These days, that\u2019s practically the message of any Tom Cruise movie. The man has been on a mission \u2014 no pun intended \u2014 to make movies where wisdom, ingenuity, and years of experience are more essential than any newfangled, technologically advanced bullshit that\u2019s out there. (This is true both behind and<\/em> in front of the camera, as Cruise prides himself on starring in films where CGI effects are usually frowned upon.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Much like how he turned the Mission: Impossible<\/em> franchise into a continuous, death-defying spectacle, where he makes sure you see him doing stunts he could\u2019ve easily gotten a stand-in to do, Maverick<\/em> has him fully immersing himself in authentic action. He steps back into the flight gear of cocksure Navy pilot (now Captain) Pete \u201cMaverick\u201d Mitchell, a man whose outlaw, old-school ways his superiors constantly remind him are out-of-date. \u201cThe future is coming, and you are not in it,\u201d a rear admiral (a brief but effective Ed Harris) tells him before he\u2019s shipped back to the TOPGUN program. Now, he\u2019s the one teaching a bunch of young, hotshot pilots how to successfully fly into a mission, set off an attack, and come back in one piece. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This Top Gun<\/em> is far less powered by hunky, high-speed hubris than the last Top Gun<\/em>. The original was all dick-swinging swagger, as superproducers Don Simpson (R.I.P.) and Jerry Bruckheimer recruited director Tony Scott (R.I.P. again) to make a jingoistic recruitment ad posing as a slick-ass, brotastic popcorn flick<\/a>, complete with a homoerotic subtext that Quentin Tarantino famously called out while ad-libbing in a \u201890s indie film<\/a>. (Tarantino wasn\u2019t the first to recognize it; Pauline Kael called the movie a \u201cshiny homoerotic commercial\u201d in her review.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Maverick<\/em>, both Cruise and his character are working towards the same goal: to atone for past mistakes by rounding up some fresh faces and leading them in putting on one helluva show in the sky. This time around, the \u201cbest of the best\u201d is a more inclusive, multicultural crew, including spunky bombshell Monica Barbaro, Insecure<\/em> castmate Jay Ellis, and Lewis Pullman (yes, Bill\u2019s kid!). We also have Miles Teller, sporting a mustache and a chip on his shoulder as the son of Maverick\u2019s late co-pilot buddy Goose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a script assembled by a team of scribes (including summer-movie vet Ehren Kruger and frequent Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie) and a director (Joseph Kosinski, who directed Cruise in Oblivion<\/em>) that\u2019s basically there to make sure no one dies, Maverick<\/em> is another Cruise production that keeps you riveted in a practical, pragmatic manner. You can see Cruise and the cast literally flying the friendly skies, captured (mostly by IMAX cameras) in all its awe-inspiring glory. There\u2019s none of that green-screen shit popping off here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thankfully, the story is just as engrossing on the ground as it is in the air, and Cruise gets the chance to do some vulnerable acting when he\u2019s on land. The screenwriters lean into how Cruise\u2019s lone-wolf pilot has become one lonely sumabitch; his friends are either dead or on the verge of dying, and that includes one-time rival Iceman (Val Kilmer), now an admiral with health issues. (There is something poignant about watching former matinee idols \u2014 and Cher exes \u2014 Cruise and Kilmer, who has battled throat cancer, meet up for a brief heart-to-heart in their one scene together.) His days of having steamy dalliances \u2014 like the one he had with Kelly McGillis\u2019s older instructor in the last movie (which gets absolutely no mention here) \u2014 are also long gone. The closest he gets to romance is an on-again, off-again thing with Jennifer Connelly\u2019s age-appropriate, single-mom bar owner, who is also around to throw a lot of exposition out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, both Cruise\u2019s cowboy flyboy and his pupils realize that \u2014 if I may be clich\u00e9d as hell for a brief moment \u2014 team work does, in fact, make the dream work, especially when things get complicated in the charged but surprisingly comical third act. In its own energetic, entertaining way, Top Gun: Maverick<\/em> reminds audiences, both young and old, how much shit we can knock out if we stop dismissing each other and just get together.\u00a0 “Top Gun: Maverick” is in theaters Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/top-gun2-1024x576.jpg\")
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