Archive for: Top Gun

Top Gun 3D, Now at Home

The Top Gun 3D conversion arrives on Blu-ray this week, just a couple of weeks after it had a run in IMAX movie theaters and our editor Ward Carroll had a revealing conversation with star Kelly McGillis on his Editor’s Desk podcast. Tony Scott’s ‘80s Naval aviation classic is probably the most-discussed topic ever here on Under the Radar, so how does this new version compare to the previous editions? +Continue Reading

Free ‘Top Gun’ IMAX 3D Screenings

If you’re in Jacksonville or Virginia Beach this week and want to see the new IMAX 3D version of Top Gun, Paramount has 5 pairs of tickets for Military​.com readers in each city for special advance screenings. Details are below: +Continue Reading

‘Top Gun’ Lives in 3D IMAX

Not only Top Gun is the Citizen Kane of Naval aviator movies, it’s the picture that invented (or at least perfected) the conventions of the modern popcorn movie: loud action scenes that (sometimes) emphasize excitement over making sense, even louder rock songs that are destined to take over the radio once the movie hits theaters and incredibly attractive young actors taking advantage of their break into the big time.

There may (or may not) have been better movies released in 1986, but there’s no film that’s had the same long-lasting cultural impact. Plus, let’s not forget the Best Song Oscar it won for “Take My Breath Away.” After the great response to an excellent Blu-ray edition in 2011, Paramount decided to modernize the film and rerelease it in theaters. +Continue Reading

The Lost Top Gun Auditions

Here are the missing audition tapes from the massive 25th anniversary Blu-ray edition of Top Gun, featuring Tony Danza, Al Pacino, Alan Alda, Crispin Glover, Prince, Bobcat Goldthwait and a host of other stars.

Saturday Night Live opened its  37th season with Alec Baldwin as host and this skit was definitely the highlight. You can watch a video of outtakes at the SNL site. It’s worth watching just for the Cyndi Lauper auditiions and the rest of Baldwin’s Al Pacino imitation.

Top Gun Turns 25

2011 is the 25th anniversary of Top Gun and Paramount has released a Blu-ray + Digital Copy edition.

Top Gun is still a complete contradiction. It’s a total rush that features some of the best action sequences ever in a Hollywood movie, absolutely deserving of every last bit of its cultural influence. It’s also a total mess with a plot that doesn’t really make sense and only the weakest nod towards important stuff like motivation and character development. +Continue Reading

Happy Birthday Top Gun

Last week I tried to get a rise out of our editor Ward Carroll by sending him a link to this incredibly long story* in GQ by Mark Harris that pretty much blames Top Gun for the decline of American cinema. Since he never responded to what I thought would be considered fighting words, I’m bring it up here, right now. +Continue Reading

China Goes Maverick

As part of our ongoing efforts to keep a global perspective here at UTR, today we have a Russian TV news story on how the Chinese government’s news channel faked a January 23rd report on an air force training exercise by stealing footage from Top Gun. +Continue Reading

Commemorating the MiG Fighter’s 70th Anniversary

It’s the 70th Anniversary of the MiG fighter jet, the pinnacle of Soviet military technology and longtime inspiration to Hollywood filmmakers. +Continue Reading