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Top Gun (1986)

tomatometer

49

Average Rating: 5.6/10
Reviews Counted: 39
Fresh: 19 | Rotten: 20

No consensus yet.

33

Average Rating: 5.2/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 4

No consensus yet.

audience

82

liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 651,131

My Rating

Movie Info

Devil-may-care navy pilot Pete Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is sent to Miramar Naval Air Station for advanced training. Here he vies with Tom Kasansky (Val Kilmer) for the coveted "Top Gun" award. When not so occupied, Mitchell carries on a romance with civilian consultant Charlotte Blackwood (Kelly McGillis). Shaken up by the death of a friend, Mitchell loses the Top Gun honor to Kasansky. Worried that he may have lost his nerve, Mitchell is given a chance to redeem himself during a tense

PG, 1 hr. 49 min.

Drama, Action & Adventure

Oct 20, 1998

Paramount Pictures

Cast

All Critics (39) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (21) | Rotten (21) | DVD (39)

Top Gun is about the training of the Navy's best fighter pilots and their blooding in cold war incidents, and the only thing Director Tony Scott has not brought up to date is the story.

March 8, 2011 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Every moment is hyped for maximum visual and visceral impact, but Scott doesn't display the slightest bit of interest (or belief) in the actual characters and situations.

March 8, 2011 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Set in the world of naval fighter pilots, pic has strong visuals and pretty young people in stylish clothes and a non-stop soundtrack.

July 7, 2010 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Once 'Top Gun... gets back to earth, the master of the skies is as clunky as a big land-bound bird.

May 21, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The dogfights are absolutely the best since Clint Eastwood's electrifying aerial scenes in Firefox. But look out for the scenes where the people talk to one another.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comments (3)
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Basically perfect, even it is perfect at one of the worst sorts of things a movie can attempt.

November 27, 2011 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | Comment
Antagony & Ecstasy

Among the first generation of films influenced by the cutting techniques of music videos, a progression of oversaturated, meaty images, embarrassing dialogue and awful music.

June 3, 2011 Full Review Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser | Comment

This paean to hotshot Navy fighter pilots and high technology attracted mass audiences despite its familiar plot and characters so vapid they vanish from memory as soon as the house lights come up.

March 8, 2011 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Tom Cruise classic still revs engines.

December 18, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Watchable but rarely enthralling...

January 11, 2010 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | Comment
Reel Film Reviews

Like many films from its decade, Top Gun is steeped in 80s culture %u2013 from the top 40 music to the clothing styles.

March 5, 2009 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | Comments (2)
7M Pictures

(Its success) supports the pop-psych analysis that pre-actualized teenage boys are the most homosexual beings in existence.

August 23, 2008 Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | Comments (3)
Film Freak Central

A movie for adolescents, and adults who willfully decide not to know better for a couple of hours. [Blu-Ray]

August 11, 2008 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | Comment

The dogfights and aerial footage are fun, but a person might best forget the love story and melodrama. (Blu-ray Edition)

July 21, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

You get about thirty minutes of good movie in Top Gun, and most of that comes at the end.

September 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

This movie gets worse with time.

September 24, 2006 Comment
ColeSmithey.com

Noisy, slick, and shallow, Tony Scott's MTV-like actioner became emblematic of 1980s blockbusters, reflecting in its macho bravado and cheap elitism the mood of the Reagan era; in the process, it also made Tom Cruise the biggest star of his generation

August 16, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comments (5)

The story is risible, the direction routine, the underlying ethic highly questionable; but the flying stirs the blood like speed.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Top Gun

Top Gun is not great in my opinion, I think its a bit too popular but thats just me. The story is boring and really cheesy, I was never once getting into it. The cast wasnt great either, not Tom Cruises best. The plane scenes were pretty cool, I enjoyed that. Overall im not a huge fan of this movie, it was boring.

March 14, 2011
DreamExtractor
Brad Wright

Super Reviewer

High school cheerleading for the Naval fighter pilot set (it was made during the gung-ho military / Reagan years), but with one helluva air show thrown in. Cruise became box office bigtime with this and then there's that loud soundtrack of 80's gold: You Take My Breath Away.

July 12, 2007
moonrivers

Super Reviewer

    1. Tom Kasanzky: The plaque for the alternates is down in the ladies room.
    – Submitted by sean b (21 days ago)
    1. Lt. Pete Mitchell: Just want to serve my country, be the best pilot in the Navy, sir.
    – Submitted by Baurushan J (2 months ago)
    1. Lt. Pete Mitchell: [leaning over to Slider] Slider... you stink!
    – Submitted by Baurushan J (2 months ago)
    1. Carole: Hey Goose ya big stud!
    2. Lt. Nick Bradshaw: That's me honey.
    3. Carole: Take me me to bed or lose me forever!
    – Submitted by Brianne W (3 months ago)
    1. Tom Kasanzky: You're unsafe. I don't like you because you're dangerous.
    2. Lt. Pete Mitchell: That's right, Iceman! I am dangerous.
    – Submitted by Michael C (4 months ago)

Latest News for Top Gun

December 8, 2011:
Tom Cruise Talks Top Gun 2
He says he missed working with Tony Scott and adds, "I hope we can figure this out to go do it...

October 17, 2011:
X-Men: First Class Writers Hired for Top Gun Sequel
Paramount edges closer to the danger zone with Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz.

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Foreign Titles

  • Top Gun - Sie fürchten weder Tod noch Teufel (DE)
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