Top Gun: Maverick turns serious grown men into fangirls – not bad for a movie that reflects a movie loved by women.
Something big is happening. You feel it in the atmosphere. We’re on the highway to the danger zone.
You may have even heard it – probably talking to colleagues at the office Zip Tap.
Everyone is talking about the new Top Gun movie.
Tom Cruise’s latest blockbuster reduces respectable adults to teenage fangirls.
The film has grossed over $1 billion worldwide — and over $64 million locally. Pretty good for a movie actually Bring it on for grown men.
Okay, that’s not quite correct. It is also Bring it on for mature women.
Even with the power, jets, and action sequences, it’s essentially just a retelling of the classic Y2K cheerleading movie that made Kirsten Dunst famous.
In Top Gun: MaverickTom Cruise is Bring it on Torrance. Brave, confident. Thinks he knows everything.
The hot fighter pilots Tom has to wrangle with are the rest of the cheer squad – sassy and snark with reactionary asides.
Can’t keep up with this analogy? You should be ashamed. Bring it on is going to the cinema what? The Great Gatsby is for literature. Learn your canon.
Both movies have the same basic setup: a bunch of people who hate each other are gathered to achieve an ultimate mission. But to succeed in that mission, they must learn to put their differences aside and work together.
And how do they do this? By playing shirtless on the beach, of course. Fine, that’s not right either. In Bring it onthe team bonded while donning a sexy bikini car wash.
Either way, it’s recognizable. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been dragged into HR for trying to sort out my disagreements with a sassy co-worker by taking off his shirt and forcing him to frolic with me as the sun sets.
After the line-up of both films has been determined, fun and play follow. There is a little romance that begins and ends within the space of about three scenes. It is satisfying nonetheless. A mix of passion and slapstick. Lots of grins and cheeky looks.
By the time the credits are done, the enemies have become friends and the mission is accomplished.
Top Gun: Maverick – a sequel to the 1986 original that turned Tom Cruise into a bona fide movie star – is a film that proudly harkens back to the era in which it originated, a time when movies could just be fun.
This is a movie that relies on charisma and a great soundtrack. It’s basically a two hour video clip. And that’s not an insult.
It’s a movie that will be rewatched not just for years, but decades. Even now that the film is still in theaters, superfans are queuing up to see it one more time.
Readers, meet Case Study 1. Case Study 1 is an acquaintance that will remain nameless to preserve its dignity.
Case Study 1 likes Top Gun† They’ve watched the original countless times. And when the sequel was released a few weeks ago, they saw it right away. Then they saw it again. The next morning, they were blatantly gushing about it non-stop around the Zip Tap office.
“I even listen to the soundtrack as I walk around,” they admitted, before mimicking a superhero pose. “I play the theme song as I walk into the gym.”
Case Study 1 does not stand alone.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Case Study 2.
“Tom Cruise’s boyish charm is alive and well,” Case Study 2 said. “He flashes his pearly whites at the camera and your heart melts — and you’re like, ‘There he is — the man he was before everything went crazy.’ “
But some of us find it hard to ever see Tom Cruise get past those years when everything went crazy. There was only one thing to do: join Case Study 1 as they attended their third screening of Top Gun: Maverick†
The line wound along the escalators from the cinema to the sidewalk. Everyone was there for it Top Gun† Multiple theaters were assigned to show it simultaneously.
Before arriving, Case Study 1 sent an unsolicited text briefing detailing key points about the first 1986 film. The text read like a mission assigned to Maverick himself.
During the film, Case Study 1 kept watching to see if my facial reactions expressed an appropriate degree of awe.
At the last scene, Case Study 1 was in tears – just like the first two times they watched the movie.
Me? Not so much.
But on the way home I did listen to the soundtrack.
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