#161- Top Gun

Quick recap: Maverick may be one of the best Naval pilots, but he still has a lot to learn when it comes to teamwork, love, and riding into the Danger Zone.

Fun (?) fact: Lots to choose from, but my favorite is that Val Kilmer didn’t want to make this movie at all but was bound by contractual obligations. Val Kilmer just seems like the kind of person that talks about himself in the third person which makes this tidbit much funnier than it probably is.

‘Val Kilmer will only do this project if he can play a game of volleyball with his shirt off.’
‘ok, Mr. Kilmer but I don’t know what that has to do with Top Gun’
‘Val Kilmer doesn’t care. Bring Val Kilmer a sandwich.’

My thoughts: No, I have never seen Top Gun until I watched it a few nights ago. There are many reasons for this, the main one being that anything mechanical (trains, planes, automobiles) or technical bores me. So it was quite unexpected that I found myself really enjoying the film and imagining that if I were made to watch it again someday, I wouldn’t mind. I don’t think you could get a better endorsement from me, honestly.

What’s interesting about this is how much I enjoyed the movie when there were so many things wrong with it. The acting is one of its biggest flaws. So help me, if I see Tom Cruise flexing his jaw muscles ONE MORE TIME I might just lose it. His performance was 15% boasting, 2% honest feelings and 83% jaw flexing. And of course Val Kilmer’s character Iceman didn’t fare any better. I never really understood why he chose to engage Maverick (Tom Cruise) so much when he was clearly a superior pilot. Maybe it was to show that there was some depth to the character but it just made him come off as a jerk, even in the sincere scenes.

And yet, I’m still drawn to him.

And then we come to the love story, which, even though it was a big part of the movie, never seemed to really belong there. First of all, there was no chemistry between Charlie and Maverick and second, the timeline of him coming over to her house and the next day falling in love was ridiculous. Also, Maverick was a jerk the entire time. Charlie was an astrophysicist and was treated like she didn’t know the first thing about planes. At no point did he apologize and in fact, she saw it as charming. Gross.

The plot itself was flimsy at best, but I still got into it. I think what draws me to Top Gun is how unabashedly American it is. It’s no wonder recruitment into the Navy skyrocketed after this film was sent to theaters. The ending where Maverick regains his confidence and saves the world wasn’t a surprise by any stretch of the imagination, and I loved how comforting it all felt, like a big warm hug from the 1980s.

Final review: Screw it, let’s go for a 4/5. Also, this is one of the ultimate ‘bromance’ movies. It’s like Terms of Endearment for guys.

Up next: Princess Mononoke

#160- Sullivan’s Travels

Quick recap: John Sullivan is a popular director of comedy films who wants to make a socially conscious film. Upon realizing that he is a rich white guy, Sullivan sets out to ‘find trouble’ in order to better understand the plight of the poor.

Fun fact: The Coen brothers chose the name to their film O Brother, Where Art Thou? as an homage to director Preston Sturges. The title comes from the book Sullivan writes about his experience.

My thoughts: Paul Blart Mall Cop is one of the greatest movies ever made and you should feel like a jerk if you didn’t love it. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Schindler’s List is worthless and you are a pretentious jerk for appreciating it because that is not what society needs. Stop being a jerk! This is basically what I learned from watching Sullivan’s Travels, although the point was a little more subtle than what I said. I’m sorry I called you a jerk, by the way. I didn’t mean it.

Comedy. Gold.

Sullivan’s Travels is a comedy about how important comedies are. In 1941, America was still going through the Depression and things sucked, for the most part. It was no secret that people were suffering, especially the people living it. The last thing they wanted was a ‘socially conscious’ film about their plight because, really, what would that do? This is what Sullivan learns in his travels, as he becomes a homeless man and then later comes into some real trouble when he is sent to a labor camp for almost killing a railroad conductor. It’s quite a complex plot which I don’t have the energy to hash out right now but I will say that its complicated nature pleasantly surprised me when I watched it.

So, is Sullivan’s Travels a ‘good’ movie? I guess that’s not really my place to make a judgement. I didn’t love it or really even like it because physical comedy doesn’t do much for me, but that’s not to say that it wasn’t worthwhile to someone at some point. The plot, as I stated before, was much more complex than I expected and I never got bored. The most profound part of the movie was when Sullivan completed his first attempt to live like someone in poverty and decided to give money away to show his appreciation. Spoiler alert- it didn’t work out too well for him. It wasn’t until he actually became someone without anything that he understood that money doesn’t solve everything, and that what people really need is a temporary vacation from their troubles.

Final review: 4/5. I wanted to give this a lower rating because the physical comedy didn’t do much for me but considering the amount of time I have spent trying to sort my thoughts, I guess it deserves my respect.

Up next: Top Gun

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#159- Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Quick recap: The Terminator is back! But this time he is here to protect instead of, well, terminate. Along the way he learns what it means to be human and how to love. Awww.

Beeee……..Goooood, E.T phone home.

Fun (?) fact: Linda Hamilton, who played Sarah Connor, has an identical twin sister who helped out in scenes where two Sarahs were needed. Identical twins seems kind of a cop out special effect when James Cameron could have just Parent Trapped it. That’s totally a thing now, by the way, Parent Trapping.

My thoughts: Reflecting on my previous Terminator post, I seem a bit underwhelmed by the whole thing. It felt like mindless entertainment, maybe a notch above other action movies, but nothing spectacular. Therefore, it pleased me greatly to see that Terminator 2 is a much better film than its original, a feat very hard to pull off. According to IMDb, Terminator 2 is the only sequel in history to win Academy awards when the previous film hadn’t even been nominated.

To start off with, the special effects, which impressed me last time, did so even more this time around. The constant explosions and walls of fire didn’t do much for me, but I loved the liquid metal structure of the T-1000. I kept expecting him to turn into Alex Mack at some point, but still very cool. The nuclear sequence was realistic enough to get a thumbs up from nuclear testing facilities, something we all strive to obtain some day. There weren’t very many ‘scary’ scenes, but that one stuck with me for awhile.

another creepy scene

Edward Furlong, who played John Connor annoyed me the entire time he was on screen, and not just because of his voice. He was like the real life version of Bart Simpson but without any funny lines. His relationship with the Terminator also weirded me out a little and reminded me of that kid in Shane, especially the ending when he pleads for him not to go. I’ll cut him some slack though because it is pretty awesome to have your own pet Terminator to love and care for, who follows you around, protects you and does whatever you want. Replace Arnold Schwarzenegger with a Golden Retriever and you’d have the top heartwarming family movie of the year. It was really hard to see how this brat turned into the leader of the revolution but that was sort of the point, I think. Sending the Terminator back to protect John Connor set in motion all of the experiences he needed to become the hero later on in life. Having not watched any other movie in this series I don’t know if the war still happened but I’m guess it did. That makes everything even more remarkable, all the things these characters went through and yet failed to stop the future.

Final review: 4/5. Definitely an improvement from the pervious film, but I wouldn’t call it a favorite.

Up next: Sullivan’s Travels

#153- Straw Dogs

Quick recap: An American and his English wife move back to her childhood town where everyone is out to get them. It’s seriously messed up.

Thankfully, the movie and song aren't related. *shout out to the two of you who get this!*

What does it take to be a super hero in my world?/make no mistake that these villains always get the girl/we can escape and then we’d skate away from all of this/ but no one ever does

Fun(?) fact: Dustin Hoffman says he only took the role for the money. Not being a fan of violence (most people aren’t, buddy), in the scene where Hoffman beats a guy to death on the floor, he instead used coconuts to hit. You can see bits of it flying around in the movie during that scene.

at times, Hoffman reminded me of a much darker Ted Mosby. Now THAT would’ve been a more controversial ending to HIMYM

My thoughts: Oh, boy. At first glance, this is just a very violent movie. When I finished it the other night, I was ready to give it a 1/5 because it made me so uncomfortable. The more I thought about it, though, the more Straw Dogs began to remind me of A Clockwork Orange, another seemingly senseless violent movie that actually has a deeper meaning.

So, first of all, I suppose I should start with the concept of a ‘straw dog’. Straw dogs were ceremonial objects in Ancient China, but the reference in this film comes from an old text that says, ‘Heaven and Earth are heartless / treating creatures like straw dogs’. So I guess that would make the characters David and Amy the straw dogs? Honestly, the whole thing is beyond my ability of thinking. What I got from the movie is that violence is not always personal, it just happens and as David showed in the end, violence is in all of us. What a fun lesson!

The beginning of Straw Dogs confused me because the editing was so weird. It would jump to David and Amy about to have sex and then in the very next scene, she is crying in his office after he has said something to hurt her feelings. It made everything seem so turned around and off-putting, which is exactly what director Sam Peckinpah wanted the viewer to feel. And as for that rape scene most people know this movie by, I think it’s vitally important to discuss, since it has become a controversial issue lately. Rape has always seemed black and white to me but then in watching Straw Dogs, I get the grey line- what if a woman consents at first, sends mixed signals, or appears to enjoy herself? It’s still rape and there is still a crime being committed, yet some people feel that it legitimizes it in some way, as if there is only one kind of rape to be had.

Final review: 4/5, but grudgingly. Also, there’s a dead cat so I’m not giving it a full 5.

Up next: The House is Black

1001 Movie Nights

Tag Archives: 4/5

#161- Top Gun

#160- Sullivan’s Travels

#159- Terminator 2: Judgement Day

#153- Straw Dogs

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