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A14 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 13 May 2022
'Top Gun' sequel a welcome trip to the danger zone

By MARK KENNEDY and a Porsche, so business
AP Entertainment Writer is good. But she's also not a
Early on in "Top Gun: Mav- push-over for on-again-off-
erick," Tom Cruise hops again Maverick and, in a
on his sleek motorcycle, key scene, she's the com-
wearing Aviator sunglasses fortable pilot of a boat and
and a leather jacket with he's the clueless one.
patches, and speeds into This is a more thoughtful
a time machine. No, that's Maverick, more gloomy.
not right. It's actually us "Top Gun: Maverick" is in
who take a trip back. some ways a meditation
More than 30 years after on what happens to gifted
Cruise smirked his way to rebels later in life. He is riven
the cocky heights of the by guilt and in one scene
'80s as the maverick Navy This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Tom Cruise as Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell he is picked up and uncer-
pilot codenamed Mav- in "Top Gun: Maverick." emoniously tossed out of a
erick, he effortlessly picks Associated Press bar by the very same hot-
up the character in a new shots that he was 30 years
chapter of "Top Gun" that he should be an admiral to himself. er. Will Maverick be respon- ago. Worst, he's called
is an absolutely, thoroughly because he keeps buck- Some things have sible for cooking another "pops." What is remark-
enjoyable ride — a text- ing authority. The years changed, of course. The F- Goose? Can he outwit able is that Cruise looks to
book example of how to have not calmed Maver- 14A Tomcats have been re- John Hamm, playing an im- have indeed found a way
make a sequel. ick from his impulsive, hot- placed by the F/A-18 and perious by-the-book officer to thwart time. His chiseled
"Top Gun: Maverick" sat- headed style. Pilots do, he the all-male cocky pilots with delicious calm fury? body and still-boyish face
isfies with one foot in the argues; they don't rumi- of the first film have been Director Joseph Kosin- are indistinguishable from
past by hitting all the nate. "You think up there, infiltrated by a few cocky ski brings a visceral feel to the pilots three decades
touchstones of the first film you're dead," he states. This women. Unfortunately, it the film, somehow making his junior during a football
— fast motorcycles, the is Cruise at his most Cruise- seems these are the last us feel claustrophobic in game on the beach.
song "Danger Zone," mili- iest, coiled, sure and arro- days of envelope-pushing the wide open sky as pi- The film handles Maverick's
tary fetishisms, humorless gant, teeth gleaming in the men and women in na- lots swoop and swerve. He personal stuff — wooing the
Navy bosses, shirtless bond- sunshine. val aviation; pilotless air- wonderfully alternates be- barmaid, repairing his rela-
ing sports, "the hard deck," His once-rival Iceman — craft are more reliable and tween loud scenes outside tionship with Goose's kid —
bar singalongs and buzzing Val Kilmer — is back, too, a they're next. "The future is with airplane engines roar- while also fulfilling its prom-
the tower — and yet stands huge Navy muckety-muck coming and you're not in ing and quiet ones indoors ise as an action movie.
on its own. now. And even Goose is it," Maverick is told by Ed of people almost whisper- There are jets pulling 10Gs,
It's not weighed down by back, by way of his son, Harris, playing a humorless ing. He also switches from the metal sound of cock-
its past like the last "Ghost- the similarly mustachioed admiral. brilliant sun to dark interiors. pit sticks being pulled, epic
busters" sequel, but rather Miles Teller, who is strikingly But Maverick, on the edge One welcome touch in the dogfights and the whine of
soars by using the second similar looking to Anthony of extinction, has one last screenplay by Ehren Kru- machinery balking at the
to answer and echo issues Edwards, the actor who job for the Navy: Train a ger, Eric Warren Singer and demands put on it. The ac-
with the first. played Maverick's doomed group of young hotshots Christopher McQuarrie is a tion even takes a few unex-
Cruise is, of course, back, flight partner and wingman for a dangerous bombing new love interest for Mav- pected and thrilling turns.
reprising his rebel test pilot in life in the first film. That mission in Iran. One poten- erick. Jennifer Connelly So jump on Maverick's bike,
now based in a forgotten death looms large for Mav- tial snag: The young hot- plays a divorced bar own- hug him tight and join him
corner of the Mojave Des- erick even 30 years on: "Talk shots he must train include er who has a townhouse, on the highway to the dan-
ert, a mere captain when to me, Goose," he'll whisper Goose's son, call sign Roost- a beach house, a sailboat ger zone.q

Geena Davis memoir 'Dying of Politeness' comes out in fall

winner Geena Davis has a blum from "The Fly." to a baseball phenomenon
memoir coming out this fall, Davis, 66 said in a state- in 'A League of Their Own,'
titled "Dying of Politeness," ment that the book would to the first female presi-
and described by the ac- reveal how acting helped dent of the United States in
tor as her "journey to ba- transform her into a person Commander in Chief, and
dassery." in charge of her own life. more," she said.
HarperOne, an imprint of She won an Oscar for her "For everything I put into
HarperCollins Publishers, supporting performance in each of those roles, I've
announced Tuesday that "The Accidental Tourist" and taken far more away. I've
the book will be published was nominated for best ac- been blessed to practice
Oct. 11. According to the tor for "Thelma & Louise." In living a different life — a
publisher, Davis will share 2019, the academy pre- bolder, freer, and more au-
"laugh-out tales" about sented her the Jean Her- thentic one — onscreen.
her modeling career and sholt Humanitarian Award In this book, I'll reveal the
provide candid accounts for her advocacy for gen- ways in which my public life
of films "Tootsie," "The Acci- der equality in media. — the movies, the advo-
dental Tourist" and "Beetle- "As my career progressed, cacy, and my relationships
Geena Davis, star of "Thelma & Louise," poses in a 1966 Ford
Thunderbird similar to the one featured in the film, at the 30th an- juice" and co-stars such as I went all the way from — have impacted and
niversary screening of the film in Los Angeles on June 18, 2021. Susan Sarandon of "Thelma playing a soap star in her empowered the private
Associated Press & Louise," Madonna from underwear in Tootsie, to me, and, I hope, inspire
"A League of Their Own" a housewife turned road my readers to expand their
BY HILLEL ITALIE NEW YORK (AP) — Oscar and ex-husband Jeff Gold- warrior in 'Thelma & Louise,' own sense of power."q