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Top Gun: Maverick | Average Guy Movie Review

  It has been more than 30 years since Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise) graduated from Top Gun, and he's still pushing the envelope - and his luck. But when the Navy is tasked with a highly dangerous mission inside enemy territory, Mav will face one of his toughest challenges yet; training a new generation of Top Gun graduates to push themselves and their planes to the absolute limit, so they can get the job done. On the face of it Top Gun: Maverick  is your typical sequel. It takes a lot of what we love about its predecessor and rehashes it. And lets face it, that title isn't exactly imaginative. There are even times when it feels like we're working our way through a checklist: flight jacket - check, motorcycle - check, riding motorcycle next to runway as jet takes off - check. They even managed to rehash the awkward meeting on the flight deck of rivals-become-friends. Needless to say, Cruise and his team bet heavily on nostalgia with this one. But i

Top Gun: Maverick | Moustache Teaser Reaction

Wow! This is the gold standard in teaser trailers. Some incredible footage, with a hint or two at a potential story, and just a whisper of that classic soundtrack. If you haven't seen it, you can check out the trailer below. Jospeh Kosinski (Oblivion) looks to be bringing the classic 80's Cold War movie into the 21st Century, and he's taking advantage of all the advanced technology that comes with it. Seeing Tom Cruise in the cockpit of an F/A-18 as it's catapulted across the deck of an aircraft carrier - not to mention the cockpit view of Cruise and the other aircraft in formation with him - looks phenomenal, and it really adds to the excitement and authenticity of the movie. Something that will only serve to immerse the audience in what they're seeing. Top Gun is known for some fantastic aerial photography, and the sequel certainly honours that legacy, with shots of fighter aircraft skimming the desert floor, a river valley and an insane flip over a moun

A Jack Reacher Reboot?

According to Lee Child, Tom Cruise will no longer be playing Jack Reacher. The ex-Military Cop is getting a reboot to the small screen. Cruise played Reacher in two movies; Jack Reacher and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. Child - who has written 23 novels and 11 short stories about Reacher - told BBC Radio Manchester's Mike Sweeney "The size of Reacher is really important and it's a big component of who he is. The idea is that when Reacher walks into a room, you're a little nervous just for that first minute. And Cruise, for all his talent, didn't have that physicality." As a fan of the books, I thought Cruise did a good job with the role. His height wasn't an issue for me. I was more interested in a good performance, which is what I got. While it is true that fans have complained about Cruise's height since his casting in 2011, the real reason for this new direction will be the disappointing returns that resulted from fan backlash. Jack Reache

Mission: Impossible - Fallout | Average Guy Movie Review

When a mission failure results in three plutonium cores ending up in the wrong hands, the IMF is put under CIA overwatch. Things get even more complicated when it's discovered that that the group looking to acquire the plutonium - known as the Apostles - are the last remaining members of Solomon Lane's (Sean Harris) Syndicate. Their goal, cause a global catastrophe that will bring about a new world order. And the only link to the Apostles and the plutonium that Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team have to work with is a mysterious arms dealer known as the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby). In the 22 years it has been around, the Mission: Impossible franchise has gone through many guises. Each movie is as different from the last as the men who direct them. Fallout may have the same director as Rogue Nation - a first for the franchise - but Christopher McQuarrie still manages to make this a very different movie. This one's a lot darker than previous instalments, the mission

Moustache Trailer Reactions | Mile 22 | Mission: Impossible - Fallout

Mission: Impossible - Fallout It appears that Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) isn't done causing trouble for Ethan Hunt and the IMF. His escape re-ignites the rivalry between the Impossible Mission Force and their sister agency, the CIA. A matter only made worse by Hunt's determination to be the one to bring Lane in. Fallout is said to focus more on Hunt's personal life, which might explain said determination. Michelle Monaghan returns as Ethan's wife Julia. There's a shot in the trailer of the two of them taking part in some sort of wedding ceremony, only for what appears to be a nuclear explosion to be seen in the distance. Now, the Mission: Impossible movies aren't known for their dream sequences but there's a chance that's what this is. All of the team are back bar Jeremy Renner's William Brandt, Renner was busy working on the Avengers sequels. Alec Baldwin is back as the newly crowned Secretary of the IMF and we're introduced

American Made | Average Guy Movie Review

Doug Liman directs this biopic on "the Gringo who always delivers". American Made tells the story of Barry Seal; a commercial airline pilot who went to work for the CIA flying reconnaissance and supply runs between the US and Central America. It was on these runs that Seal began working for the Medellin Cartel, bringing illegal drugs into the US. Liman has managed to make a Tom Cruise movie that isn't a Tom Cruise movie. In recent years it seems Cruise's movies have been more about spectacle, some sort of death defying stunt to tick off of his bucket list; the Vomit Comet in The Mummy, strapping himself to the side of a plane during take off or climbing the world's tallest building in the Mission Impossible movies. But American Made is more character driven, about one man and the crazy life he led. That's not to say Cruise didn't get to feed his adrenaline addiction on this one, because he did, flying solo in some pretty dangerous places. On t

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back: Average Guy Movie Review

Lee Child's drifter ex-military cop is back in cinemas with Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. Based on the 18th book in the series, Reacher returns to the HQ of his old Army unit - the 110th MP - to meet Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders), the soldier who has his old job. But when Reacher arrives, someone starts following him, Turner is under arrest for espionage, two of her soldiers are dead...and Reacher finds out he might be a Dad.  After Jack Reacher got mixed reviews back in 2012, it was uncertain as to whether there would be a sequel. But worldwide box office takings of $218 million almost guaranteed it. Edward Zwick takes over writing and directing duties from Christopher McQuarrie in his first collaboration with Cruise since The Last Samurai. Not to belittle what McQuarrie did, but I think Never Go Back is actually better than the first movie. Where the plot of the original can feel a bit clunky, Never Go Back seems to flow. If I had to guess, I'd say it'