Star: Michael Ironside

Top Gun (1986) – Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer

Tom was very young when he made this movie, but he pulls it off.

Forgiving the first 3 minutes which is rather boring and just a way of displaying the opening credits; the next 10 minutes are a strong blend of good music, mildly exciting action (toying with Russian fighter pilots during the cold war, without anyone actually shooting anyone), and a very well played balance of cool calm collectedness assisting someone suffering from a panic attack while flying a jet into landing on an aircraft carrier.

Minus a bit of romance, some slow drama, and some jack-the-lad behaviour, and the tone for the rest of the movie is basically already set. But things are levelled up as of 15 minutes in, when Tom Cruise playing Maverick gets promoted to Top Gun, an elite school for the best fighter pilots in the America. The whole movie was obviously an expensive but effective airforce recruitment campaign, which made for one of the best, most memorable and most rewatchable action hero movies of the 1980s, and fast-tracked Tom Cruise’s career to the very top.

After an excess of drama with not so much fast action in the middle, things get spicy again in the last 20 minutes as a real conflict emerges where Maverick and his fellow Top Gun graudates are called into action. Although simple in concept, the final scene is well executed. Add to that, 5 minutes of drama then 5 minutes of closing credits and that’s the movie done.

It’s quite disgusting how blowing Russian planes, on the Russian side of the border, in a way that probably killed the Russian pilots, who themselves killed nobody, is cheered and celebrated as if scoring in a baseball game or a computer game. But that’s Hollywood for you.

Considering its highs (some great action and script features) and also its downsides (excessive boring drama), and considering its overall impact as a memorable classic that stands out but has considerable flaws, I have to rate this movie as Decent, on a par with other movies of similar balance of pros & cons, including some real classics from the 80s like The Karate Kid (1 and 3) and The Living Daylights (my favourite Bond movie). How could it have been improved even more? Simply more of the good stuff and less of the filler drama – it’s not rocket science. This movie could have easily doubled its thrills and appealed more to action hero movie fans although dramawhores would probably be turned off then.

A stronger supporting cast wouldn’t have been a bad idea either. Tom himself performed very well. Val Kilmer added value too. Guys like Michael Ironside, Tom Skerritt and James Tolkan helped a bit too. And the lead female, Kelly McGillis, wasn’t terrible. But a stronger supporting cast could have significantly benefitted the movie nevertheless. I’d have had Kelly McGillis as a secondary female, with someone more effective above her; I’d have had more powerful characters above the others too, without necessarily getting rid of them. As for Anthony Edwards and Meg Ryan, I think they added little value – they were easily replaceable, along with anyone who I didn’t bother to mention.

Highlander II: The Quickening (1991) – Christopher Lambert

Having a messier a plot than the original Highlander, and having overly drawn out fight scenes that get especially boring for rewatchers, Highlander II deserves a lower rating than the original but is still just about watchable – generally worth watching sequentially after the original and before the third and fourth.

The best part of this movie is the re-appearance of Sean Connery in a strong supporting role albeit with a lot less screen time than Christopher Lambert, the star of the first four movies in this series. There are 5 movies in total, in the Highlander movie saga, and none of the sequels are as good as the original, but the 5th instalment deserves erasing from history altogether.

Michael Ironside does a fair job as the main antagonist in Highlander 2. Not a pleasant character – sick in every way – but respectable acting.

Virginia Madsen does a decent job as the main female in this movie. She makes a credible couple with Lambert.

The plot takes us to the future, to 2024 (considering the movie came out in 1991) where baddies have blanketed the sky with a “shield” (that looks like modern “con trails”, to use the less controversial name for them). This shield was originally installed to protect the earth from radiation of the sun, due to a hole in the ozone layer, but after it repaired itself, the bad guys left the shield in place for nefarious reasons without telling anyone that it’s no longer needed.

There are a few good scenes in this movie, but there’s a lot of slow & dull material here too. It’s mad how it had a budget of over $30 million – about twice that of the original, yet ended up in the state it did. The producers of Highlander II: The Quickening could hardly have done a worse job if they tried!

The Next Karate Kid (1994) – Pat Morita and Hilary Swank

By the time this movie came round, Ralph Macchio was in his early 30s and deemed too old to continue to role of Daniel-san, the naive student of Mr Miyaji. Enter Julie-san, played by Hilary Swank. I guess she did her best, but it didn’t appeal much to my taste. Hilary Swank looks like a cross between Denise Richards and Arnold Schwarzenegger. And her character’s attitude (although it improved towards the end) was purposely the opposite of a respectable, cautious, conservative young lady, and this unfortunate feature co-incides with other sacrilegious vibes throughout, such as disciplined monks dancing to pop music and drooling at the idea of prancing around town.

Pat Morita did alright, reprising his role as Mr Miyagi, although the script seems incredibly lacking – he didn’t have much to work with.

This movie seems like it may have been made on a shoestring budget because it honestly seems like a mockery of those that came before it. But it actually cost only slightly less than the one before it, so I would have to say the leadership team is to blame, specifically the writer Mark Lee and the director Christopher Cain – they did an absolutely abysmal job compared to the team behind the first three movies: writer Robert Mark Kamen and director John G. Avildsen.

Chris Conrad almost stole the show – he did a great job as Julie’s boyfriend.

Michael Ironside and Michael Cavalieri also gave strong performances as the chief bullies in this movie.

It’s an inferior movie to Karate Kid 2, so I can’t give it the same 7/10 rating. It’s about equal to the others rated 6/10 so that’s the score I’ve given it for now.