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Top Gun – 1986 Tony Scott
- There’s enough to praise from an artistic standpoint to earn a right into the archives
- The aerial sequences, oscar nominated sound is really superb
- But mainly it’s Tony Scott’s frenetic montage editing- which was incorrectly laughed off and criticized by some at the time for being an “mtv style”- especially in the air- which puts this film in the archives—an 80’s version of howard hughes’ hell’s angels
- Cruise is also a plus- he’s crude and cocky and wonderful at it
- Sure the music ages the film but so do films with jazz in the 20’s—I think the only fair critique (because the songs “danger zone” and “take my breathe away” are fine) is the repetitiveness- and yes- the film is draped in these songs wall to wall
- Great actors in small roles- skerritt isn’t given enough to do and we have tim robbins and meg ryan in near cameos—clearly at the beginning of great careers
- I’m loving cruise’s dedication to ray-bans—wayfarers in risky business and aviators here—to be clear- this is not a risky business quality film
- Awful cheese-riddled karaoke sequence
- The dialogue often lets the actors and scott down—it’s too heavily dramatic for scenes it hasn’t earned
- Broad and pleasing but technically well-executed and with enough charm from the lead to put into the archives—not in or near the top 10 of 1986
- Recommend
Drake2017-09-18T20:32:25+00:00
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What did you think of the sequel to this film. I thought it was superb.
@Azman- Thanks for the comment here. I was able to catch it in IMAX and was very happy that I did. I thought it was superb as well- even if the top tier of 2022 films are all a step above.
Hello, i love the site immensley and I have a couple of questions? One is are ypu familiar woth any bollywood Indian cinema (asides from the arthouse classics like Apu trilogy), lioe the work of Shuh Rukh Khan or Anil Kapoor orAamir Khan for example. And secondly about how many movies do you watch in a month. Woth not a whole bunch of time on my hands, now ive just graduated high school and I wanna move to India in 4 years after college to become a fipm producer/actor akd writer. Ive always loved Indian culture
and im trying to get fluent in hindi in next 4 years and I want to see as many of these great films as I can but idk how many i can really squeeze in a month/year. Thank you 💪…
@Murphy- Thank you for the comment. I am not overly familiar with Bollywood cinema. I have seen Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India- and that is in the archives for 2001 and there are a few more here and there. Movies per month vary of course- some months it is as low as 30-35 and other months it can get close to 80. I think on average the last few years it has been 600-700 per year so that breaks down to roughly 50 or so per month. In the 2010s that number was higher on average.
Cool, thank you. Id really recommend you watch DDLJ, with Shuh Rukh Khan, considered the greatest hindi romance of all time, itnreally reminds me of singing in the rain as its like a gold standard. And its got great direction and music and acting too.
@Murphy- Got it, thank you for the recommendation