Top Gun and Maverick are both extremely Anime-ass movies, when you think about it. I've long been wanting to edit together anime-style opening credits theme, set to one of the songs from Gundam Wing lol

It's great right up until the moment you realize the Navy could simply have lobbed a cruise missile into that crater and achieved the same victory with no risk of pilots' lives. IRL they've hit smaller, harder-to-hit targets under far more adverse conditions. MAVERICK's whole mission was absurd.

But it was fun ☝️😁

But they lob a cruise missile into that crater. His name is Tom, he was the main character and he flew the missile in himself. Did we even watch the same movie?

it’s a movie

Your life is great right up until you can't enjoy movies anymore

I enjoy plenty of movies. I just tend to enjoy stupidly written ones less than others.

The whole thing has that feel, from the trench run to the F18 / 5th gen fighter dog fight to Hangman doing his best Han Solo impression to save Maverick / Rooster

Which is The Dam Busters raid! (Movies had same cinematographer!)

A bit more on this: www.slashfilm.com/557980/dam-b...

You could recreate a lot of the first Star Wars just from scenes from this, The Searchers, Hidden Fortress, and for some reason Triumph of the Will

There's a fan theory that he dies early, and the rest of the movie is his fading consciousness projecting how he wanted his life to go.

Wait - he died in the accident with Goose and this whole movie is some Jacob’s Ladder shit? Woah

It's so shamelessly Just That that I can't help but respect it. Like, yeah, the Death Star Trench Run whips, let's do that but with F-18s in Specifically Nonspecific Adversarial Nation That Is Both Russia and Iran. Sold in the room.

It’s Iran, Iran is the country we sold F-14s to in the 70s. They’re all broken because they couldn’t order parts from the US after 1979. It’s insane to me that this isn’t brought up as part of the “faceless enemy” pro-Top Gun discourse.

I'm well aware of Iran's F-14s. It is very clearly supposed to be a nonspecific composite enemy to avoid pissing any real people off. This is why I mentioned Iran. The nuclear program is also a tell, it was clearly front of mind. The country in the movie also has an arctic climate and Russian jets.

Iran’s got Russian jets. Also Chinese copies of Russian jets. Also some French jets, and of course Tomcats and Phantoms. Some of which allegedly can still fly, thanks to cannibalization of parts and homegrown mods.

Like... yes? I'm sorry, I fail to see why this needs to be an argument. I've already said the enemy country in this movie was clearly inspired to a large degree by Iran - and yet is very deliberately not identified as such in any way.

It’s not an argument. It’s a fun movie but clearly some aspects were based on real things. Like needing an air cart to start the engines of an f-14.

I googled "are 5th generation fighters a thing?"

Yep, they are! The ones in the movie are (computer-generated) Russian Su-57s.

Interesting, when it hit the fan at That Part, I turned to my wife and said, “Sorry North Korea”

Oh to be clear, it's also North Korea. They just made the enemy country the Omni-Villain complete with pilot suits that totally obscure their pilots, inscrutable geography, and a flag that's just some calvinball bullshit

It is kind of the representative case for that thing about how movies in the 80s, when the directors were all young guns, were about the young guns showing up the old bulls, and now that the directors are all old bulls all the movies are about the old bulls showing the young guns how it's done lol

This is also my pitch for a potential Rogue Squadron movie but with old Wedge Antilles and Norra Wexley. We need to just keep swapping this sequence back and forth forever

They get the proportion of nostalgia just right. I’ll admit to some dust in my eye when Iceman died.

I was so delighted that the audacity of how much it was the Death Star trench run turned out to be perfect camouflage for a false climax that brought about the gift audiences really wanted but didn't think could be earned in the plot - Maverick back in an F-14.

jennifer connelly is insanely good looking. it’s unreal.

I had the same reaction back when I first saw her-it was almost distracting.

Did not realize she was in that movie.

How did you not realize that? She's a leading role

I do not know what all she's doing but whatever it is, it's been working for 40 years and counting

Evergreen post

oh it's a *new* top gun, no wonder i didn't remember jennifer connelly being in it

she has gotten more beautiful the older she's gotten and she started at top 1%. I'm sure it has nothing to do with my aging along with her or anything, but....absolutely beautiful woman.

Hat Trick of completely couldn’t-be-more-true statements.

I can’t watch Cruise. Except in Magnolia. Amazing.

that whole film it was like blinking back to the 90s, “oh this is what a top tier Hollywood blockbuster is supposed to be like”

right? the whole thing is a reminder that these things don’t have to be slop

I love (sincerely) that it's a legacy sequel populated with young characters to potentially pass a franchise torch to, and Cruise just says "nope, movie's still gonna be entirely about me!"

They slid her into the movie so deftly that I felt like I'd missed the movie in-between about that relationship.

I’ve been in love with her since I was a kid and my dad bought us a copy of Labyrinth.

real testament to val kilmer’s (RIP) talents that even with everything he still gives an incredible performance in this movie

Dammit Jamelle, I have my Friday night movie picked. Don't make me call an audible, man!

Agreed. Credit should also be given to the firm who created a super-realistic voice simulator for him after he lost his voice.

Came here too add the same. AI acting!

honestly the thing that makes this movie work is that cruise and connelly are bona fide movie stars. you can fill a screen with connelly’s face and it is the best special effect in the film.

Jamelle, I’m sure you’ve shared before, but is Edge of Tomorrow not the perfect action movie?

She is gorgeous!!

I hope she sees that comment! it made me feel good just reading it.

I honestly think Connelly is genius casting in this movie, as every single male 18-65 (and quite a few other people, besides) instantly falls in love with Penny Benjamin.

Unfortunately, Ang Lee took that to heart back in 2003. At least 1/4 of “The Hulk” is tight closeups of her face. At least, it felt that way.

Love her.

It's barely changed in like, 40 years

the fact that they did an actual carrier launch for this movie and filmed it from inside the cockpit is absolutely insane

Tom Cruise demands realism

The aerial cinematography is on a whole other level.

While not a Top Gun Pilot, I may have ended up being one if things had worked out differently. I was born with 10% vision and always regretted not being able to become a pilot. A few years ago I started putting racing drone cameras on the toy RC planes I was flying so I built a plane that I can fly!

Here are images of the plane I flew in that video. The cheap goggles I use have a small LCD screen that works quite well with my low vision. The motors on the wing also turn the plane by changing speed on one side or the other. I 𝘥𝘰 plan on building a scale aircraft carrier to take off and land on!🧑‍✈️

i like to think of this as the closest we have to an actual ACE COMBAT movie

yeah :)

Ace combat reference detected

Don’t ever watch it with an actual pilot or Air Force guy in the room. They will ruin it for you. (They’ll love it too but ruin the flying stuff)

They even did promotional content for it in AC7 lmao

Where's the Iron Eagle love?! And II... and III...

I like to think of this as Hollywood making a multi-million dollar in-kind contribution to nationalist war-mongering.

this stuff is so tedious

Well, in one skeet you lament the military occupation of DC. In the next, you laud Top Gun. Pick a lane.

The Darkstar broke Ace Combat 7's multiplayer though. Thing was just unkillable unless you were great with the railgun

What country do you think they carried out the bombing in? There are a few theories.

Is it too much to ask to see a jet fly through a long tunnel on the big screen?

Since it's the same plot as AC7, yep

Do NOT tease the idea of an AC movie....

oh check you out

... so when will it come out in VR?

youtu.be/MGIPa9s1HDg?...

@mewtype.online

I want a new Ace Combat!

They even did a collaboration with Ace Combat 7!

It's a diorect rip off of Star Wars. the entire trench run is directly lifted from it.

You like Star Wars??? Don't you know that was just a rip off of Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and Kurosawa films??? You are so LAMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

You feeling alright?

yeah man, we have already discussed this in the thread, catch up

Also, if you're gonna steal from another movie, might as well steal from one of the greatest.

FIREFOX (1982) nods grudgingly, but it got it's own video game back then.

I do want to know the Ace Combat codes to unlock the double footbal on beach mode and motorcycle simulator content.

The bombing mission at the end is straight out of an Ace Combat scenario. Pretty sure they adapted it into an add on mission for the most recent game

As a massive Ace Combat fan, I don't think I even blinked when I watched TGM because I loved it so damn much

-What country are we fighting. -They have 5th generation jets -Ok, that doesn’t… -5th generation jets

Guy in charge of scripting gladiatorial combats in the late Roman Empire switching the enemies from Parthians to Goths to Germans before just scrapping it and making it non-specific but real badass looking

Oh I get it. It’s just funny they wouldn’t a country. But then again, they didn’t say a country in the original top gun either

You should check out Growler Jams on YouTube. He a carrier aviator who not only shoots GoPro videos but he explains things, with wit. youtu.be/LOtfdVoA89s

Yeah, Bruckheimer doesn’t mess around. Did you see F1? They built their own race cars and also developed their own compact, lightweight cinematic quality camera that could work inside the cockpit.

So funny. The only movie he’s done where I liked his work was Born on the 4th of July. Everything else he seems to me to play the same character.

Asked some hornet pilot buddies about the flight accuracy- they said basically they nailed it. Could be more complex to be accurate but would only make the cockpit dialogue unintelligible

SloMo of the guard shack

Yeah, Kevin LaRosa Jr. is just in a class of his own. Incredible footage they got there.

My favorite detail is the whole attack plan that forms the core of the movie was driven by the fact that Cruise insisted on being in an actual jet, neither the Navy nor the insurer would let him go solo in an F-35, which doesn't have a two seater variant, so they wrote him into an older F/A-18E.

I can't remember if it was right before or after seeing the movie, but I was on Twitter and ran across somebody just stoked for Maverick. Because he was a former naval aviator himself. Dr. Buzz Aldrin When THAT GUY is stoked about a flight movie? You nailed it.

If they make a third film I'm going to have to wait for that one to stream. Can't directly put money in Paramount's pocket.

Cruise is also the only guy who could have sold the wildly implausible final act. Anyone else, it would have been ridiculous. But it's Tom Cruise, we've seen him do stuff like that most years of our lives.

I love how it's the best part of Star Wars stretched out to like an hour. I know that came from dam busters so it's full circle. When they say the target is really small, you know Tom Cruise wants to say 2 meters isn't shit & he used to bullseye whomprats.

Yeah it's weird to act like a 1940s reviewer and say "I don't know what IT is, but she's got IT" but it 100% happened while I was watching the movie. The long shot of her sailing is enthralling for no other reason than she is filling the screen

I always remember Jennifer Connelly singing in Dark City

I gotta watch that again. I had it on VHS and haven't seen it since my VCR kicked the bucket but I remember really liking it

Same. It’s been years since I’ve seen it.

Jennifer Connolly is just stunning, isn't she?

Absolutely

Just watched it during a flight today. If only it didn’t have Miles Teller.

It's underrated as a "men talk about their feelings" movie and the scenes with the two of them are all about that. So much of why those scenes work so well is Connelly and how compelling she is even when she's just listening--being magnetic when you're just listening makes someone a movie star

Appreciate you! You lost me at cruise. I cannot watch him without thinking it’s Cruise trying to pretend he someone else and ruining an entire movie. So many movies I wanna love, but he distracts .

Funny, how filmable charisma works

he's dangerously crazy but tom cruise found what he was put on earth to do and he gives it every ounce of his being

He probably took 6 months of sailing lessons for that one scene, and fucking good on him for that.

i think more than 50% of the success of the MI films is just wanting to see what absolutely insane shit he has decided to attempt solely to entertain people

And we all benefit from that

He steals the show in a lot of movies. At some point point it becomes undeniable that Cruise, despite being weird and kinda icky, is an exceptionally talented actor.

i think it's impossible to separate the weird and icky from the talent they flow from the same place just have to accept that sometimes the art and the artist are best considered separate from each other

I remember Anne Rice was publicly skeptical by the selection of Cruise to play her favorite character, the vampire Lestat, but that she ended so blown away by his embodiment of her character that she basically went on an apology tour to praise his performance.

he definitely got the brat prince part down pat

I could look at close ups of Jennifer Connelly all day.

I assume Jennifer Connelly did a fine acting job as well? I haven't seen it yet.

I just don’t get it. I thought everyone, but Cruise, knew this project was a goof and played it just to the point of satire. It was giving me The Crows Have Eyes 3: The Crowening energy.

Miles Teller is also the very archetype of the undersung Annoyed Man

Connelly has a legitimate argument as the most beautiful person of all-time. She's transfixing.

I really loved he got to be in that movie.

And inspires the most raw emotion from Tom Cruise…maybe ever?

It’s the first time he’s tried to act in like 20 years and actually crushes it

Took me a while- did you figure out who Ice's wife was?

If we have to age, may we all age as well as she has. It's nuts.

Rocketeer, man.

She's HOT in that movie.

I don't even know if I've seen Career Opportunities, but I sure as hell remember this scene being used to promote it

And the Flock of Seagulls song!

I was *astonished* when Disney offered the part of the Evil Queen in Snow White to Gal Gadot when "plausible contender for fairest one of all" is *right there*

and she can actually you know, say lines and act like a human being in a movie on top of it all.

They really chickened out on the sex scene in this movie

Ah, well

Isn’t she? I always thought she was the most beautiful..go back to “Labyrinth” and “Dark City”… wowser. Also “Rocketeer”!

She's a space alien. Only explanation.

Deal with the devil?

Unconstitutional.

Right??!!

Lukewarm take: Her character in Maverick is among the most attractive characters in movies, ever - not just her looks (which are remarkable), but the character’s vibe, business, being…all of it. Maybe THE most attractive. Maybe.

Everyone in Maverick is somehow the hottest human to have ever lived

Someone might be getting in his cups. 😏

Always has been

And in Snowpiercer imho

m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt9F...

people have been saying this forEVER

Best eyebrows ever.

Fave obscure yet wildly significant experiment ever: manipulating *only* eyebrow fullness and *length* (toward the temple) 🟰 higher attractiveness rating of woman in the pic 🤯 That’s why smart ladies use their Latisse on brows, not lashes 😎

It’s not an irrational finding btw (handful of evolution & aging signals) — but the *sufficiency* of this single feature is quite startling

Rogaine works on brows. And I think it might be cheaper.

Yah it is. But the generic lattice (a glaucoma eye drop — bimatoprost ophthalmic solution) is cheapest of all 😎 In fact they discovered it grew lashes when glaucoma patients started sporting night-beaters 😅. Whereupon drug grabbed up, renamed, FDA “label/off-label” rigged, and …. Voila ! 💰💸🤑

An all time babe

Yes

hi everyone I heard we were talking about looking at Jennifer Connelly in Maverick, I got here as soon as I could

If I were an entertainment reporter, and I got to have an interview, even briefly, with Paul Bettany, I would just spend that time talking with him about Jennifer Connelly, and I wouldn’t feel bad about it. No shade on Paul Bettany, but she’s the Dr Manhattan of hot actresses.

I was watching Dark City the other day and hot damn

the Rocketeer and Career Opportunities were my introduction been in love for nearly 35 years

The Hulk!

Her and Rufus Sewell 🫠

he would have been the *perfect* Duncan Idaho

He should have been in more stuff god damn it

Connelly, Rufus Sewell, Clive Owen…dreamy greens.

rufus sewell is aging like a fine wine

💯

What sort of mental whiplash do you get going from Top Gun to “the administration is going to wrongfully deport a guy to Uganda out of spite”?

thats right

Teenage me nods in agreement

She and Amy Jo Johnson were my formative crushes

A discussion point every time me and the elder millennial boys congregate.

With that Porsche.

Trench run, but make it a feature length Lockheed Martin advertisement

You say Star Wars but the whole time I was thinking he made another Mission: Impossible.

The scene where he goes rogue to prove the trench run can be done was edge-of-my-seat gripping.

My headcanon for that movie is that that the unnamed “enemy” nation they are up against is Canada: cold, mountainous, modern military, and doing things in violation of “NATO treaties”

Ultimate Gen X power fantasy

My take was that the whole first two thirds of the movie is essentially one long build-up to “You told me not to think!” One line that is absolutely perfect in That Exact Moment

down to the 1.5 meter exhaust port

Obi Wan feels bad about Luke’s father and will sacrifice himself, then come back from the dead, to do whatever it takes to get him home safely

With an unnamed nation!!!

All it needed was a reference to womp rats. 🤣

I watched it last night. You're right and I was wrong! they say it's 3 meters wide. The rest of the stuff my son and I just imagined the first time we watched it.

OMG. I can’t believe you actually watched it again (whether by coincidence or to check that scene). Thanks for confirming. It’s easy to see how your brain would have added more specific parallels, though. The script wasn’t at all subtle about the Death Star reference.

I was going to watch it anyways. My wife is out of town and my son and I are watching movies she would be fine missing. I think we'll see Crimson Tide or Enemy at the Gates tonight.

I think it has it. There's a part beforehand where they're saying it's impossible to hit it's so small and he says something extremely whomp rat adjacent.

And the trench run is just Dambusters(?) so full circle back to being a war movie. Loved it!

Rooster literally using the Force to drop the bomb into the exhaust port…

“Don’t think, just do. Do or do not, there is no try!”

Wait that’s NOT how the Navy works?

Then says "outta my way, I'll do it myself"

Oh you'd love ace combat games

I can’t watch Tom Cruise in anything. I can’t separate the Scientologist Tom from the actor. Can’t stand him.

cool