Warbird Information Exchange

"Top Gun" is returning to the big screen, the really big screen, on IMAX in 3D on February 8th. See the link for details and theater listing. Unfortunately, not a large number of theaters are currently listed, hopefully that will increase as the date gets closer.

Top Gun: An IMAX 3D Experience
http://www.imax.com/movies/m/top-gun-an ... xperience/

IMHO...Top Gun was a POS in 2D. Why would I watch it again?

Mudge the critic

Maybe it's just me and my Tom Cruise allergy.

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Land of the free because of the brave

Mudge don't be shy, tell us how you really feel!

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A&P/I.A., A.A.S./Aviation Maintenance technology
Warbird salvage/recovery
One day I'll get that P-40!

Maverick: What's your problem, Mudge?
Mudge: You're everyone's problem. That's because every time you go up in the air, you're unsafe. I don't like you because you're dangerous.
Maverick: That's right! Mudge... man. I am dangerous.


Maverick the Dimensional.

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45-47=-2

I'm lucky, a theater very close by will be playing it.
My wife and I saw it in a theater when they had that anniversary re-release a while back. I still enjoyed it.
I'll be seeing it for sure in this new format. Sure, it's an idiotic premise and has little basis in reality, but man those air-to-air shots are incredible on a big screen. It's funny how nobody's been able to top (or really even match) the quality of those sequences in all this time.

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

........the wix 3 d glasses being modeled.

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Try Sky Fighters [url]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421974/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
[/url]
The premise isn't any more realistic than TopGun, but they had support from Dassault, Airbus and the Armee de l'Air, and the only CGI is of the 'housekeeping' variety

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

It's a movie, not a documentary. Directors and producers use poetic license to tell a story, whether it be true or not. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but whether Top Gun is good or bad is in the eye of the beholder. For me, movies are more the question of "are they entertaining?". And, it depends on how you "choose" to look at the "movie" and what expectations you bring to the initial viewing. Personally, Top Gun is one of my favorites. And, this movie alone inspired thousands to join the Navy (and AF), whether it was by enlisting, being commisioned, the Academy, etc. It must sting those that hate this movie that it is so popular and remains so today. Like it or not, it has become part of the American film culture and entertainment history.
Tommy

Well said, Tommy!
Frankly, I just don't understand all the Top Gun haters. Of course it was never intended to be a serious movie. Just like I'm into the space program and can leave all the nitpicking at the door and enjoy, "Armageddon" as well, for pretty much the same reasons.
Beats me how someone into airplanes can't enjoy the opening sequences of this movie. It blew me away in the 80s to see this in a theater, and I almost as impressed seeing it on a big screen again at the anniversary screening I mentioned in my earlier post.

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

...and he wore a very prominent Seabee patch on his jacket!

I mean, c'mon. When you put it up next to its contemporaries, like "Iron Eagle" or "Firebirds", "Top Gun" comes off looking like Casablanca with F-14s.

You can't argue with the prop or costume dept. We did a one day shoot with a Discovery crew, the actor was supposed to be portraying a guy who was a USAF Capt. They pinned twin gold bars on the guy. I couldn't stand it so I said " he's supposed to be a USAF Captain, not a Navy Lieutenant" ! The girl in charge says he is ! So I let her know the bars were supposed to be silver ! It wasn't the first gaff from the research folks that day, she said there was definitely going to be a meeting when she got back to the office. They shot what they had, no changes.

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

Negative Maverick-pattern is full!!!

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A&P/I.A., A.A.S./Aviation Maintenance technology
Warbird salvage/recovery
One day I'll get that P-40!

Well, it boils down to whether or not you can stomach the 80% of bs/drama to see some great F-14 shots.
I haven't seen it since around when it came out, so obviously, I'm not that desperate for great F-14 shots. Have always thought Cruise was an insufferable twit, and a couple of decades has done nothing to revise that opinion [Ok, he did Ok in the Rainman].
At the time it was released and quite a few years after, Tomcats were regular performers at shows, so I got my fix up close and personal, so I wasn't all that blown away by the movie. I would like to see an edited version where anything not Tomcat related was snipped.

It's a movie! Not a documentary. It's supposed to entertain. 95% of the public doesn't know beans about military aircraft. So they don't pick it apart. The only ones who are critical of it are us, aviation buffs. I saw a really good film floating around Youtube about the making of Topgun. They interviewed the Navy pilot that was the technical advisor to the film. He said he tried to explain to the film crew exactly how things worked. The film crew told him if they shot the film 100% accurate that it wouldn't be very entertaining. He said after they made the movie, he understood what they meant.

I grew up next to Miramar. I had a lot Navy pilots for neighbors (one of them was killed in one of the early F-14 crashes). My next door neighbor was Ed Schneider, who was a Navy test pilot and went on to fly SR-71's for NASA. They panned the movie too. But a lot of them admitted that Topgun did wonders for the Navy and recruiting. The first annual Miramar airshow that was done after the movie came out was the best one that I ever saw. The Navy dragged out everything they had and put in the air. I'd never seen formation flyovers like they did that year, before or since. And it was all due to Topgun.