TOP GUN

SYNOPSIS: A hot-shot pilot fights the attitudes of his compatriots as well as his past as he attempts to become the Top Gun at the Naval Academy flight school.

BOTTOM LINE: The passing of time has made me all the more horrified that I actually saw this trite, overblown, testosterone fest more than once in the theater. My only excuse is that I was seventeen at the time and didn't get out much. I guess what drew me in was the pure rush of adrenaline and the good-looking, hard-bodied actors. This was the film that sent Cruise into the stratosphere, though his signature acting style, if it can be called that, is clearly well in place. Part love story, part locker-room machismo, this film has something for both sexes. I understand it was in the script that Kelly McGillis's character fall for Cruise, but I just don't buy it. Sleep with him, sure. However, she exudes far too much intelligence and class to succumb to the shallow charms of an arrogant flyboy...no matter how cute his smile is. A cross between music video and Airforce recruitment film, TOP GUN is, at least on a visceral level, enjoyable. The flight sequences are well done and while focused in the sky this film is exciting and fun. It's when the actors actually open their mouths that things get hokey. This is the first film in producer Jerry Bruckheimer's, "If it's loud, it must be good," school of filmmaking, as proved by the flick's Oscar noms. The thought that this is considered a classic of sorts makes me cringe. For good or ill, TOP GUN is the quintissential popcorn flick. Consider yourself warned.