Last movie you watched......

Watching Top Gun for the first time ever tonight. Woohoo.

 

Drove 3 hours to get to an IMAX and see Top Gun Maverick and …

absolutely ABSOLUTELY loved every second. I doubt it’ll live on the way the original did … didn’t seem as quotable, didn’t have quite that sense of era-defining “cool” the first one had. And of course the story is straight up silly at times. (Which is obviously true of the original, as well.)

But the flying scenes were mind blowing and the whole thing was just so much fun. I didn’t stop smiling from the first second. It was a tremendous experience.

 

Saw it today, and loved it too. Certainly worth my $9 ticket.

 

I just saw it on XD, almost mirror your views. Much better story than original; what flying scenes, just gorgeous and enthralling.

 

Blacklight. Pretty tame by Neeson standards. Low body count. On an scale of one dead body to five I give it two dead bodies.

 

So, what'd you think of it?

Just an easy, fun movie, right?

It was predictable but still good and very watchable, for almost anyone.

And, have you gone to see Top Gun: Maverick yet?

(I haven't, yet, but am planning to on my next day off. I'm looking forward to it).

 

It was ok; seriously I had never seen more than one- or two-minute clips, but 35+ years of memes and references, you know pretty much what's going on.

It was also fun to see the tropes and cliches all the other movies have ripped off, especially Independence Day.

Was Star Wars (A New Hope) the first movie to feature the "mission control directing the climactic battle" format which has now become almost obligatory in any action flick?

If I think back, "Marooned" in 1969 had a lot of that structure (which of course the real space program did as well). I don't think "2001" had more than a few brief snippets of the device.

Haven't seen Maverick yet. I'll wait till it hits the streaming channels.

 

So what was the theater like? Mostly middle-aged people or what?

 

Top Gun is probably my wife's favorite movie. Likely in that stereotypical middle-aged woman way, which I know most of you know, but still. I have enjoyed it enough over time, but I don't need to sit and watch it if I happen by it. When the news of the sequel came out I kind of rolled my eyes but she was very excited. I knew we would see it. I still was kind of meh about it all, but the word of mouth helped. And seeing it in XD would be cool.

Anyway, I suggested we watch the original the night before we saw Maverick and she was like, I don't need to see it. We watched it anyway, and she's right, she could have cold acted the thing out. Anyway, it is still meh to me. No real story, cheesy, but as someone here said, easy watching. I didn't feel like this needs to end now or anything. It is fun for what it is.

Maverick is a better movie all around, even with unrealistic parts. It actually has a story. And, yes, the flying scenes are top notch. I still could have not gone and been OK, but there are worse ways to spend a few hours. Especially with a movie like that in the XD theater! My wife was worried she was going to be disappointed. She wasn't but liked the first better. She caught most the call backs I believe with her fandom, I missed some even watching it the night before. Anyway, I said after, don't mean to offend, but was a much better story. Even gave her an example of a failure of that element in the first and she didn't disagree.

So I'm somewhere in the middle of it being this fantastic addition and just a popcorn way to spend Memorial Day weekend. I do think it can almost serve as a standalone.

Also, I almost never see a movie that's not in XD any more (especially since I think I pretty much just see Marvel movies in person at this point). It's neither, but Free Guy was amazing in it. If you have one near you, use it for a movie like this!

 

We went to a 10 p.m. showing last night and I'd have to say it was mostly middle aged and a good smattering of their kids and post college people (we live in a college town so popular movies are usually filled with college kids). It was full.

 

Saw this in the theater (only one in it, not shockingly!) and thought it was pretty bad and you're right on the lack of Liam killing people.

His latest one, Memory, was quite a bit better, I thought. More interesting story and a touch more action, though still not the crazy type of stuff in the Taken films.

 

Top Gun. Lived up to all the good reviews and word of mouth. Very fun. Great stunt flying. Better movie-making than the original, thanks to technology and a great script, IMO.