In this second edition of Throwback Thursday, we are throwing all the way back to the 80’s with Top Gun. I have the movie on 3D Blu-ray and I wanted to share with you what I think about the flick and the extra’s on the Blu-ray. This is the review of Top Gun.

The 80’s classic is amazing, in both 2D and 3D. “I feel the need… for speed!” It is the quote from Top Gun, the pretty retro flick about jet pilots. The movie is directed by Tony Scott, that helmed Man on Fire and Enemy of the State. Tony Scott passed away in 2012, and he was Alien-director Ridley Scott’s brother. His ultimate number one movie is Top Gun, that actually made the registrations for the American marines rise by 500 percent. It sounds like a must-see, but is that 3D Blu-ray worth while too?

Gay erotic?
“This is what I call a targetrich environment”, and “This gives me a hard-on”, to which another male pilot responds: “Don’t tease me.” Is Top Gun tough or gay erotic (or both?)? It is something that I keep on thinking about when watching the movie. Do they threathen eachother or are they trying to sleep with eachother? Especially the gay erotic parts keep fascinating me, especially the beachvolleyball scene where the guys play sports in the hot sun, with their shiny bodies with huge muscles, while the song ‘Playing with the Boys’ is in the background… It does not matter what it is; this movie with Tom Cruise (Mission Impossible) in the leading role is a classic.

Competition
You get pulled into the movie right from the first scene on, in which Maverick (Cruise) and his wingman Goose (ER actor Anthony Edwards) are having a crazy action scene together. Jets shoot through the sky in a super exciting action scene in which pilotes of the navy have to get a foreign and unregistered plane out of their territory. They are doing great, but an insecure pilot from another plane resigns right after the situation. An amazing opportunity unfolds for Maverick and Goose, as they are the ones send to Top Gun. It is a competition in which the best pilot in the army is chosen and the arrogant but charming Maverick is convinced he is the guy for the job. But, he is not a pilot that lives by the book, and he often breaks the rules. Would that influence the outcome of the competition?

Worriless
Mavericks ego is not the only one in this movie with a huge role. His flirt Charlie (Witness-actress Kelly McGillis), gets especially interesting in the middle of the movie, when the tension between the two gets so great, you just want to yell “DO IT ! DO IT NOWWW!” to your television screen. But there is also a woman in this movie that offers quite the opposite atmosphere: Goose’s wife Carole (Sleepless in Seattle’s Meg Ryan) is super relaxed and besides her amazing looks Ryan portrays a worry free person. The person that really steels the show though, is the young God-like guy Tom Cruise. In this movie he is at the top of his game and females faint when they see his amazing smile. Though the past few years he has been recovering from the whole Oprah-couch-drama, Top Gun will make you realize how long this guy has been an actor and how amazing it is that he works on hit films every time. Even if you do not love his more recent movies, you will enjoy Top Gun cause Cruise has a part in which he portrays a totally different character.

Translation
So, Top Gun is a classic you will have to check out. The 3D Blu-ray version is not great though. On the one hand there are strange colored spots in the screen, which shows that the movie is pretty old. On the other hand the 3D effect is so good, it could have been a new movie. Top Gun obviously evolves mainly around the jet action in the sky and 3D makes it extra exciting to look at. The Dutch translation however, is horrible. Please watch this movie without subtitles, fellow Dutchies, cause then you do not get confronted with mistakes like:

“You’ll be flying a cargoplane full of rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong”
You’ll be flying cargo planes full of dog shit. >>> what?! Why would you fly around with an airplane full of dog shit?

Extra’s
That is not the only thing this Blu-ray release does terribly wrong: there are no extra’s on it! There are so many interesting facts about this movie: how the plane of pilot and camera guy Art Scholl crash landed, which left him lifeless in the ruins of it. we think, because the plane and body have never been found. And the idea for the movie started with Top Guns, an article in California Magazine with the name Top Guns. These are things you want to know more about, but this Blu-ray is not going to fill you in.

Verdict
Top Gun is a perfect, somewhat over the top movie that shows off an 80’s atmosphere, including Wham!-like hairdo’s and jeans with high waistlines. Sweet lyrics like Take my Breath Away are combined with more upbeat tunes like Danger Zone. Still, the movie knows how to impress, as the movie really has a heart and soul. Especially the second part of the movie, which swifts the concentration on arrogant old Marverick to other things, is extremely enteraining.