Quentin Tarantino Gives a ‘F***ing Terrific’ ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Review
Moviegoers around the world praised Top Gun: Maverick. The film accomplished the rare feat of improving upon its original material. Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino joined the Top Gun: Maverick conversation with some passionate thoughts. However, it isn’t very often that he speaks his mind about the latest in movies and television, so it’s a real treat to hear him do so.
Quentin Tarantino doesn’t like to review modern films
Tarantino appeared on the ReelBlend podcast, and Top Gun: Maverick came into the conversation. However, the filmmaker prefaced his thoughts with why he doesn’t normally address his feelings surrounding modern movies. Tarantino provided transparent reasoning that thinks beyond his own opinions surrounding a particular piece of media.
“Because then I’m only forced to say good things, or else I’m ‘slamming’ someone, I don’t want to do that.”
Quentin Tarantino called ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ ‘fantastic’
Tarantino told the ReelBlend podcast his real thoughts on Top Gun: Maverick, regardless. He had nothing but glowing comments to say about the Tom Cruise sequel.
“But in this case, I f***ing love Top Gun: Maverick,” Tarantino said. “I thought it was fantastic. I saw it at the theaters. That and [Steven] Spielberg’s West Side Story both provided a true cinematic spectacle, the kind that I’d almost thought that I wasn’t going to see anymore. It was fantastic.”
Tarantino continued: “But also there was just this lovely, lovely aspect because I love both [original Top Gun director] Tony Scott’s cinema so much, and I love Tony so much that that’s as close as we’re ever going to get to seeing one more Tony Scott movie.”
“[Director Joseph Kosinski] did a great job,” Tarantino said. “The respect and the love of Tony was in every frame. It was almost in every decision. It was consciously right there, but in this really cool way that was really respectful. And I think it was in every decision Tom [Cruise] made on the film. It’s the closest we’re ever going get to seeing one more Tony Scott movie, and it was a f***ing terrific one.”
The filmmaker reached out to Cruise ahead of Top Gun: Maverick‘s release date. He asked him how it was possible for them to do the movie without Scott, who died in 2012.
“I know; that’s why I said no all these years — for that exact reason,” Cruise responded. “We figured out a way.”
Tarantino thought the scene reuniting Cruise and Val Kilmer “was almost too cheap, but it absolutely works. It’s a bit like Charlie Chaplin dying onstage for the last scene of Limelight … but it f***ing works. You’re waiting for it, and the f***ing scene delivers.”
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ broke records for Tom Cruise
It’s clear that many audiences felt the same way as Tarantino regarding Top Gun: Maverick. The film currently sits at a 96% critics approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Meanwhile, it holds a staggering 99% audience score.
Top Gun: Maverick is the highest-grossing film of Cruise’s entire career, bringing in almost $1.3 billion at the box office against a reported $170 million budget.
