Film Review - Top Gun (1986)

30 Years Ago Top Gun soared into cinemas across the world and not only cemented Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer as star producers but also made Tom Cruise into a superstar with his role as Maverick, an Ace Fighter Pilot who goes to the Top Gun Fighter Weapons School and goes up against the best of the best.

Re watching this film last Saturday night was so much fun:

- Firstly the flying scenes are truly exhilarating to watch and they really give you the feeling of being up there amongst the clouds at 20-30,000 feet and when the dogfights get underway particularly the one in the last act of the film it has a sense of edge and reality that no effects work today can match.

- Secondly the music created for the film still remains timeless and exciting to listen to, whether it be the main Top Gun anthem by Harold Faltermeyer or the now world famous Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins or Take my Breath Away by Berlin or the underrated Mighty Wings by Cheap Trick which blares over the end credits of the film, the Music plays a very key role in this film and indeed when playing a Fighter Jet game this soundtrack is not too hard to come to mind.

- And lastly I have to talk about the young cast assembled for this film, some of whom became stars in their own right, Cruise was actually quite good here and he shows a young energy, optimism and joy in a lot of his scenes in this film, Val Kilmer is nicely cast as Iceman the cool, calm rival who's always very methodical if a little douchey, Anthony Edwards plays off Cruise nicely as Goose and a very young Tim Robbins also appears as Merlin another fighter graduate.

It's also worth noting that these young actors are allowed to soar as much as they can as both Tom Skeritt and Michael Ironside are there to ground them whenever they need to and both bring a real presence to their fairly medium sized roles and it adds some weight to the film.

What slightly doesn't work however is pretty much everything involving Kelly McGillis's character and in no way would I saw that this is her fault at all because if you've seen her in Witness you'll see what a great actress she is but if you watch Charles de Lauzirika's superb making of doco you'll see that her scenes were pretty much made up in post production for the most part and those scenes do pull you out of the film a little bit but not by a great deal.

Apart from that 1 minor niggle I still think Top Gun is great fun 30 years on and I loved revisiting it as well as watching the making of doco almost straight after it, 4 out of 5.