Happy Holidays to us all! One of the year’s biggest blockbusters is finally making its way to streaming just in time for Christmas day. Forget the candy hanging from the tree, it’s the eye candy provided by Top Gun: Maverick that we’re after. The smash hit sequel will gently touch down on streaming services within the next few days bringing us all a bit of holiday cheer.
Set 36 years after the original, Top Gun: Maverick brings Tom Cruise back to our screens as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and the years between have not been unkind to Cruise. The man of action is back at it, showing, yet again, just how far he is willing to go for a movie in this high-stakes environment flying fighter jets. Along for the ride this time round was Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, and Glen Powell, along with returning actor Val Kilmer.
The film took audiences by storm and became the biggest box-office success of the year taking in over $1.4 billion globally. It also received high critical praise receiving a whopping 96 percent Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score and an even higher 99 percent audience score. It is one of those rare sequels that many agree surpasses its predecessor, even with that huge time gap between them.
Here we had our own thoughts on the film, and they were that it was a triumph and a much-needed boost to the cinema industry after the pandemic saw it crippled due to lockdown restrictions. Top Gun: Maverick brings us some of the best aerial footage ever seen in a movie, as well as some fantastic mustaches that will have seen plenty of young men taking up Movember in earnest.
It wasn’t just high-octane action and greased-up pilots playing volleyball that is why the film was such a success. It deals with the grief and guilt that was left over at the end of the last film, as he continues to struggle with the death of his friend Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, especially given that his son Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw is following in his father’s footsteps.
So where can we get our mittens on the film online? Well, it will be landing on Paramount Plus on Dec. 22 as well as Epix, which will be rebranded as MGM Plus this coming January. Let’s hope it can transport us from the winter chill to the hot sun-soaked beaches of California over the winter period.