Top Gun

Top Gun

Easily the most memorable family trip to the cinema in my youth was to see a film that was 20 years old.  The year was 1997 and Star Wars was being re-released in a "special edition".  My entire family went to all three of the trilogy films and we even brought along our neighbor who had not yet seen the movies.

It was a special occasion where I could watch some of my favorite films on the big screen and bask in the aura of Star Wars.

Big films are meant to be seen on big screens.  In the past the only big screen in town was the local cinema, but nowadays television screens a at least 40 inches wide and many homes have built in theaters so that a cinematic experience can happen withing the wall of your own home.

I feel there is one thing missing from the home-viewing experience and that is: atmosphere.

My local theater is an old, single screen cinema that was originally built in 1924.  It has a balcony, decorative lamps on the walls and my personal favorite: a curtain over the screen.  The Joyland Theatre in Strathmore, Alberta is a place where I love to see movies and their popcorn is better than any Cineplex that I have visited.  It is an important piece of our community and I'll support it as long as awesome films are show on the curtain-covered screen.

This past week I was introduced to a group in Strathmore that is perfect for me.  It is an low-key club called the Strathmore Film Club.  The concept is simple: get together once a month and watch a classic film on the big screen.  This month we voted on the films of Tom Cruise and Top Gun won the vote.

I do consider myself a big movie fan, a cinephile of sorts, but I had never scene this classic Tom Cruise film.  I'll admit that I have been skeptical of Cruise due to his "heart-throb" status in the 80s and 90s, as well as his crazy antics in the 2000s.  Within the past couple years I have found an appreciation for his ability to entertain the audience no matter what.  He is the master of entertaining films.

Let me ask you this question: Who is the biggest movie star in your lifetime?  I am willing to bet that said "Tom Cruise".  There is no one like him.   Take a look at his filmography.  He has a mere 36 credits of completed spanning from 1981 to 2016.  That is 36 years.   In contrast, Brad Pitt has 72 credits from 1987 to 2015.  That is 29 years.  Cruise only does big movies.

That's enough gushing about Tom Cruise because I will now finally talk about Top Gun.  Perhaps I have been blabbering on about theaters and actors due to that fact that I did not particularly enjoy the film.  Top Gun is a product of its time.  It is such a classic film that it is now cliche.  It is similar to how Casablanca has so many quotable lines, but Top Gun is just a montage of cliches and sexual-tension-filled stares.

Is Top Gun still watchable?  Oh yeah.  Just to watch the amazing camera shots on board the F-14s is worth the price of admission.  Tony Scott new how to make an entertaining film.  But I felt for every success he had there was a downside.

The film has charming characters, but the most charming dies in the middle of the film. (That didn't need a SPOILER ALERT tag did it?  The film is 30 years old.)  

It has great music from the 1980s, but the score is too synthesized for my liking. 

It has a fun love story, but I did not find the girl very attractive. (My apologies of Kelly McGillis)  

Val Kilmer is cast as an a pseudo-antagonist, but he seems to be the more straight-laced by the end.

I was just torn by the film.  So much good, but so much that bothered me.  Plus, I'm not a macho guy that has an ego the size of the Atlantic, but the pilots in Top Gun have to be.

The bottom line?  I was entertained and I got to see it on the big screen, but I'll never watch it again.

I categorize this film as:

Full of great camera angles

A classic 1980s film
Never going to see it again
Signature Cruise (it is still Tom Cruise's #1 associated film on IMDB.com)

3/5 Stanley Cups. It is well made and I enjoyed parts of it, but it is not my type of film.

Format: In the Joyland Theatre

Viewing Period: One time through with minor disruptions due to the DVD skipping.

Inspired me to: Join the Navy!  No, not really.  But I appreciate Tom Cruises more recent films more now.

9 to 5

9 to 5

During the winter holidays and weekends, my family was notorious for spending our time inside watching random movies from the 1970s and 1980s.  We would go into D&E video (recently closed, RIP) and choose 6 movies for 6 nights for 6 bucks.  These were never the new releases, these were the older films that time and popularity had forgotten.

For one reason or another the films that I distinctly remember watching during this period featured actor Dabney Coleman.  He is the actor that I saw in many films on those cold winter nights.  One that I am most fond of is 9 to 5.

This film is one of the first that I enjoyed with my parents.  It also holds a special place in my family history because it was the movie my parents went to on their first date.  Needless to say, it's a sentimental favorite for me.

This film has a lot going on.  You have a newly single mom (Jane Fonda) who is trying to fit back into the work force, a long-time supervisor that is the true reason for the company's success (Lily Tomlin) and secretary (Dolly Parton) that is blatantly sexually harassed by her boss. The boss is a character that dare you to not hate him.  Although he is perfectly portrayed by the aforementioned Dabney Coleman, he quickly gets under your skin and earns the title of "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot".

The film took me back to another time when smoking was ubiquitous and men saw women as objects.  It shows the transition from this era to one that is flexible and accommodating.  A new era where women get promotions according to their merits, yet pay is still not equal.

This film is fun, funny and witty.  It has a great title song and one of the best pot-smoking scenes that I have seen. (I haven't seen very many, to be fair).  I really enjoyed 9 to 5, it and it put on display an era that seems so foreign to me now and it did so in an entertaining manner.

I categorize this film as:

Nostalgic

Enjoyable

Fonda-tastic! (Jane Fonda is great as an awkward divorcee)

4/5 Stanley Cups. Worth watching and keeping in your collection of films.

Format: Netflix

Viewing Period: One time through, I think.  I was watching kids at the same time.

Inspired me to: Never become a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.  :)

Also to make a difference at my workplace.  Nothing big, just the small stuff.