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Top Gun: Maverick <\/strong><\/em>(2022)<\/p>\n Director:\u00a0 Joseph Kosinski<\/strong><\/p>\n Screenplay:\u00a0 Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie <\/strong>from a story by Peter Craig, Justin Marks <\/strong>based on characters created by Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr.<\/strong><\/p>\n Stars: Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, Val Kilmer, Bashir Salahuddin, Ed Harris, Jon Hamm, Charles Parnell, Lewis Pullman, Danny Ramirez, Glen Powell, Jack Schumacher, Kara Wang, Greg Tarzan Davis<\/strong>,<\/strong> and Raymond Lee<\/strong> Tagline: Feel the need… The need for speed.<\/em><\/p>\n The Plot\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Over thirty years into his military career, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is still pushing limits… as a test pilot and the tolerance of his superior officers.\u00a0 By now, Maverick should have been a two-star admiral or better.\u00a0 Maverick’s love of altitude and his attitude have hindered advancement.\u00a0 If not for Maverick’s friendship with Admiral Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Kilmer), the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Maverick might have been discharged.<\/p>\n Now Maverick is tasked with training a team of the very best Top Gun pilots for a nearly impossible suicide mission.\u00a0 Four U.S, Super Hornets will fly below radar to slip into an enemy area guarded by surface to air missiles and the latest enemy fighter jets.\u00a0 The U.S. pilots will have one shot at taking out an underground bunker that will house a nuclear arsenal.<\/p>\n The mission is on a strict timeline.\u00a0 Maverick needs to devise a plan, train the pilots and pick four for a mission they likely won’t survive.\u00a0 To complicate matters, Maverick’s superior officer disapproves of Maverick’s methods and one of the trainees is Lt. Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw (Teller), the son of Maverick’s best friend, Nick “Goose” Bradshaw.\u00a0 Rooster blames Maverick for his father’s death and for slowing his Naval advancement.\u00a0 If Maverick picks Rooster for the mission, he may be responsible for his friend’s son’s death.\u00a0 If he doesn’t pick him, Rooster will blame Maverick for again hindering his career.<\/p>\n The clock is ticking…<\/p>\n Thoughts (beware of spoilers)\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Top Gun: Maverick<\/em>‘s writers have created a plausible reason for Maverick to still be a test pilot.\u00a0 Their storyline creates a logical rationale for Maverick to lead the mission instead of a younger Top Gun pilot.\u00a0 There are several great call backs to the original film.<\/p>\n Having Rooster feel Maverick is responsible for his dad’s death isn’t surprising.\u00a0 It adds drama to the situation.\u00a0 The added twist of Maverick slowing Rooster’s career advancement is a nice touch.\u00a0 Most movies would have Maverick explain to Rooster that Rooster’s mother requested it.\u00a0 Maverick say why he doesn’t, “Rooster would always resent me for what I did. Why should he resent her too?”\u00a0 That is gold.<\/p>\n Making sure that Val Kilmer was in the film was a no-brainer.\u00a0 Having his character suffer from cancer (as Kilmer did in real life) adds gravitas to his character.\u00a0 Having Kilmer’s character be Maverick’s “protector” takes things to a whole other level… and then when Kilmer’s character dies, all bets are off.<\/p>\n Giving Maverick a love interest rounds out his character.\u00a0 This whole subplot was well done.\u00a0 It adds context and broadens Maverick’s universe.<\/p>\n The training and mission is full of exciting and tense moments (with just the right amount of humor).\u00a0 Getting Maverick and Rooster together behind enemy lines was inspired.\u00a0 As was their method of escape.<\/p>\n Kudos to director Joseph Kosinski.\u00a0 He had the chops to handle a $170 million production starring one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.\u00a0 Plus Kosinski had to deal with a large cast giving each their moment to shine.\u00a0 There was also pressure to make a sequel to a beloved film from 36 years ago.\u00a0 Kosinski succeeded all on counts.<\/p>\n Top Gun: Maverick<\/em> features a great cast.\u00a0 Cruise and Kilmer were essential.\u00a0 It would be hard to find a better love interest than Jennifer Connelly.\u00a0 Miles Teller is excellent and looks like he could be Anthony Edwards’ son. Jon Hamm and Ed Harris are welcome additions to the cast.<\/p>\n I saw Top Gun<\/em> on it’s initial release.\u00a0 I liked Top Gun<\/em>, but didn’t love it.\u00a0 Top Gun: Maverick<\/em> exceeded my expectations.\u00a0 It works on every level.\u00a0 You don’t need to see the original film to enjoy Maverick<\/em>, but if you have seen it, viewing the sequel should be an even better experience.<\/p>\n Top Gun: Maverick <\/strong><\/em>earns 5 of 5 stars.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Gun: Maverick (2022) Director:\u00a0 Joseph Kosinski Screenplay:\u00a0 Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie from a story by Peter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,54,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebs","category-movies","category-z-view"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31479"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31482,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31479\/revisions\/31482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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