• 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