Tom Cruise Called His Shot ... And Won
The man's weird as hell (and part of a confounding cult), but you can't say he doesn't make good movies.
At the time of me writing this (Wednesday morning, post-Wordle), Top Gun: Maverick has made over $300 million worldwide, including a ridiculous $160.5 million four-day domestic gross. This newsletter wasn’t built to break down box office tallies, but that’s a hell of a lot of money for a sequel to a movie from the mid-80s that has no superheroes unless you count the American military-industrial complex.
Tom Cruise did it.
For all of his jabbering on and on about the importance of movies and the theatrical experience—critical ideas for the man behind Aerial Shot as well—Tom Cruise and Top Gun: Maverick never faltered and put out a movie in theaters that people are seeing in large numbers.
It would’ve been easy to send this film that was in covid-limbo-hell to VOD or to a streamer, but Paramount Pictures waited years with this kind-of-stale IP and now hold the Memorial Day weekend record.
The other thing that’s kind of shocking, along with the feral crowds, is that it’s a good movie. Top Gun: Maverick could’ve very easily been boomer shlock that appealed to the lowest common denominator with the dumbest uses of CGI but instead it’s a rollicking good time at the theater with practical effects that walks the balance between pastiche and a nod toward the next generation. This isn’t a Best Picture candidate, but it’s not trying to be. It’s purely trying to be a good movie and we need more of those.
Lately, I’ve been on a little Tom Cruise kick. After Maverick, I’ve seen Eyes Wide Shut and The Color of Money for the first time, and it’s impressive how Cruise pivoted from an actor’s actor to a bonafide movie star.
There’s a real division in his career that either came from him changing lanes or Hollywood changing it for him. In his “early” years, Cruise worked with the zenith of directors from Martin Scorsese to Stanley Kubrick to Oliver Stone to Cameron Crowe. He took more talky, awardsy roles like in Rain Main and A Few Good Men but then created a new blockbuster Mission: Impossible version of himself as the action stunt man of cinema’s dreams.
It’s a good microcosm of what the movies have become: less of the big director-led capstones and more planes flying fast on IMAX cameras. It’s not necessarily a good or bad thing, it’s just what it is. And Cruise’s career really delineates everything that’s happened.
The best thing about Top Gun: Maverick amidst the winning corniness and dad jokes is that it’s a solid movie. It has a pretty simple plot, it never overcomplicates and it gets in and out without being a pure retread. It’s kind of the perfect summer blockbuster, and hopefully Hollywood takes the right lessons from it.
This was a passion project from Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski limiting computer imaging and instead … getting in those jets and flying them really fast.
It feels like a real movie and in the midst of the Marvel/DC swarm, it’s nice to have something that shoots outdoors and has understandable stakes. I’m so sick of portals. Every movie has portals now.
Anyway, I didn’t think it would work and it did. I don’t know a single person that didn’t come away from Top Gun: Maverick thinking that was fun and a good time.
Give us more fun and good times at the movies. Have real directors direct real movies with real stars. It’s crazy how far we get away from that straightforward ethos sometimes.
You did it. You crazy son of a bitch, you did it.
One More Quick Thing
Where’s the Buncha Crunch?
I’ve gone to the movies REDACTED over the last month and I can’t find Buncha Crunch anywhere. Is there a supply chain issue? I don’t really understand supply chains, but I’ve seen enough tweets blaming it for stuff that it feels like it might be an underlying cause.
I don’t know.
I just know that I’ve had to go back to Milk Duds (constantly getting stuck in my teeth) and some knock-off cookie dough candy garbage.
It won’t do. There’s something wrong. We need Benoit Blanc to get to the bottom of it.
Now that theaters are back—thank you, Tom Cruise—let’s bring Buncha Crunch back as well.
It’s what Goose would’ve wanted.