Believe it or not, I saw Top Gun for the first time yesterday, eleven years after its original release date. While it is a universally popular movie, I found it to be a bit dated.
Top Gun is the school where the best fighter pilots in the U.S. are trained to be even better. Tom Cruise plays Maverick, one of the Navy's best (and most "dangerous") pilots, who's selected to attend the training school. There he competes against other skilled pilots, including Iceman (played by Val Kilmer) for the top pilot award. After an incident in which his companion Goose (Anthony Edwards, with hair) dies, Maverick loses his composure and consequentially the award to Iceman. However, when the pilots are called in to fight Russian MiG planes in a real-life encounter, Maverick's brilliant unorthodox flying skills save the day.
The aerial scenes are spectacular and highly engaging. However, the rest of the movie is pretty lame. I personally found the chemistry between Maverick and Charlie (Kelly McGillis) unconvincing. Further, the male-bonding theme was unnecessary and too mushy. While the fights with the MiG planes might have had some relevance during the Cold War, and I'm sure audiences cheered when the MiG planes in the final battle were trashed, it didn't have much of an impact on me.
If you've never seen Top Gun before, it may be good to put it on your list, but you're not missing that much.