TOP GUN

The fact that it has taken me some forty years to get around to watching this Tony Scott blockbuster is an indication of my lack of enthusiasm for this kind of boys-with-toys action flick, but I was intrigued to watch the much lauded sequel, so I thought I'd better check this out first.

It gets off to a surprisingly good start, with an aerial sequence which is spectacular to look at, and which generates some dramatic tension.

Sadly, it's all a bit downhill after this.

Most of the film is taken up with the goings-on at a school for elite pilots (Top Gun) in which the main thing at stake is which pupil is going to finish top of the class.  It's a battle between Tom Cruise as LT Pete Mitchell, whose call sign is 'Maverick', because, well, he's a bit of a maverick, and Val Kilmer as LT Tom Kazansky, whose call sign is 'Ice Man', because, well,  he's ice cold when he's up in the air.

It's not exactly riveting stuff, and it's not helped by a lack lustre romance between Maverick and Kelly McGillis as Charlotte "Charlie" Blackwood, an unlikely astrophysicist who helps run the course, making their relationship highly inappropriate.

McGillis came to this straight from her success in 'Witness' but here she has the thankless task of playing opposite Cruise, and like many other actresses before and after her she is unable to develop any sexual chemistry with the superstar.  (If there's any sexual tension here it's actually between Maverick and Ice Man).  

The least said about the cringeworthy bar scene in which Maverick and Goose sing to Charlie the better.

The low stakes, combined with the glossy visuals and the rock music soundtrack, make for a very shallow drama.

The most engaging part of it is the warm and believable friendship between Maverick and his co-pilot 'Goose', thanks to an outstanding performance by Anthony Edwards as the latter.

But then out of a clear blue sky tragedy strikes when Goose dies in an aerial accident, which comes across as a contrived way to inject some dramatic heft into proceedings.

This loss causes Maverick to go into a bit of a tailspin (metaphorically) but he's able to pull himself together enough to graduate.

Literally as soon as the class graduates they are required to get involved in some real military action, in which the main question is whether Maverick can get his mojo back so as to shoot down some enemy planes and thereby save Ice Man's bacon.

Predictably he does, and everything ends happily, but I can't say that I found the climactic action sequences exciting, partly because they just seem to come out of nowhere.

No doubt if I was part of the target audience I would be wowed by it all, and lots of people were.  The great film critic Pauline Kael observed about this picture that "it's as if masculinity has been redefined as how a young man looks with his clothes half off, and as if narcissism is what being a warrior is all about".  No wonder it doesn't appeal to me.

Still it could be said that this film launched Meg Ryan's career, such is the impact she makes in a small role, so for that reason alone I am glad it was made.

RATING: x Curb Your Enthusiasm