Stay With Me Cougar
Most of you know that Top Gun is one of those mid 80s films that attempts to be very realistic, but it’s just a little too storybook to be believable, you know? When I was younger I didn’t see it, but this film has predictable written all over it. Nevertheless, it’s not a bad movie to drop in every now and then. It doesn’t have the replay value of the great 80s action flicks, but it’s not bad every now and then. I still wish they didn’t kill of Goose. Anyway, for those unfamiliar, Top Gun stars Tom Cruise, back when he was a much more politically correct and heralded movie star as the pilot Maverick. Maverick is superb Navy fighter pilot that pretty well has everything going for him: he meets and eventually woes Kelly McGillis, his buddy Goose is a cool guy and a great co-pilot, both of them are essentially promoted and put into the Navy’s best pilot program.
Naturally the film couldn’t get by with just this. A conflict with the Soviet Union arises and dogfights ensue. While dated, the dogfights are still exciting and fun to watch; that’s partly due to my interest in fighter jets and their really amazing capabilities, not all of which are shown in this film of course, but still.
When you get right down to it, and look past the superficial fluff that is Top Gun, you have a pretty bare bones film. It’s somewhat inspiring, certainly exciting at times during the dogfights, but these days I can’t help but notice how the film just bubbles over with 80s-ness. It comes across a little thick, while simultaneously being thin, as far as the depth of the film and characters go. I won’t go as far as to say it’s a bad film, because I honestly don’t think it is; Top Gun is just one of many films of the time that do not playback today as they did in the late 80s and 90s. The effect today just isn’t what it was back then.
Target Lock: Blu-ray
Top Gun might not be as awesome as a movie as I remembered it being, but it really shines on Blu-ray. The visuals are actually quite impressive, especially for a film this old. Outside of some miscellaneous artifacts at times, the visual quality is great. I was especially impressed with the colors, they were both vibrant and crisp. Audio options on this release don’t disappoint either, Paramount provides both a TrueHD 5.1 Surround track and a powerful DTS-HD Lossless 5.1 track. Both of these sound excellent throughout the film.
The Top Gun Blu-ray is shaping up quite nicely at this point with an above average film and a surprisingly excellent visual and audio presentation. Top Gun on Blu-ray kicks it up yet another surprising notch with the extra features. All told, there are about three and a half hours of SD extras, and an audio commentary track. The commentary track includes recordings from several folks: Director Tony Scott, Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Co-screenwriter Jack Epps, Jr., and then three technical advisors from the Navy. Moving on, two scenes are broken down into multi-angle storyboards. In this feature you can view the progression of two scenes to see how they progressed from storyboard to production, with the ability to change the viewing angle, too. Changing the viewing angle is a rare feature on DVDs and Blu-rays, so that was a nice touch.
Next up, several mini-features including old Tom Cruise interviews and behind the scenes footage compliment various promotional items in an umbrella ‘Vintage’ feature. Two more features to go; I suppose now is as good a time as any to mention the massive, nearly two and a half hour long “Making of Top Gun feature.” Presented in SD, naturally, this very detailed feature includes recent interviews with Tom Cruise, Director Scott, and Producer Bruckheimer. This staggering making of feature is sure to please fans. Lastly, this release includes a thirty minute look at real fighter pilots in the Navy. Complete with action footage of the pilots in air, as well as several interviews, this is a unique and interesting look into the real Top Guns.