"Maverick's" Cringe Worthy Quote

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"Maverick's" Cringe Worthy Quote

#1 Post by PHXPhlyer » Thu May 05, 2022 3:51 pm

Tom Cruise helicopters in for ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ premiere

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/05/entertai ... index.html

The “Top Gun: Maverick” world premiere was a star-studded affair, with Tom Cruise arriving by helicopter at San Diego’s North Island Navy Base Lowry Theater.

The movie comes more than three decades after the original 1986 “Top Gun,” with Cruise excited to show the audience the new flick.

“Does anyone want to see a movie in a movie theater? Let’s do it!” he told the crowd. “Let’s light the fires and kick the tires.” #-o

Cruise once again plays pilot Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in the movie, set to open in theaters May 27.

The sequel also stars Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell and Jennifer Connelly, who were in attendance at the premiere. It is directed by Joseph Kosinski.

The film will show Maverick dealing with guilt following the flight death of his best friend and Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, who was played by Anthony Edwards. Teller plays Bradshaw’s grown son, Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw.

Also joining the cast for the sequel are Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis, Lewis Pullman, Greg Tarzan Davis and Danny Ramirez.

Connelly plays Maverick’s love interest and Hamm is a Navy commander.

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Re: "Maverick's" Cringe Worthy Quote

#2 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu May 05, 2022 5:33 pm

I must admit that I thought that the original was, how do I put this? A bit gay!

Seems I wasn't the only one!

Top Gun

George Ouzounian, the author of The Alphabet of Manliness.

;)))

Don't get me wrong. Tom Cruise rocked in 'American Made', and he is a real pilot, and a pretty good one, it seems, but I would have wanted to have put 'Top Gun' behind me, er not in the literal sense, if I was him! =))

Edited to say that old George seems to have got himself involved in some internet related legal strife and hasn't posted since 2020!

PPS - Wouldn't you change your name as an actor if your surname was Hamm! =))
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Pilots Will Love Top Gun: Maverick—It’s a Lot More Real

#3 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu May 26, 2022 6:57 am

Flying Magazine liked the film.
For a movie as iconic as Top Gun, the sequel has been a long time coming. Normally, the ink is barely dry on the celluloid of version 1.0 before the next installment goes into production, ready to ride the wave of popularity and interest of that first smash hit.

But this aviation-fueled audience has waited since 1986—and there’s good reason for that. FLYING learned the secrets during an interview with top Hollywood aerial coordinator Kevin “K2” LaRosa II. He’s vice president of aerial film production for Helinet Aviation Services, and he produced the dynamic and compelling aerial ballet that comprises the heart and soul of Top Gun: Maverick.
Full article here. Worth a read...




As did The Independent...
This week, the critically acclaimed Top Gun sequel swoops into cinemas at a time when US diplomacy might as well be stuck in the Eighties: Russia is on the march, the threat of nuclear war hangs over geopolitics like a toxic cloud, and Tom Cruise is back in the cockpit as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, looking barely a day older than when he first donned the aviators back in 1986. Its all-American cool and fetishistic patriotism also reinforces a very modern trend in film the world over: cinema as a military recruitment tool.

More than 800 Hollywood films have been heavily supported by the US military over the last century, stretching as far back as the 1927 Best Picture Oscar winner Wings and the misfiring The Green Berets (1968), a schmaltzy White House-approved Vietnam War picture released at the height of the conflict. However, it wasn’t until we first heard the call signs of Goose, Jester and Iceman in the original Top Gun that this “quid pro quo” really hit the target: the film’s combination of dizzying aerial combat, thumping MTV-friendly soundtrack and shirtless beach volleyball helped US Navy recruitment shoot up 500 per cent following its release. Directed by the late Tony Scott, this testosterone sandwich of a film was such a successful bit of marketing that recruitment booths were installed in cinemas to capitalise on the hype.

The prospect of a similar PR boost via Top Gun: Maverick couldn’t have arrived at a better time for US top brass, who currently face some of their biggest recruitment challenges for decades. In April, state senators were told how the US army faced a “war for talent” amid shrinking battalion numbers, echoing admissions from air force officials that its own pool of qualified candidates had fallen by half since the beginning of Covid. Things haven’t looked rosy for the navy either, which declared in February that it was 5,000 to 6,000 sailors short at sea. A month before these remarks, Chinese vessels tracked a US warship in the South China Sea, warning it of “serious consequences” after it supposedly strayed into illegal waters.

Little wonder, then, that Uncle Sam once again welcomed Paramount Pictures with open arms for Maverick, granting director Joseph Kosinski and his crew all-access passes to highly sensitive naval facilities, including a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. World-class technicians provided cast members with top-level fighter pilot training right down to seat ejection, and actors went up in the skies as production teams placed cameras inside F/A-18 Super Hornets.

In return – as per the original film – the navy was given script approval. This might also explain why Top Gun: Maverick never goes into detail about its villains – instead, audiences are simply informed that “the enemy” is a rogue state hellbent on uranium enrichment. Let’s assume it rhymes with “Diran”.

Another coup for the Top Gun: Maverick production team was the chance to work directly with the American weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin and their secretive Skunk Works division. Keyboards were set alight when one of the film’s early trailers teased the Darkstar hypersonic aircraft, a modern twist on the Cold War-era SR-71 Blackbird. The plane wasn’t a real prototype, but China wasn’t to know that. According to Top Gun producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the Chinese moved one of their spy satellites in order to photograph the prop plane during filming, believing it may have been genuine. “They thought it was real,” he told Sandboxx News. “That’s how real it looks.”

In a world of ever-increasing technological one-upmanship, and where Russian state TV matter-of-factly simulates the destruction of the UK via a radioactive tsunami, information (and even disinformation) is king. The bigger the audience, the bigger the message, making cinema’s expanding global box office the ideal place for more subterfuge and showmanship.

In fact, the Department of Defence’s (DOD) backing of Top Gun: Maverick will be chump change compared to some of the figures China has been pumping into state-sponsored cinema of late. The Korean War film The Battle at Lake Changjin, released in 2021, was funded almost entirely by Beijing’s propaganda department to the tune of £160m, duly becoming the highest-grossing film in China’s history with a £730m haul. It even spawned a sequel – Water Gate Bridge – which topped the domestic box office this year. But it also faced stiff competition from another piece of anti-American propaganda wrapped up as a fantastical Korean War film: Sniper, about real-life legendary Chinese sharpshooter Zhang Taofang, who racked up 214 confirmed kills of US soldiers in less than 40 days. Tellingly, the film’s tagline read: “Send them all back to hell!”

With the sheer number of tickets sold, it’s clear there’s a thirst for this sort of revisionist entertainment. In Russia, cinema audiences have not exactly been turning down big screen nationalistic offerings themselves. Take 2019’s T-34, a bombastic fictional drama concerning a group of Russian POWs who escape from a Nazi concentration camp using a Soviet T-34 tank. It’s currently the third-highest-grossing Russian film in history. Every bit as pointed as the phallic arsenal regularly paraded up and down Red Square, the film was made as part of a Kremlin programme to reinstall pride among young people. As seen in the lead-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has been keen to hammer-and-sickle home the Soviets’s victory over Nazi Germany as much as possible.

While certainly not as heavy-handed as their international counterparts, many of this century’s highest-grossing Hollywood blockbusters were produced in cooperation with the Pentagon, including Avatar, the Transformers franchise and many Marvel films. In the leadup to 2008’s Iron Man, a real-life Captain America – Captain Christian Hodge, the military’s handler on set – excitedly told his superiors that “the air force is going to come off looking like rock stars”. Iron Man may be a comic book adaptation, but perhaps we should have known that a film about an American weapons contractor who designs a super-suit in order to travel to Afghanistan and kill terrorists was a little on-the-nose. Somehow, though, this unlikely partnership between the MCU and the DOD largely managed to fly under the radar for the best part of a decade.

That was, of course, until 2019’s Captain Marvel. Starring Brie Larson as an ace air force pilot given otherworldly superpowers, it was denounced in many quarters for playing out like a military recruitment film. And rightfully so in many respects. The film is unashamedly “Team America”: the US air force helped out with script research, locations and technical advice, and commissioned recruitment ads spotlighting female air force pilots that played before the film in US cinemas. At the film’s world premiere, serving female pilots dotted the red carpet and a flyover was performed by an elite squadron. It’s no coincidence that the military was looking to diversify its talent pool at the time, but for all the film’s feminist overtones, it nonetheless opened a can of worms for Disney.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ente ... 86968.html
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Re: "Maverick's" Cringe Worthy Quote

#4 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu May 26, 2022 7:51 am

Given some of my earlier comments, I will eat humble pie and will definitely watch the film. :)
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Re: "Maverick's" Cringe Worthy Quote

#5 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sat Jun 04, 2022 6:08 am

I still haven't got to see this film but this article in The Independent might be of interest to some here.
Tom Cruise is carving through a canyon at 450 miles per hour. He rears up his F-18 fighter jet, all eight Gs visible in the lines of his face, before inverting the aircraft and diving. This is just one of the exhilarating action sequences that have made Top Gun: Maverick one of the most lauded films of the year. Fans and critics alike have sung its praises, and since its release a week ago, it’s so far grossed an estimated $176m (£140m) in North America alone. It also had Cruise’s biggest opening weekend as a movie star – a maddening statistic considering his storied career.

Most importantly, though, it’s shown the continued strength of Cruise himself. While other stars turn to superhero franchises for big box office returns, here’s one man able to carry the weight of an entire blockbuster solely on his shoulders.

Cruise repeatedly touches the sky in the film, but who actually put him there? That job fell to Kevin LaRosa Jr, Top Gun: Maverick’s aerial coordinator and lead camera pilot. FaceTiming from his house near an airfield just north of Los Angeles, he detailed how the film pulled off its gravity-defying stunts – little of which used CGI – and what it was like being responsible for one of the most famous men on the planet. And a man who – just to add a bit more pressure to LaRosa’s job – insists on doing his own stunts.

No stunt double required
Cruise is known for being a physical actor, preferring to jump off buildings himself rather than have someone else do it for him. He famously broke his ankle while jumping from one building to another in Mission: Impossible – Fallout, after which he got up and finished the scene. While hanging onto the side of an Airbus A400 plane in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Cruise was hit in the chest by a rock. He’d remark it “felt like a bullet”. “If a larger rock hit him in the chest, or smaller debris hit him in the face, then the show’s over,” director Christopher McQuarrie told New York Daily News in 2015.

It’s this kind of devotion to his craft that’s helped Cruise become an industry legend. However, with Cruise busy barrel-rolling through the sky in a fighter jet, LaRosa admits to sometimes wishing that Hollywood’s biggest star didn’t quite have to do all the work himself. “We all think that way, right? Tom absolutely does things on this movie where I’m sitting there going, ‘Oh boy, that was crazy’.”

A pilot with pedigree
LaRosa is a second-generation stunt pilot and a third-generation pilot, with a CV that includes the likes of Iron Man, The Avengers and Transformers. His father had even worked with Cruise before on Mission: Impossible III.

When he was initially offered the job on Maverick, LaRosa let out a yell so loud that he scared his own family. Initially brought on as just the camera pilot, LaRosa impressed producers so much that they promoted him to coordinator, which involved briefing the cast and crew before and after each flight. LaRosa led hours of briefings with the Navy before and after every stunt was performed. “Everything in aviation has inherent risk,” he says. “But those risks are negated with excellent briefings, risk-mitigation plans and rehearsals. We call it excellence in repetition.”

The pressure of a sequel
From the off, Cruise made it clear to the Maverick team that they were at a “disadvantage”. The original Top Gun transformed Cruise into the superstar he is today. Despite mixed critical reception, the film made over $350m (£279m) at the global box office off a $15m (£11m) budget, and, thanks in part to an inescapable soundtrack, became as synonymous with the Eighties as shell suits. “When you want to make a sequel to a movie such as Top Gun, you’re going to have all the critics, all the eyes, all the attention on you,” LaRosa says.

Basically, they needed to hit a home run, and Cruise gave a number of speeches on set to invigorate the crew. According to LaRosa, Cruise told them: “We’re making a sequel to a very historic and iconic movie and we need to obtain a level of perfection with Top Gun: Maverick that has not been seen in the cinematic world before.” LaRosa pauses – “Those are big words!” he says with a laugh.

The training programme
LaRosa also helped Cruise put together the rigorous, three-month flight training programme for the rest of the cast, which included being rotated underwater in an ejection seat to prepare for emergencies. “Aside from training them to be pilots, they needed to check the boxes to be able to fly in the navy aircraft and go and do the same training that those naval aviators do,” LaRosa says. Ultimately, they needed to know how to survive in the event of an emergency taking place on a fighter jet.

As for being rolled around underwater: “It’s not something you look forward to doing.” However, LaRosa added that actor Monica Barbaro (Phoenix), who previously said her training as a ballerina gave her a “high pain tolerance”, impressed the most during training. “Monica just did incredible, [she was]really good with G-forces.”

Close enough to feel the afterburners
“It looks like you’re right there because we are literally right there,” LaRosa says. Filming in the sky, he’s the one in the camera jet, lining up the shot just “10 to 15 feet” behind the F-18s flown by Navy pilots. That means being close enough to “feel the heat from the afterburners”, or the burning fuel that comes out the back of a jet engine.

Anyone who’s seen the movie will know that the stunts are breathtaking to watch. In one memorable scene, the Top Gun pilots must perform a death-defying slalom through a canyon at tree-scraping altitude to avoid detection by the enemy. The low-level flying, LaRosa recalls, was as real as it looks in the movie – in fact, it felt even hairier from the cockpit. “I think that it’s difficult to tell just how low and fast we’re going,” La Rosa says, who adds that the pilots had “a target number of 100 feet above the trees and rocks”. “When you’re doing three, four or 500 knots through canyons, that’s up there.” He added that some Navy pilots were able to drop below that floor of 100 feet.

Unlike Marvel movies, Maverick didn’t rely on the use of CGI for its aerial stunts: “Everything was actually shooting a real aircraft.”

Pass the sick bag
Due to the extreme G-forces the cast were subjected to, there was a lot of vomiting involved in filming, but LaRosa noted that actor Glen Powell (Hangman) had a knack for “handling his business” with the sick bag and carrying on. “Most people when they get air sick, you’re kind of done. You’re out for the count,” LaRosa says.

“Glen would be in the back seat of an F-18, dogfighting and would feel it. He would take care of his business and then he’d be like, ‘Ok, let’s go!’ and he’d be right back. That’s a whole skill set, I don’t even know how you get there.”

The Cruise effect
Of course, Cruise has an “iron stomach”. “He’s in better shape than I am, mentally and physically,” LaRosa, who looks like he’s in his thirties laughs about Cruise, 59. “He’s just sharp and focused and it really makes you want to get on your A-game.”

LaRosa, who receives – like apparently everyone Cruise works with – a Christmas cake from the star every year, used the word “perfection” four times in the space of around 10 minutes while discussing Cruise’s work attitude. It’s all part of the Cruise lexicon, which has been forged by decades of anecdotes about the star’s intensity.

“Working with Tom, the best way I can put it is...” LaRosa pauses, perhaps wondering if what he’s about to say sounds a bit too much like a Cruise in-joke. “If there’s something impossible, if there’s something that can’t be done, he’s the guy who’s gonna figure out how we’re going to be able to do it. And there’s nobody better for that.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ente ... 85046.html
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Re: "Maverick's" Cringe Worthy Quote

#6 Post by Woody » Sat Jun 04, 2022 10:05 am

A real man :D

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Re: "Maverick's" Cringe Worthy Quote

#7 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sat Jun 04, 2022 12:26 pm

Woody wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 10:05 am
A real man :D

Well at least I haven't offered Tom sex and taramasalata! :p =))
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Re: "Maverick's" Cringe Worthy Quote

#8 Post by G~Man » Sat Jun 04, 2022 4:16 pm

I will go to hell for posting this one:

B-) Life may not be the party you hoped for, but while you're here, you may as well dance. B-)

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Re: "Maverick's" Cringe Worthy Quote

#9 Post by PHXPhlyer » Sat Jun 04, 2022 4:33 pm

Enjoy your stay! :ymdevil:

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Re: "Maverick's" Cringe Worthy Quote

#10 Post by PHXPhlyer » Thu Dec 15, 2022 8:13 pm

I finally got around to watching the movie (with thanks to my local public library ^:)^ ).
I am still processing my overall reaction to it.
After watching I went here and was impressed at the thoroughness of the director and production crew. :-o :YMAPPLAUSE:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1745960/tr ... =tt_ql_trv

Any opinions on the movie? :-?

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Re: "Maverick's" Cringe Worthy Quote

#11 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Thu Dec 15, 2022 9:17 pm

I must admit that I thought that the original was, how do I put this? A bit gay!

He rears up his F-18 fighter jet, all eight Gs
F-18s have a 7.5'G' limit.
Some of us know these things.
Cruise has an “iron stomach”
Oh, really!


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Re: "Maverick's" Cringe Worthy Quote

#12 Post by PHXPhlyer » Thu Dec 15, 2022 9:21 pm

IIRC he said "Functional limit, not absolute limit", or something to that effect.
Not defending, just quoting.

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