Top Gun is a 80s classic.
The good. Interesting academy rivalry. Nice choice of music and score. Great footage of fighter planes. Beautiful San Diego photography. Funny scenes.
The actors. Tom Cruise plays the hothead excellently. Val Kilmer as his ice cool competitor is just perfect. However, the best and smoothest work is done by Meg Ryan. On the other hand, Kelly McGillis is unfortunately performed poorly and wasn't given much to work with. The rest of the cast does a pretty solid job. I'll just mention the better ones: Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt, and Michael Ironside. We can also see a small cameo by Tim Robbins.
The bad. Easy dialogs. Poor romance plot with lots of cliché and a weak female lead. A few continuity problems. Cockpit filming, lighting conditions mainly, doesn't correspond to fighter plane footage.
The ugly. Very awkward stick handling that looks ridiculous.
The result. A classic, mainly for those interested in seeing what really launched Cruise's career.
6*/10
