Paramount, out now

Maverick’s new mission comes to home entertainment…

Unlike my colleague Greg D. Smith – whose effusive review of this movie in the cinema can be read here, and whose comments on the strengths and weaknesses as a movie I agree with – I’m not a huge fan of the original Top Gun. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve seen it since it was first in the cinema. So I was coming to this fresh, based on the aforementioned review as well as a recommendation from my daughter who’s got a pretty good idea of my tastes in this sort of entertainment.

And it’s a huge amount of fun for its 130 minute running time. It never feels like it’s sagging at any point, with plenty of aerial action, emotion, heart (the scene with Val Kilmer doesn’t try to disguise the illness the actor has – a laudable choice), and plain joy. It did cross my mind that the Pentagon had two choices for this mission – the Top Gun squadron performing the impossible, or the Impossible Mission Force. Oddly enough, both led by Tom Cruise…

Cruise’s leadership is extremely obvious in the small amount of value added material we get – don’t be misled by talk of 80 minutes, the majority of that is devoted to one interview with the star. As one of his co-stars points out, no one other than Cruise  could have persuaded a studio to back this project… and when you realise how little is done with models and effects, you understand that. It certainly must have been the experience of a lifetime for the actors, and that enthusiasm comes across.

The film was massively delayed going into cinemas because of COVID and Cruise’s refusal to allow it to be sold to a streamer, and I suspect that was the right call. Even on a 4K large screen, you lose some of the scale that’s evidently there, but this does look and sound incredibly good – so unless you’ve got an IMAX cinema in your backyard (or one locally that keeps this on repeat), this is the best way to see it now.

Verdict: A popcorn movie that keeps you engaged from start to finish. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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