This past weekend saw an unprecedented amount of amazing content for movie and TV fans to enjoy. The small screen offered the latest season of Stranger Things and Obi-Wan Kenobi — plus a pretty great Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals — while Tom Cruise swooped in and gave life to movie theaters with his astonishing Top Gun: Maverick, which dominated the box office and critics circles alike.
Obi-Wan didn’t exactly rock my world — though, Disney has four more episodes to right the ship — but both Stranger Things: Season 4 and Top Gun: Maverick represent the best of their respective mediums. Each leans on high-octane action and an abundance of nostalgia to fuel their storylines, but both also go out of their way to deliver something truly unique, and gift audiences an absurd amount of entertainment over the Memorial Day weekend.
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Stranger Things, for starters, is essentially the greatest Nightmare on Elm Street reboot ever made. The new season follows our Hawkins heroes — Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder), Jim Hopper (David Harbour), Eleven/Jane (Millie Bobby Brown), Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin), Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), and Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), among others — as they battle a terrifying monster called the Vecna, who preys upon the fears of his victims before twisting their bones like a demented Rubik’s cube. He’s basically Freddy Krueger; and series creators The Duffer Brothers don’t even try to hide that fact, going so far as to cast the great Robert Englund in a wicked, Hannibal Lecter-styled cameo.
There are also great nods to Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Salem’s Lot thrown in for good measure. The Duffer Brothers take past ingredients and remix them to form something truly awesome. Make no mistake: Season 4 of Stranger Things is truly special — the type of show we shouldn’t take for granted. We can certainly debate whether the story deserved a supersized season consisting of over nine hours of content (with four more hours arriving on July 1), but patient viewers are undoubtedly rewarded with a truly eye-popping Episode 7 payoff that sets up what is sure to be a climactic showdown over its final two installments.
More than any show on TV, Stranger Things looks and feels like a movie. Part of my problem with the Marvel and Star Wars shows on Disney+ is that they feel rushed and look relatively cheap compared to their big-screen counterparts. There’s nothing novel about the stories being told, and the visuals are far from groundbreaking. Stranger Things goes for broke and delivers memorable characters, wicked storylines, and cinematic visual flourishes that tickle the imagination. I’m a grown-ass man and just as enthralled with the series as my 14-year-old. (Yes, we’re going to go back to Season 1 and watch an episode per day leading up to the grand finale.)
In regards to Obi-Wan, I suppose the irony here is that the original Star Wars was pieced together much like Stranger Things — from bits and pieces of TV shows and movies from George Lucas’ youth. Except, now Star Wars seems content to borrow from other franchises — the second episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi features assassins chasing our titular hero in a manner very similar to John Wick — or pander to fans — Boba Fett rides a Rancor! Luke Skywalker talks to Ahsoka! — to move its plots forward. Stranger Things takes the familiar and reassembles the parts to craft something truly unique.
I daresay, Stranger Things is as good a show as I’ve seen since the first five or so seasons of Game of Thrones. This is what Star Wars should be — big-budget filmmaking at its finest.
Similarly, Top Gun: Maverick pulls no punches and delivers the most thrilling blockbuster since, perhaps, Tom Cruise’s own Mission: Impossible — Fallout. The actor swings for the fences with his 35+ year sequel to 1986’s Top Gun and absolutely knocks it out of the park.
For what it’s worth, before Maverick hit theaters, I was prepared to write an article titled “Why Top Gun is the Greatest Film Ever Made.” Yeah, it was tongue in cheek and designed more for laughs than critical analysis, but that’s only because I’ve always viewed Tony Scott’s action flick as more of a guilty pleasure than a great movie — it’s essentially Dirty Dancing for guys. That’s not slander. I’ve seen Top Gun a million times and can practically quote it line for line. I own the soundtrack and once had the poster hanging in my room as a kid. I love Top Gun, but acknowledge its flaws as a film, and never bat an eye when someone picks apart some of its sillier aspects.
I guess that’s why I was so surprised with Top Gun: Maverick. Joseph Kosinski’s sequel isn’t a guilty pleasure movie. It’s just a great movie. Period. No, really. Yes, it more or less follows the beats of the original Top Gun, going so far as to have its own version of the infamous volleyball scene, but, like Stranger Things, it repurposes the ingredients into something wholly original and special. It’s the Aliens of the Top Gun franchise. Familiar, but new.
After my second viewing on Sunday, I sat back in my chair in astonishment. From start to finish, Top Gun 2 delivers and then some; and contains just the right amount of drama, character, heart, romance, action, humor, and spectacle one could ask for without devolving into something akin to Marvel’s disappointing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Or, any of the lazy reboots/sequels we’ve received over the years — ahem, Jurassic World.
Indeed, in Top Gun: Maverick, the great Val Kilmer makes a cameo as Iceman that left tears in my eyes. That’s not YouTuber hyperbole, either. The scene arrives at a pivotal point in the film and gives Cruise and Kilmer a chance to show off their acting muscles; and even offers a bit of closure for the former rivals. This wasn’t just a cameo tossed into the film for the hell of it. There’s a real power to seeing these two legends mingle for the first time in over three decades, and it’s one of the best scenes of the entire movie.
The big finale of Maverick has our heroes attacking a military target stuck between two mountain ranges, which they must traverse within a 2-minute timeframe or risk battle with superior enemy aircraft. As an action sequence, it’s riveting. As a character moment, it’s thrilling. Kosinski has patiently allowed us to get to know each and every pilot flying the mission so that it’s nearly impossible not to hold your breath as they dash around the dangerous mountain terrain and avoid incoming enemy fire.
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I kept waiting for Maverick to nosedive into melodramatic hokum, but Kosinski keeps the climax fun and exciting. There are real stakes involved — this isn’t Marvel — but you can practically see the giddiness by all involved, especially when Maverick and Rooster (Miles Teller) climb aboard an old F-14 jet for some old-fashioned, high-octane thrills.
Knowing that Cruise and his terrific supporting cast took the time to fly these aircraft makes the action in Top Gun: Maverick all the better. These guys could have easily shot the footage in front of a green screen or relied entirely on CGI, but they were determined to take that extra step to achieve that extra layer of realism. The passion shows. I can’t wait to watch this sucker in IMAX.
Really, that’s the gist of both Stranger Things and Top Gun: Maverick — they took the time behind the scenes to create a piece of dazzling pop culture entertainment that goes far beyond the call of duty. We don’t see that often on the big or small screen these days and need to appreciate these offerings when they land in our theaters or TV screens.
As the old adage goes, they really don’t make them like this anymore.
