Top Gun (1986)
I think it’s safe to say that nostalgia is the only reason Top Gun remains so revered. At least, I hope that’s the only reason, because Top Gun is a really bad movie.
Top Gun was the highest gross film in 1986, as well as the cannon that shot Tom Cruise into super stardom. Since I wasn’t around in ’86 and I have the benefit of hindsight, I can’t fathom how people watched Cruise and didn’t think something was a little off. He has such a creepy intensity that oftentimes I just had to assume he was looking at Kelly McGillis intimately. If I’d judged it by his acting, I could only assume he was about to strangle her.
His character, the forever memorable Maverick, also seems to me like an unlikely character to root for, much less idolize. Maverick is absurdly arrogant and desperately defiant, risking his own and others’ lives repeatedly. The movie lets him off the hook by having tragedy come by way of accident instead of his actions, but that doesn’t change the fact that Maverick is, all things considered, a prick.
The characters remain static, never becoming more than “the goofy best friend”, “the hard-to-get love interest”, “the snarky rival”, and, of course, “the angry bald dude”. All of them spend the entirety of the film telling Maverick to chill the hell out. Maverick spends the entirety of the film telling them to fuck off.
Adding insult to injury is the soundtrack. I’m not a hater of 80s music by any means, but the guy in charge of Top Gun’s soundtrack seems content with getting two songs and repeating them ad nauseam. “Danger Zone” has never been anything more than a novelty, and the opening bars of “Take My Breath Away” are not some works of genius – neither needs to be heard as much as they are during Top Gun.
There are a few redeeming reasons to watching Top Gun. You’ll probably recognize a bunch of phrases that have become part of popular culture, and there are some amazing flight scenes. In fact, the action scenes in the air are so impressive that I would probably recommend the movie for those alone – the last act, which centers on Cruise’s first real assignment could stand alone as a great action short film. Had the movie focused even more on scenes with its characters kicking aerial ass and less on superfluous beach volleyball scenes, it might have gained more credibility as a classic 80s action film.
Instead, Top Gun is a Tom Cruise showboat, championing a character who you’d never want to work with in your life. The story is flat and superficial, and the acting is hammy, sometimes worse. As an impressive showcase of jet pilot action scenes, Top Gun works exceedingly well. As a movie, Top Gun is really bad.
Final rating: 4/10
–James A. Janisse
Minority Report (2002)
Minority Report is Steven Spielberg’s 2002 science fiction film loosely based on a short story by Philip K. Dick. Taking place in a dystopian 2054, when civil liberties and privacy are beginning to seem like mere memories, the film follows Tom Cruise as an officer of the Precrime divison of the Washington D.C. police. As part of this division, Cruise interprets vision from three “Pre-cogs”, and arrests people before they are able to carry out murder.
I didn’t see Minority Report for a long time, and in fact saw it after Avatar. By seeing it this way, it seems almost impossible to me to comment on the film without noting the similarities. From some psychological themes to the advanced technology that both movies employ, it almost seems like Avatar looked heavily toward Minority Report during its development. If I had to crudely compare the two, I’d say that Avatar has the clear upper hand in visual effects, no doubt due to its later production; however, whereas Avatar’s plot was middling at best, Minority Report offers a fantastic, if somewhat complicated, story that raises some serious philosophical issues.
Like Avatar, Minority Report is a perfect example of a well thought-out premise. Both the world in which it takes place and the issues surrounding Precrime’s mission to arrest people before they commit a crime are fully realized and discussed. Minority Report actually presents a sort of textbook case concerning determinism and free will. It touches on the idea of self-fulfilling prophecies and looks at these issues through a lens of neuroscience and metaphysics. It all makes the film very modern and authentic, and anyone with interests in such cognitive subjects will likely find the film engaging. Some have complained that the movie never offers a satisfying conclusion about the themes that it explores, but such closure is rare in philosophy, especially when dealing with free will. I feel like definitive closure on the matter would have simplified and detracted from the mature presentation of these ideas.
If Spielberg wanted to answer these questions, we should trust that he would have. The technology and world the film takes place in is certainly realized extensively. It’s not just spiffy technology such as elevator automobiles, mechanical police spiders, or Cruise’s giant board that he uses to interpret visions in a sort of holographic dance; it’s also the pervasive feeling that there is nowhere in this world that one can be alone in. Like other dystopian films such as Blade Runner, the Big Brother-esque world that this all takes place in produces a great feeling of anxiety. We may like the suggestions that Amazon makes to us right now, but how would we feel about holograms announcing those suggestions and your past purchases aloud in the store?
This anxiety and suspense is also heavily augmented by the look of the film. The whole time, we are subjected to a dark world, with heavily saturated colors and deep shadows. A blue wash helps to drown the world in a hopeless surrender to technology. It’s fantastically dreary, and extremely reminiscent of noir films.
That’s not the only thing that makes Minority Report a science fiction noir. Cruise’s character isn’t the cocky and goofy jock that you might expect him to be, but instead is much more akin to the hard-boiled detectives from dark noirs of yore. A lot of the common issues are present: The loss of a son, drug addiction, having to serve with inmates he helped put away. They’re tropes of the genre, but they never feel stale in Minority Report. I can’t say that it’s all because of Cruise, because I wouldn’t consider myself a fan and I don’t think he’s flawless in the film, but he certainly looks better as this character than many others I’ve seen.
Colin Farrel and Max von Sydow are both talented actors that bring interesting characters to the story. Samantha Morton delivers what’s probably the best performance as a very vulnerable and helpless Pre-cog that may help Cruise as he tries to fight wrongful accusation. There are some stellar scenes that stand out, especially one involving Cruise in a bathtub under threat of the government spiders. It’s great in suspense, and follows an appreciated cameo by Peter Stormarre.
Minority Report is a bit long, and the plot may seem too convoluted or confusing for some viewers. In the wake of Avatar, I’m sure that there will be countless who draw comparisons. Sadly, I suspect that some will champion Avatar because of its grandness and visual effects that seem like they’re from a different generation entirely. I would disagree with those people, because Minority Report has the brain that Avatar was lacking. The film is an outstanding science fiction work, and I can only hope it will be remembered that way in years to come.
Final rating: 8.5/10
–James A. Janisse
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
It may be safe to say that Stanley Kubrick is my favorite director. There are plenty who come close to that spot, but nobody else has produced so many movies of the highest quality and in such an array of genres as Mr. Kubrick has. I finally got around to watching the last film he made, Eyes Wide Shut, and while it wasn’t quite his usual masterpiece fare, it was still a solid film and definitely a Kubrick film.
Eyes Wide Shut is a so-called sexual thriller about a couple with slight marital problems played by Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. The very first shot, that of Kidman nude from behind, establishes this film’s ferociously sexual nature. This film is not for people sensitive to depictions of sex and nudity. As a person not offended by such material, I found it interesting and quite frankly brave to go as far as it does. I know it’s become somewhat controversial because of its excessive skin, but I’m not going to criticize it for its excess.
I will criticize other aspects of the film, however. For a story that focuses on a married couple, the screentime is clearly dominated by Cruise. I wouldn’t mind this so much if Cruise wasn’t giving one of the most wooden performances I’ve ever seen him do. Entire scenes will go by with Cruise’s facial expression remaining absolutely static. It’s like his reaction to his emotions short circuited and he was left with an inability to discriminate between shocked, sad, and angry. There are a few scenes where he does an all right job, but most of the time Cruise is no more expressive than the masks in the film. Nicole Kidman didn’t impress me at all, but next to Cruise she looked good.
The film’s pacing and timing is my other point of complaint. There’s definitely no sense of urgency to the story, and though I don’t mind a story taking its time, this one overstays its welcome and runs needlessly long. I’m not sure if the story should have been trimmed or just the shots, but either way, the film should have been more succinct.
Besides those issues, the film is solid and handled expertly by Kubrick. The direction is characteristically well-crafted. Eyes Wide Shot features a lot of the steadicam following shots that Kubrick made famous in The Shining. There’s a lot of color themes going on, sometimes by room, and the film is predominantly shot dimly to add to the creepiness.
Creepiness that hardly needs any help. Kubrick’s story is, as usual, interesting, dark, and somehow able to make you feel threatened. The masks used in the party that Cruise works his way into are probably the most effective at making this film unsettling. Had these masks revealed a single aspect of humanity, be it a nose or a mouth, they would have been a fraction as effective. Kubrick creates a huge crowd of anonymous people with his full-face masks; when Cruise is ordered to take his off, you can feel the weakness he is experiencing. Everyone around him gets to look out from behind their identity shields and see who he is. Worst of all, he’ll never know who out in the real world was there and could see him.
It’s thoughts like this that make the final act of Eyes Wide Shut so effectively creepy. The intriguing, unfolding story and the direction of the film make it feel like Kubrick, but there are a few aspects that mark this film as unique. Although Kubrick reuses classical music like he has in the past (A Clockwork Orange, 2001), the main score of the film is a very minimalist piano work, somewhat reminiscent of John Carpenter. Between most shots, he also uses dissolves, something that lends an atavistic feel to a film with modern stars.
This film may be divisive for some. Anyone offended by sex cannot expect to enjoy this movie – it is a sexy, sexy film. Its length and pace may agitate other viewers as well. But if you’re a fan of Kubrick’s work and style, then Eyes Wide Shut should be worth the few hours of your time.
Final rating: 7/10
–James A. Janisse
