Don’t think, just do! Go by instinct, by gut feeling.

What a show! Thrilling for guys like me who love aeroplanes or in American English – “airplanes”. I love cars, well almost everything in motion…”love in emotion, que sera que sera”. Wait a sec… that’s “Lost in Emotion”.

Watching “Top Gun” (1?) in the later part of the 1980s was super thrilling. The movie was on a rented (we used to rent movies those days) VHS video-cassette tape. I watched it in my bedroom on a 20″ tube tv (with the big box at the back of it). The tv set and the video tape player (that plays the VHS video-cassettes) were my brother, Terence’s. We used to shar the bedroom back then. He and my late brother, Nigel; used to rent these videos from the shop nearby. As for me, if there was a movie on that interested me, I’d watch it. I wasn’t really a movie buff, still am not. But I was glad that I had the opportunity to watch this movie, “Top Gun.

Watching it with the sound turned up loud in a small room with the lights off, gave it some effects of a cinema. Watching the F-14 Tomcats in action, take off and land on a short runaway. it’s tactical maneuvers was amazing. It was to me, especially since I used to assemble airplane (American spelling) kits. I had quite a collection.

My dad was the one who inspired me to build / assemble aircraft because he used to build / assemble and paint (yes, paint) these kits. He is so artistic. He painted especially the camouflage colours to scale. I was not and still am not artistic. The paint jobs I did on some of my kits were disasters.

When you watch the short video clips below, make sure to turn up the sound and hopefuilly you will be watching them on a big screen, maybe with a Sensurround sound bar to enjoy the clips to their fullest potential.

There was a lot of hype in the promotion of “Topgun Maverick” over the last two years. Its release was delayed by two years mainly due to the worldwide sufferings of the Covid-19 outbreaks. Nonetheless, with all the tease short burst video clips, media interviews and promotions; the hyperbole intertest was kept hot with excitement.

All that hyperbole has paid off. It sure got the attention that they wanted, probably more. Every second of it!

Phoenix’s (Monica Barbaro) 2-finger “It’s a go”, take off signal; will be, if it has not already become; a worldwide iconic signal used by many people for “it’s a go”. That is for sure.

The smart a*s quips are just as spicy as the action. The video above shows the abrupt 90 degree climb.

Jeannie and I sat under the sky of Malaysia’s hosting of its inaugural Formula 1 in 1999. We were treated to a short aerial show by the Royal Malaysian Air Force featuring the F-18 Hornet and the Russian made Mig-29s. The guys flying the F-18s did the abrupt vertical climb, directly above us. Maybe, not as dramatic as Maverick and the rest, but us being there at that time and watching this live did the trick. We were thrilled.

@Tom Cruise: It would be great that theaters can be built with screens all round 360 degrees, meaning all round the walls, ceiling, floor; so that viewers can be so much more immersed in the movie, with near real-like experiences. For instance, the viewers can experience the 2 minute 30 seconds run to the target, seeing what you the actor / pilot is seeing. The whole cinema room is one big cinema. This brings the Sensurround sound and viewing to the next level. “Don’t think. Just do!” Wishful thinking… or is it?

ACTORS AND ACTRESSES:
Tom Cruise
Val Kilmer
Miles Teller
Jennifer Connelly
Monica Barbaro
Glenn Powell
Jon Hamn
Ed Harris
Jean Louisa Kelly
Lewis Pullman
LyLiana Wray
Manny Jacinto
India Everett
Chelsea Harris
Kara Wang

NOTES

1. Video Cassette tape is about the size of a paperback novel and about half the thickness of an average novel. A paperback novel is a story (hence novel), usually fiction; printed in book form. This is for the uninitiated – the millennials. Hopefully, they have an inkling of what a book is, what with almost everything you read today is read from a screen.