has.
I am still confused about a couple things though. How on earth did they get all of that film of them in those fighter jets? Did the U.S. Navy just send over a billion dollars worth of air equipment for these guys to play with? Okay, so I know that the actors weren't flying, but that must have been a big deal to arrange those kinds of props right?
And why were the men so sweaty? I couldn't tell at some points whether they were sweating or crying. You have to know why this was confusing to me.
Overall, I would probably watch it again for awesome '80's cheesiness and top-notch action scenes. But what I will watch over and over and over and over again is the "Danger Zone" music video I found in Bonus Features. It was better than the whole movie to me. I can't get enough of Kenny Loggins laying on white sheets, staring blankly into the camera while fighter jets explode in the background. Watch this and live.
I feel I must point out to the readers that Leah fully did not believe that Goose really died. After the multiple "Aw, everyone is sad....maverick is going to quit....tom cruise serious face scenes" Leah still did not believe. I think she may have finally bought it when the end credits started rolling.
ReplyDeleteI think it was my post-yoga class endorphins that rendered me unwilling to believe that the lovable sidekick DIED. That's heavy! Perhaps that's where the drama was lost.
ReplyDeleteREWATCH TIME!
Who's in?
Leah,
ReplyDeleteThe scenes with jets were a combination of stock footage from training flights and a cockpit simulator made for the film. The actors trained with real fighter pilots in real planes but didn't shoot that for the film. And they're sweaty cuz they're bad asses and it's southern California.
Matt, thanks so much for letting me know how they filmed that! I can't believe they had that much stock footage of training flights...I actually said to Mark "surely this isn't all stock footage, right." Amazing.
ReplyDeleteI could watch those all day. And how much of a BA would you feel like training with real fighter pilots??!