TOP GUN: MAVERICK: 4 STARS
This image published by Paramount Pictures shows Tom Cruise as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in “Top Gun: Maverick.” (Paramount Pictures via AP)
36 years have passed, but spectators can re-enter the danger zone.
Kind of.
Test pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) returns to the screen – and to the sky – in the high-flying sequel “Top Gun: Maverick”, which, despite the main character’s daring exploits, he mainly plays . according to the book.
When we first meet Captain Maverick again, he is still the riskiest and riskiest pilot we can remember from the first movie. His arrogant demeanor and bad boy behavior have prevented him from ascending. “I’m where I belong,” he says when asked why he’s not an admiral after decades of distinguished service. He is popular among his comrades, but not among the brass, except for his old friend and guardian angel, Admiral Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer in a prolonged cameo).
“Your reputation precedes you,” says Vice Admiral Beau “Cyclone” Simpson (Jon Hamm). “This is not a compliment.”
Back at Top Gun, the U.S. Navy’s training program where he learned tactics and fighting techniques, Maverick has one last chance at glory. “Fly for Top Gun or never fly for the Navy again.”
Cyclone obviously despises the arrogant Maverick, but acknowledges that he is the best person to train 12 of Top Gun’s brightest and best recent graduates on a dangerous mission to locate and destroy an underground uranium enrichment site.
For Maverick, work comes with luggage. He places him in the vicinity of his girlfriend Penny (Jennifer Connelly), a new character, who is referred to in the first film as the daughter of an admiral. More dramatically, one of his students is Lieutenant Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of Maverick’s late best friend, “Goose,” played by Anthony Edwards in the first film. Rooster holds Maverick responsible for his father’s death and is resistant to Maverick’s training. “My dad believed in you,” he says. “I will not make the same mistake.”
Of the 12 recruits, half will make the cut, one will be the leader, if Maverick can teach them the accuracy and the “don’t think, just do” attitude needed to get home alive.
“Top Gun: Maverick” screenwriters Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie keep the story simple; a touch of romance, a bit of remorse, a bit of shirtless volleyball and a mountain of aerial action that explodes. It is a recipe that echoes the events of the first film to a déjà vu. Still, as an exercise in nostalgia, with memories of the original and an emotional appearance of Kilmer, “Maverick” works because it combines old and new in a way that pleases the crowd. Unlike other recent reboots of the 80’s and 90’s, he greets the original as a tribute. Noisy and proud, he wears his superficiality up his sleeve with an old-fashioned style from the last century that is a cheeky fan service.
But what really makes new and old movies a part is Cruise. He was a movie star at the time, and now he is, but with age, the stakes for his character are higher. Maverick has a lot to prove, he regrets having to try, and while the actor doesn’t seem to have aged at all, this Tom Cruise career may not be as easy as it used to be. Maverick is still a protagonist, but here the character is tempered by the sins of the past and a real concern for the future. Cruise’s work removes some of Maverick’s hypermasculine edges to reveal a more human and humane character than the first time. It centers the film with a certain earthly emotion to counteract the very high action.
“Top Gun: Maverick” is a sequel that plays safely with the story, but allows it to tear apart the highly successful action sequences, giving the audience the expected need for speed.
THE BOB’S BURGERS MOVIE: 3 ½ STARS
This image published by 20th Century Studios shows Bob Belcher, with the voice of H. Jon Benjamin in a scene from “The Bob’s Burgers Movie”. (20th Century Studios via AP)
The list of sitcoms that have inspired movies is short. This week, this exclusive list grows as “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” joins other animated programs such as “South Park” and “The Simpsons” to make the leap from small to big screen.
In what could be a large-scale episode of the TV show, with a musical twist and murder mystery, the film begins a week before the start of summer. Socially awkward daughter Tina (Dan Mintz) hopes to connect with her fantasy summer boyfriend. Son Gene (Eugene Mirman) hopes that his latest musical invention, a napkin equipped with plastic forks, will be just the sound his band, The Itty Bitty Ditty Committee, needs to finally reach the audience, and then a fellow class says “baby”, little daughter Louise (Kristen Schaal) is determined to prove she’s big and brave.
Parents Bob (H. Jon Benjamin) and Linda Belcher (John Roberts) have bigger problems. “Every day I get a little diarrhea from worry and stress,” Bob sings in the first big musical number of the film. They have seven days to get a bank loan extension or they could lose their beloved burger joint.
When a giant dolina opens right in front of his business, they ask for an extension from the owner, the rich stranger Calvin Fischoeder (Kevin Kline). “I’m two-minded,” he says, “and by that I mean I’m drunk.”
When the dolina becomes a crime scene – a “crime hole” they call it – their problems increase, but a children’s investigation can lead to a solution … or maybe something worse.
With the main creative group and the returning cast of the TV series, it’s no surprise that “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” has the same kind of irreverent, funny and hilarious dialogue that makes the show and the characters a delight for twelve seasons. “Bob” fans should get the fan service they expect, while newcomers should catch the mood with ease.
However, not everything is special sauce pasta and sesame seeds. The large musical number above is pretty cool. Separate the film from the small screen edition, with great animated choreography and clever lyrics. Unfortunately, after that, it’s as if director Loren Bouchard is leaving the rest of the musical score at home. There’s one or two songs later, one with a great rhyme of “crimes and wieners,” but the promise of something different, something cinematic, is largely broken.
Rhythm problems make the final section, too long an action, an adventure sequence, a bit of an effort that absorbs some of the fun of the story. Still, as they say, the only bad burger is the one you didn’t eat, and until then, “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” isn’t bad. He has enough laughter and clever dialogue to whet his appetite.
THE AVERAGE: 3 STARS
A scene from “The Middle Man”. (Courtesy Tiff)
The new film “The Middle Man”, a dark comedy that is now being shown in cinemas, is the story of Frank (Pal Sverre Hagen), an unemployed man who takes a job in the accident capital of America.
The setting is Karmac in any Midwestern state, USA Terrible things happen almost every day. There it is so sad, the flags of the City Council are permanently at half mast. The only growing industry in the city is accident cleaning, the crew coming in to tidy up after bad things happen.
The city is breaking down, they will soon be unable to turn on the streetlights, which, says the local doctor (Don McKellar), will lead to even more setbacks, so they have to hire an average man, someone who delivers it. bad news for the families of the bad guys.
Frank, who has been out of work for three years, asks, even though his only qualifications are hanging dog behavior and telling his mother that his father fell down a ladder, hit his head and he died.
He gets the concert, he learns the strings: “Crying is a privilege that belongs to the closest relatives,” says the sheriff (Paul Gross), “not the average man.” – and forms a bond with the receptionist Blenda (Tuva Novotny). When Bob (Trond Fausa Aurvag), Brenda’s ex-boyfriend and failed candidate for the middle man, beats and kills Frank’s best friend, he sets in motion a series of events that make an overwhelmed Frank wonder if the his new position is right for him. “It’s a busy job,” he says, “accidents don’t keep office hours.”
Norwegian director Bent Hamer, who also wrote the screenplay based on a novel by Norwegian-Danish writer Lars Saabye Christensen, may have set the story in the Midwest, but his dark, unpublished humor is purely Scandinavian. This semi-comic study of loss and grief is macabre in tone, but it maintains a peculiar, albeit bleak, sense of self. Marking the farcical aspects of the story may have increased the commercial appeal of the film, but it may have diminished Hamer’s thoughtful thinking about life in a small, unusual town.
“The Average Man” won’t be for everyone, but viewers with a taste for unconventional but moderate absurdity will find plenty to enjoy.