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Ryan Melling's avatar

You are absolutely right about TG:Mav. 1000% a cash grab and feature length commercial for the navy (I left with an old Simpsons bit in my head YVAN EHT NIOJ).

I cringed through the first twenty for sure. I also fully bemoaned the fact that while it leveled up the jet action, it completely lost its sexiness (which probably has most to do with the nature of the international market)—the “sex scene” was reminiscent of some deep Hayes Code winks and nods and even though Tom is in great shape for his age, don’t need his bare chest playing football (sun screen shirts are all the rage!) (and football is so much worse of a choice than the sexiest sport ever invented: beach volleyball. Just go all in on recreating the magic there).

I could pick out the problems with this movie all day and I could convince myself it’s terrible except for my knowledge that I had a good time in the theater. Maybe it was just my first time back in a theater since pandemic. Maybe it was because I chose to revisit the OG just a few weeks before and was completely taken by the deep orange gradients on the lens and the extreme telephoto photography and remembered just how damn sexy movies were in the 80s. Maybe because I’m the exact market this marketing team was aiming at. But for whatever reason, I chose to let go of all that was bad and just watch it for what it was. And I had a good time.

Of course, you’re still right. Maybe my point is sometimes the worst movies can be a fun time if the jingoism doesn’t make you barf.

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Kira Cook's avatar

soooo with you on the disappointing, bloated, flatter than a flat-top, top gun. i was mad at it when the credits rolled (and in several scenes prior)!!!!!!

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