Top Gun: Maverick film review: Tom Cruise’s breathtaking stunts are the saviour of the summer blockbuster
TOP GUN: MAVERICK
(12A) 131mins
★★★★★
STRAP yourself in and prepare to fly into the saviour of the summer blockbuster.
This adrenaline-packed trip at high altitude is a non-stop blast of spectacular stunts, humour and heart, with a Hollywood great in the cockpit.
It’s been 36 years since we last saw Tom Cruise slip on his aviators as test pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in the original blockbuster, and while many tutted ‘why?’ when the sequel was announced (me included), this film will have you questioning no more.
Wearing his fine lines very well, we are introduced to a more mature and — only slightly — calmer Maverick in his air hanger.
His oil-coated muscles flex as he tinkers with a plane and occasionally gazes over at pictures of his deceased wingman, Goose.
Clearly he’s still racked with guilt over his best friend’s death and it’s clearly affected his career path — as we soon discover Maverick has purposely dodged any advancement in the ranks even though he’s one of the Navy’s most successful pilots.
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Soon his skills are called upon by Admiral Beau “Cyclone” Simpson (Jon Hamm) to train a group of the new “best of the best” graduates.
Much to Maverick’s horror, they include Rooster (Miles Teller) — the son of Goose, who he has tried to protect from the danger of flying by stalling his career. Something Rooster is furious about.
A natural rebel, Maverick rolls his eyes when Cyclone tells him that one day these planes won’t even need pilots — they’ll simply fly themselves, barking: “The future is coming, Maverick, and you’re not in it.”
Thankfully though, he’s still very much needed to teach a new class of pilots, who are a perfect balance of cocky and likeable.
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A bar scene filled with flashbacks and nostalgia introduces the newbies.
They include arrogant Hangman, (Glen Powell) who has flickers of the original’s Iceman. And there’s a female pilot in Phoenix (Monica Barbaro) who is not patronised with a love story or sexual discrimination, but treated as one of the crew.
A clearly very ill Val Kilmer also returns as Admiral Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, making for a poignant scene between him and Maverick.
Cruise is simply a pleasure to watch and the breathtaking stunts, which are all real, will put green screens and CGI films to shame.
Like an accelerating rollercoaster ride, you’ll want to go again the moment it’s over.
THE BOB’S BURGERS MOVIE
(PG) 102mins
★★★★★
AFTER 12 series of Bob’s Burgers, the cult TV hit has transferred its wholesome but irreverent brand of humour to the big screen — and it’s just as delicious as the series.
Yet you don’t have to have seen the TV animation to get along with the Belcher family.
Bob (H Jon Benjamin), Linda (John Roberts) and their kids Tina (Dan Mintz), Gene (Eugene Mirman) and Louise (Kristen Schaal) find themselves fighting for personal and professional survival when a sinkhole causes havoc.
It’s right outide the Bob’s Burgers premises and happens when they are in dire need of profits to prevent the bank from foreclosing on their kitchen equipment.
They have to work together to save the shop and solve a town mystery.
It’s more than just an extended episode, as directors Loren Bouchard and Bernard Derriman use cinematic techniques and high-octane sequences to give it a blockbuster feel while retaining its offbeat comedic voice.
The stakes are higher, the animation has richer depth and the jokes hit just as hard and fast to keep the plot careening forward into the ridiculous.
Musical numbers capture the quirky working-class spirit of a how that celebrates optimism, weirdness and unity in the face of adversity.
Worth every bite.
Hannah Barr
LANCASTER
(PG) 120mins
★★★★☆
IN a week when aviation rules cinema screens as well as the skies, this British feature documentary about the history of the Lancaster bomber stands proud.
Directed by David Fairhead and Ant Palmer, and narrated by Charles Dance, the story of the legendary wartime plane which first flew in 1942 — and was responsible for pivotal missions including the Dambuster raids, the Battle of Berlin, and more divisively, Dresden — is told expertly using archive footage, newsreels and contemporary and old aerial shots.
But the heart and soul of this account, and its real poignancy, comes from the first-person oratory memoirs of the men who flew them, the surviving members of Bomber Command.
Then they were volunteers, in their late teens and early 20s.
Now they are mostly in their 90s, but still talk about their wartime experience as candidly as if it were yesterday — and most likely for the last time.
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A devastating 55,573 Lancaster airmen out of 125,000 were lost and as one says, once in the cockpit “You’ve got to live or die, so you make sure you’re going to live.” Many of their friends, of course, did not.
Descriptions of empty seats and tables at dining halls, each where once a mate had sat, are valuable, important and affecting.