Top Gun (4k Ultra HD+ Blu-Ray + Digital)
Blu-Ray Reviews | May 12th, 2020
Starring: Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt, Michael Ironside, Rick Rossovich, Meg Ryan, Tim Robbins, Clarence Gilyard, Whip Hubley
Written By: Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr.
Directed By: Tony Scott
Studio: Paramount
Buy On Amazon.com
Top Gun is now available on 4k so now you’ll be able to see sweaty guys flying planes, sweaty guys playing volleyball and sweaty guys standing in towels in glorious 4K Ultra High definition while Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” plays over and over!
For those that don’t know about Top Gun, it’s about Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise), a hot shot pilot who gets picked to train at TOPGUN, the Naval Fighter Weapons School. His buddy LTJG Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards) is also sent there and both are greeted with an…icy reception as the other hotshot pilot Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer) tries to knock Maverick down a peg or two. Meanwhile, Maverick is interested in “Charlie” Blackwood (Kelly McGillis), astrophysicist and instructor at TOPGUN. Under the leadership of Viper (Tom Skerritt), the head instructor at the school, Maverick is taught the hard way on how to lead.
I actually don’t think I’ve ever seen Top Gun from start to finish. I’ve seen the majority of the movie but not from the beginning, at least I don’t remember. With it out on 4k, it was a good time to check it out, especially with the long-awaited sequel coming out this December(?). It doesn’t particularly hold up all that well in certain parts and is really dated like most 80s movies are. You can tell this was directed by the late, great Tony Scott with the style he did back then. Lots of shots of airplanes, aircraft carriers with the haze and sunset in the background. It’s almost as if Michael Bay ripped off Tony Scott’s style, except he added closeup of girls butts and slow-mo of helicopter propellers.
Plus there’s the 80s pop soundtrack. Unlike Beverly Hills Cop II which came out a year later, it seems like Top Gun only had licensing for a few songs. Kenny Loggin’s “Danger Zone” & “Playing with the Boys,” Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” and the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling.” Does the last one count with Tom Cruise and the cast singing a bad version of it? Each song is played a few times in the movie.
You can see why the world fell in love with Tom Cruise with Top Gun. Charming and arrogant, had a boy-ish smile and good looks, and still looks like that now. Except now he’s doing his own stunts and pretty soon will be going up into space to film a movie. The man is insane haha. The main reason why I wanted to see this movie from start to finish is because the sequel looks really good. I wanted to get caught up to speed. I’ve seen lots of parts of this but forgot a lot about it. Making me re-watch Top Gun makes me want to re-watch Hot Shots and Part Deux as well, since they did a brilliant job of spoofing these movies and other movies of that era.
Top Gun looks really crisp in 4k and probably the best I’ve seen of it to date. There’s some obvious grain in some parts but not going to get a cleaner version than this edition right now. There’s a mixture of new and old extra content here. The Legacy of Top Gun has new interviews with Bruckerheimer, Cruise and others. On Your Six is a series of featurettes in a doc style. That was pretty good and worth watching. There’s also other things that have been on other Top Gun releases before including commentary, music videos and some other things.
Tony Scott’s Top Gun feels a bit dated in parts but it’s still an 80s movie that a lot of people love. It’s not up there for me, sorry, I’ve always been an Iron Eagle kind of guy. It’s entertaining but I felt the need to fast forward a lot of the parts involving Maverick and Charlie. If you don’t already own the movie on Blu-Ray, and want an upgrade then look no further than this 4k version.
Features:
The Legacy of Top Gun
On Your Six – Thirty Years of Top Gun
Danger Zone: The Making of Top Gun
Multi-Angle Storyboards
Best of the Best: Inside the Real Top Gun
Music Videos
Original Theatrical Promotional Material
Audio Commentary
Video:
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio:
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
German: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0
Japanese: Dolby Digital Mono
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Russian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Thai
Bottom Line: Not the greatest movie in the world but people seem to enjoy it.
Running Time: 109 mins
Rating: PG
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
