Quentin Tarantino gushes over Tom Cruise’s ‘Top Gun’ sequel; calls it 'spectacle'

American director-writer Quentin Tarantino is among the many moviegoers who fell in love with actor Tom Cruise’s ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, which is a sequel to his 1986 film of the same name. The ‘Pulp Fiction’ director visited the ‘ReelBlend’ podcast this week and was all gushing over the Tom Cruise follow-up movie and had nothing but positive things to say about the actor and the film. 

"I f***ing love ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’ I thought it was fantastic," Tarantino said. "I saw it at the theaters. That and [Steven] Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’ both provided a true cinematic spectacle, the kind that I’d almost thought that I wasn’t going to see anymore. It was fantastic."

Tarantino has openly admired Tony Scott, who directed the original ‘Top Gun’ and also ‘True Romance’, the script that came from Tarantino. Scott passed away in 2012. The ‘Top Gun’ sequel, which Tarantino believes was the closest to a Tony Scott film that audiences will ever see, now that he is no longer with us. "There was just this lovely, lovely aspect because I love both Tony Scott’s cinema so much and I love Tony so much that that’s as close as we’re ever going to get to seeing one more Tony Scott movie," Tarantino said. 

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Praising Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski, Tarantino expressed, "Director Joseph Kosinski did a great job. The respect and the love of Tony was in every frame. It was almost in every decision. It was consciously right there, but in this really cool way that was really respectful. And I think it was in every decision Tom (Cruise) made on the film."

"It’s the closest we’re ever going get to seeing one more Tony Scott movie, and it was a fucking terrific one," the 59-year-old underlined.

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The only complaint the filmmaker had about the film was the reunion scene between Cruise and Val Kilmer, which he thought was "almost too cheap." At the same time, he added that it works. "It’s a bit like Charlie Chaplin dying on stage for the last scene of ‘Limelight’… but it f***ing works. You’re waiting for it and the f***ing scene delivers."

Tarantino in the ‘ReelBlend’ podcast named Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’ the "greatest movie ever made." 

"And then there are other movies that can get in its rarefied air. But as far as a movie, there’s no making it better than ‘Jaws’", he said, adding, "There’s no ‘better’ than ‘Jaws.’ It is the best movie ever made. And it shows how badly timed most movies made before ‘Jaws’ were."

Meanwhile, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ continues to create new records at the box office even after earning over $1.3 billion globally. It has become Tom Cruise’s highest-grossing movie ever in his career. The film follows the story of Captain Pete Mitchell (Tom Cruise), who trains young graduates. Other cast members include Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, and Ed Harris.

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