Tom Cruise and Paramount Pictures are still doing strong business at the box office with “Top Gun: Maverick.” being The biggest earner to date for both Cruise and Paramount, the action blockbuster sequel has made over $1.3 billion globally. The pic did all it could do to impress naysayers, critics, and the general audience to become one of the most entertaining films in a long time. Well, the unique experience many of us felt watching Cruise put the flight jacket back on was shared by a well-respected director who is usually critical of studio efforts.
We all know that Quentin Tarantino isn’t one to hand out praise to big studio tentpoles or even comment on newer films but while speaking with the ReelBlend podcast (Lisen below), the director gushed about Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick.” Citing the film’s spectacle alongside Steven Spielberg‘s “West Side Story” remake as cinematic experiences that have impressed him recently.
“I f***ing love ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’ I thought it was fantastic. 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 highlighted that “Maverick” is the closest we’ll get to seeing another Tony Scott (“Top Gun“) film, given the director’s death in 2012. Mentioning the respect and care taken by Joseph Kosinski certainly comes off as high praise.
“But also there was just this lovely, lovely aspect because I love both [original Top Gun director] 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,” he continued. “[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 filmmaker added he spoke with Cruise about making the sequel without the original director and Cruise said, “I know; that’s why I said no all these years — for that exact reason. We figured out a way.”
Of course, Tarantino has his own history with Scott as the British director almost directed “Reservoir Dogs” before settling on another project written by Tarantino, the dark romantic crime romp “True Romance.” An effort not unlike “Natural Born Killers” that not only has earned Quentin’s approval but his admiration over the years.
Meanwhile, we’re still waiting on Tarantino to give us an update on his “Bounty Law” series and the development status of his untitled tenth feature film before he retires from filmmaking.