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J U N E 5, 2022
E N T E R TA I N M E N T
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ — a Viseral Good Time and Salute to the Original
weren’t for the A-6s and F-14s being replaced by F-18s and F-35s, you might wonder if you’ve accidentally ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ wandered into a revival screening of (out of four) “Top Gun” instead of the sequel. Paramount Pictures presents a film This is the kind of movie where PHOTO COURTESY IMDB directed by Joseph Kosinski and writyou feel like you’ve seen it before ten by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Hug — you know, when he hesitates you’ve even seen it, and you’d be Singer and Christopher McQuarrie. for just a moment and then comes right, as there are no surprises in Rated PG-13 Only in theaters. in for the bro-embrace, complete “Maverick,” and many of the new with a dramatic shutting of the eyes characters are screenplay doppelom Cruise had his breakand balling up of the fists, and you’re gangers for figures from the original through moment in thinking: Great hug, Tom Cruise. film, and we can see the big action 1983’s “Risky Business” “Top Gun: Maverick” picks up twists and emotional reveals comand planted his flag as an the story some 35 years after the ing two scenes in advance — but A-list headliner with “Top Gun” in events from Ridley Scott’s pop culthat’s all good. We’re not looking for atres • Santa Clarita Signal adsource@exhibitorads.com 1986, and he’s never NOT been a ture touchstone movie, and while some sort of introspective, existenmajor movie star (with a carefully p. 888.737.2812 f. 203.438.1206 5.9” it’s even slicker, bigger and more actial, dark drama with psychological cultivated image) ever since. Now tion-packed, it’s also a greatest-hits underpinnings, we’re anticipating a June 5-9, 2022 date: Sunday-Thursday, comes the much-delayed, highly tribute, starting with the opening good old-fashioned summer movanticipated “Top Gun: delivery date: sequence is virtually a shot-byTuesday, MayMaverick, 31, 2022” at 5:22:03 PMthat CASCS_LEM0605-0609.qxp ie experience, and we’re expecting and the 59-year-old Cruise proves shot re-creation of the 1986 film, to feel our teeth rattle and feel our he can still hit all the familiar and from the opening strains of Harold eyeballs pop as we enjoy the roller crowd-pleasing notes, from his willFaltermeyer’s theme to the sounds coaster ride and revel in all the faingness to throw his very being into of Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” miliar beats and callbacks. a role, to knowing just when to flash as an aircraft carrier support crew “Maverick” is a movie made for the pearly whites, to the Tom Cruise prepares planes for takeoff. If it “Top Gun” fans BY “Top Gun” fans, including director Joseph Kosinski, who wisely follows Scott’s directorial playbook nearly page-for-page and TM gives Cruise and the outstanding supporting cast breathing room to shine in alternating scenes of hotshot pilot banter and dramatic emo22500 Lyons Ave. info Line 310.478.3836 tional impact. Cruise’s Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell lives alone in a Mojave DesCrimes of the future E Sun: 1:10 4:10 7:20; Mon: 1:10 4:10; Tue: 1:10 ert airplane hangar (pretty sweet 4:10 7:20; Wed: 1:10 4:10; Thu: 1:10 4:10 7:20 An investigator uncovers a mysterious group with a mission to shed light on the next phase of human evolution. setup!) and still soars the skies as eiffel E Sun & Mon: 1:20 4:20; Tue: 4:20 PM; Wed & Thu: 1:20 4:20 a test pilot for the Navy — but as Everything changes for celebrated engineer Gustave Eiffel when he crosses paths with a mysterious woman from his past. the old-school yet forward-thinkWatCher E 7:10 PM A young actress who just moved to town with her boyfriend notices a mysterious stranger watching her from across the street. ing Rear Adm. Cain (a perfectly cast the BoB’s Burgers movie C 1:30 4:30 7:30 Ed Harris) reminds Pete, drones are “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” is an animated, big-screen, musical comedy-mystery-adventure based on the long-running Emmywinning series. making his kind obsolete, and one top gun: maveriCk C Sun to Tue: 1:10 3:10 4:10 6:30 7:15; day the Navy won’t even need pilots Wed & Thu: 1:10 3:10 4:10 7:15 After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is pushing the envelope as a anymore. Maybe so, comes the reply. courageous test pilot. But not today. DoWnton aBBey: a neW era B 1:00 4:00 7:10 The much-anticipated cinematic return of the global phenomenon reunites the beloved cast as they go on a grand journey to the Mav’s former rival turned best South of France to uncover the mystery of the Dowager Countess’ newly inherited villa. friend Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val DoCtor strange in the multiverse of maDness C 1:00 4:00 7:00 Journey into the unknown with Doctor Strange, who, with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending Kilmer), who is now an admiral and and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to confront a mysterious new adversary. the commander of the Pacific Fleet, offseason 12:45 PM Upon receiving a mysterious letter that her mother’s grave site has been vandalized, Marie quickly returns to the isolated offshore taps Maverick to train the incoming island where her late mother is buried class of elite pilots at Fighter WeapexhiBition on sCreen: pissarro - the father of impressionism ons School in San Diego, much to Mon: 7:30 PM; Tue: 1:00 PM a speCial Day I Wed: 7:00 PM the dismay of the by-the-book Vice BloCk party Wed: 7:30 PM Adm. Beau “Cyclone” Simpson (Jon Keke McQueen puts her career at stake in order to save her grandma’s historic Juneteenth block party. Hamm, continuing a decades-long JurassiC WorlD Dominion C Thu: 7:10 PM Dinosaurs now live - and hunt - alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, string of playing detectives, FBI once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on Earth. agents and uniformed authority figFOR 6/5/20226/9/2022 ONLY WWW.LAEMMLE.COM ures). By Richard Roeper Signal Contributing Writer
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Mav is still haunted by the death of his best friend, Goose (Anthony Edwards), and wouldn’t you know it, that toddler in the little cowboy hat who sat on the piano when Goose banged out “Great Balls of Fire” in “Top Gun” is now a pilot named Rooster (Miles Teller), and Rooster resents the hell out of Maverick for more than one reason. The class also includes the cocky, Iceman-like Hangman (Glen Powell), a female pilot with the call sign of Phoenix (Monica Barbaro), and a bunch of other thinly drawn characters mainly here to fill out the seats in class and participate in a torso-baring beach football scene with direct echoes of the homoerotic volleyball sequence in the original. Maverick’s job is to select the best team for a mission that involves bombing a uranium enrichment plant on enemy soil — a mission that will take at least two miracles, or so we’re told, and looks to be something straight out of a “Star Wars” movie. Would it shock you to learn circumstances lead to Maverick being named as the team leader, even though he’s supposed to be grounded? Come on, you didn’t think Mav was going to be coaching from the sidelines as Hangman and Rooster and Phoenix et al. soared to glory, did ya? The sublime Jennifer Connelly lends heart and warmth as Penny, a single mom who runs the local bar and once had a thing with Mav (it’s referenced in the original movie) and she says they’re not going to do that dance again, but of course they are. Cruise and Connelly are wonderful together, and Cruise and Teller establish an involving fatherestranged-son-type dynamic — and there’s a genuinely touching scene in which Maverick and Iceman are reunited, with Val Kilmer’s real-life battle with throat cancer reflected in Iceman’s declining health. And of course, the airborne sequences are spectacular and especially impressive, given we are watching practical effects as opposed to CGI. “Top Gun: Maverick” is a visceral good time and a worthy salute to the original.
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