Buzz the tower

My arthritic knee did its usual thing, after being incredibly painful and almost impossible to walk on yesterday, today it was absolutely fine - the human body is so weird.

Whilst the day finished with some fine weather, it began with the opposite with a horrible grey drizzle coating everything. I’d been wrestling with going to see Top Gun: Maverick, but the bad weather was the final push I needed and so I took myself off for a mid-morning showing and was very glad that I did.

Say what you want about The Cruiser’s private life, but I maintain that the man is the quintessential movie star. Will his films change your life and make you adjust your perspective on the world? Probably not. Will some of the action sequences and his commitment to do something new and different each time make your jaw drop*? Almost certainly.

The film was an unashamed homage to the excess of 80’s action movies, complete with cheesy dialogue, a homo-erotic football game at the beach and the sight of Cruise on a motorbike racing a jet as it takes off. There was also the obligatory scene of Tom running running really fast in case we forgot that Tom couldn’t run really fast.

However, what really sets it apart are the stunning aerial scenes, which for the most part were shot for real without the aid of CGI and what a difference it makes! It was so great that even as a cynical man in my mid-forties that I could be left on the edge of my seat as these planes undertake some incredible manoeuvures, which in turn elicit genuine reactions on the actor’s faces.

Suffice it to say, I bloody loved the film and walked out buzzing from the experience. I was quite happy to get home and relax to the sound of nothing more than the bunting blowing in the wind.


*could you see Jared Leto strapping himself to the outside of a plane as it takes off?