TopGun Tagged Articles at Cinematical

We live in a time when war movies based on toys (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) are better received by the public than those that have a basis in truth (The Hurt Locker). G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, out on DVD and Blu-ray today, dances around its origins as military action figures by positioning its heroes as an elite unit, more like well-armed spies than anything resembling common soldiers. The aim appears to be similar, though: provide heroic figures that inspire others to follow in their footsteps.

Back in the 80s, movies that could be mistaken for recruitment propaganda became surprisingly common. The film industry, which had firmly resisted anything related directly to the Vietnam War while it was being waged, became schizophrenic in the 80s, releasing anti-war and pro-war flicks side by side into theaters. Here are seven key films, listed chronologically, that helped shape the public's perception of the military during that decade.

Private Benjamin (1980)
Nancy Meyers began here, co-writing and co-producing the tale of Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn), a bride who wears black after her husband (Albert Brooks) dies on their wedding night. A spoiled woman-child, Judy enlists in the armed forces; basic training toughens her up as she realizes she can deal with the rigors of military life. As a budding feminist, she still had miles to go to learn that she didn't need a man or the military to be all she could be; as a poster child for plucky women in the armed forces, Private Benjamin was a positive-reinforcement milestone.

This just in: Zack Snyder's use of Leonard Cohen's Hallejuah made moviegoers around the world forget they were watching Dan and Laurie get it on. I don't know where their minds were yanked to, but everyone found it distracting.

I was one of the few who didn't. In fact, I would say John Cale's version in Shrek was more distracting, considering the sexual themes of the song and the movie it was playing in. Then again, Shrek was full of adult moments, and Hallejuah was probably just another thing for the parents to enjoy.

But as always, we like to take such mildly combative subjects and put them up for discussion here. Surely there's a ton of moments in movie music history that yanked you right out of the film and left you giggling, wincing, or rolling your eyes.

On the goofy end of the scale, I would offer Top Gun, with Kenny Loggins' Playing with the Boys as a bunch of shirtless hunks play volleyball, or any of the power ballads in Rocky IV. (Still, freedom was against the ropes in that movie. Maybe I'm being too harsh.)

On the "ok, but too obvious" scale is the use of U2's Pride (In the Name of Love) in Elizabethtown. Normally, Cameron Crowe's music is impeccable, but playing it while Orlando Bloom is standing outside of where Martin Luther King was assassinated? Yeah. Not good. There's tons of moments like these. Let's write the definitive list here.

(And in order to give credit where it's due -- this idea was partly inspired by a discussion I had on the /filmcast last week ... which was partly inspired by our Good Music from Mediocre Movies debate here on Cinematical. It's like a sweater that keeps on knitting and knitting.)

Honestly, by now, I think we've all lost that lovin' feeling.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least to hear that folks were mulling a sequel to the 1986 romantic fighter jet flick. Not only are sequels to older films hot these days (see: Indiana Jones 4, Rocky 6, Die Hard 4), but Tom Cruise could provide a real boost to his rep if he were to revisit the character that kinda made him. Whether or not it would actually turn out to be a good movie is a whole different conversation. First off, according to those extremely reliable cats at The Sun, a script outline for Top Gun 2 is done and "movie bosses" want Cruise to star.

Apparently a source said this about the plot: "The idea is Maverick is at the Top Gun school as an instructor - and this time it is he who has to deal with a cocky new female pilot." Ooohh, original ... and spicy! It's like Karate Kid 4 meets A Really Big Paycheck for Tom Cruise! And yet ... we'd all still see it. Why are we such suckers? We currently have no idea how real this rumor is, so for the time being I wouldn't exactly break out into song and dance. Maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't.

What say you? Could this be the sequel we've subconsciously been waiting for our entire lives?

On the heels of the terrible Universal Studios fire comes word of another landmark movie location gone up in flames. San Diego's Kansas City Barbeque, which can be seen in Top Gun (watch one of its memorable scenes, dubbed in Italian, above), was been gutted by a fire that started yesterday in an open cooking pit. According to the AP article reporting on the fire, the restaurant was used for the scene in which Maverick (Tom Cruise) first picks up Charlie (Kelly McGillis) by singing "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," but this is incorrect (that scene was shot in Coronado, at the Officer's Club at Naval Air Station North Island). Kansas City Barbeque was used for the above scene in which Goose (Anthony Edwards) and Maverick are singing "Great Balls of Fire," as well as the final scene when "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" is playing on the jukebox.

The restaurant had capitalized on the fact that Top Gun was filmed there, and as you can see on its website, people referred to it as the "Top Gun Bar." You could even purchase Top Gun merchandise there and see props from the film, including the piano that Goose plays on and the jukebox from the end. Although the fire was reportedly extinguished in only 20 minutes, the restaurant has been destroyed and apparently those props are now lost forever.

Two things I enjoyed about Definitely, Maybe, which came out on DVD today: the cheesy jokes about New York City in the early '90s and the fact that it is a chick flick for guys. What I mean by the latter is that the movie seems targeted to females yet it caters more to the male viewer. It's basically a male fantasy: Ryan Reynolds tells the story of how he dated three beautiful women (played by Isla Fisher, Rachel Weisz and Elizabeth Banks), one of whom he married and later divorced -- meaning he's now single again. And he also got a cute, precocious daughter (Abigail Breslin) out of the deal who becomes beneficial to him in his return to bachelorhood.

But then is it really a chick flick? I guess it is if you count romantic comedies in that grouping, though the genre has never necessarily been aligned with the term, nor vice versa. And in the age of Judd Apatow, it's more likely that any new romantic comedy is actually a guy movie. Do many men realize it's a movie for them, though? Probably not. Though chick flicks are typically movies primarily populated by women characters and/or a female protagonist (think Steel Magnolias), romance films not made by either Apatow or the Farrelly brothers may be thought of as being for the ladies, even if they feature a male lead, like Reynolds in Definitely, Maybe.

I'll admit I've always been confused about chick flicks as a term. I apparently enjoy many so-called chick flicks, including even (especially) Beaches. So, I may not be using the term correctly in this list. However, I am a guy and I know what guys want. So, I'm going to do this my way, and answer the following question: What other films may have been initially perceived by males as being made for chicks but which turned out to be more for them (us)?

When you're as big a star as Tom Cruise, a little thing like Paramount giving you the boot probably won't affect your career all that much. People will still come to you, trying to convince you to be in their movies. Prime evidence of this fact is that, according to Variety (via Coming Soon), Cruise now has three projects from which to choose his next acting gig.

The first pic competing for Cruise's attention is the drama The Ha-Ha for Warner Bros, adapted by Chuck Leavitt from the novel by Dave King. In the pic, Cruise would play a mute Gulf War vet who is forced to take care of a 9-year old when his mother disappears. The next possible choice for Cruise is the indie political drama Lions For Lambs, written by Matthew Carnahan, which tells the story of a platoon of U.S. soldiers and what happens to them in Afghanistan. Cruise would play a U.S. Congressmen in the film investigating said platoon. Additionally, Robert Redford seems likely to direct the pic and may co-star as well. Plus, Meryl Streep is currently in talks to join the cast playing a reporter working either with, or against, Cruise's character.

Cruise's third potential gig is the film Selling Time for Fox which tells the story of a man who because he wants to go back and re-live the worst day of his life, hopefully making it better, must sell other parts of his life to anyone who wants them. This horror-thriller is being written and directed by Spike Lee and reportedly Lee has met with Cruise about the project several times, trying to get him to commit.

All in all, three pretty interesting choices. If I were Tom Cruise, I would pick either Spike Lee's joint Selling Time or Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs. These two films seem better, story-wise, and Cruise would definitely benefit from working with directors who have a strong vision like Lee or Redford. Really, either film would probably be a good choice for Cruise given the material and other elements involved.

But I guess if I had to pick one or the other, I would probably go with Spike Lee because he's an extremely talented director who's proven he can handle material like this -- especially with his recent and very well done Inside Man. Plus, I think Cruise and Lee would work well together and something interesting would come out of their pairing. So there you go Tom, problem solved.

How about you? What do you think Cruise's next film should be?

I'm not sure how to start this post, so I'm just going to jump right in. Somebody -- or rather, several somebodies who refer to themselves by the rather dubious moniker Team Tiger Awesome -- has turned the mid-eighties hit Top Gun into a traditional-looking silent film. The approximately five minute fan flick comes complete with wonderfully selected organ music, flicker lines and title cards to provide dialogue. If you've ever seen the Tom Cruise flick I highly suggest you watch this little gem, it packs a good amount of funny into a clever delivery. Not only is it stylistically entertaining, the title cards provide such gems as:

• Take a peak at that Sheeba across the speak-easy, she has misplaced feelings of love.
• That Jester didn't have a flapper's chance against us Protestants.
• Quiet down, Rubes. There is a homoerotic volleyball game to play.
• I must retire for the evening. My blonde quiff and I are going to engage in sexual congress.
• Maverick, only you can stop the Kaiser.

Not to mention you'll see a pre-crazy Tom Cruise in some wild aviator sunglasses, a fashion which seems to be currently making an inexplicable comeback.