Top Gun: Maverick

Cruise still has it. Thirty plus years in and he slides back into Maverick like no time has passed, and somehow it works even better now than it did then.

The jet sequences are the real deal. Top notch from start to finish. I saw this with friends in a theater and let me tell you, that was the right call. This movie wants a big screen and a good sound system, and it rewards you for showing up.

This movie wants a big screen and a good sound system, and it rewards you for showing up.

The new blood is what really sold me though. Miles Teller and Glen Powell as Navy pilots with attitude is exactly the kind of casting that could've gone sideways and instead it absolutely sings. They've got swagger without being insufferable, which is a tough needle to thread. The supporting cast all around pulls their weight.

Jennifer Connelly is ethereal. She makes every movie she's in better just by showing up. That's been true forever and it's true here.

And then there's Val Kilmer. I don't want to say too much about it, but seeing him back in this was something special. You feel it in your chest.

Going in I figured this would be a fun nostalgia play and not much more. I walked out thinking it might actually be better than the original. Coming from me, that's not a sentence I throw around lightly.

Trying to find something I didn't like and coming up empty. That doesn't happen often. Go see it, see it with friends, see it loud. This one stuck with me, and I'd happily strap in for another ride.