Quentin Tarantino Praises Top Gun: Maverick as a "True Cinematic Spectacle"

Quentin Tarantino is an Academy Award-winning writer and director known for an array of films ranging from Reservoir Dogs to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Currently, Tarantino is promoting his new movie podcast, The Video Archives Podcast, which he will host with his Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary. While chatting with CinemaBlend's ReelBlend podcast, the director talked about some of his favorite movies and shared praise for Top Gun: Maverick. 

"I f*cking love Top Gun: Maverick. I thought it was fantastic," Tarantino shared. "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."

"There was just this lovely, lovely aspect because I love both 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," Tarantino said of the late, great Scott who helmed the original Top Gun. "[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."

However, Tarantino did have one gripe with the sequel, calling Cruise's reunion with Val Kilmer "almost too cheap." He then added, "But it absolutely works. It's a bit like Charlie Chaplin dying on stage for the last scene of Limelight... but it fucking works. You're waiting for it and the fucking scene delivers."

In June, Top Gun: Maverick passed $1 billion at the worldwide box office and last month it became Paramount's biggest movie of all time. At the end of July, the movie officially passed The Avengers (2012) at the domestic box office. Not only is Top Gun: Maverick crushing it at the box office, but it's been getting rave reviews. The movie is currently up on Rotten Tomatoes with an impressive 96% critics score and 99% audience score. ComicBook.com's Spencer Perry gave the movie a 4.5 out of 5 and called it a "rare sequel that outdoes the original in every way." 

Top Gun: Maverick does not yet have an at-home release date, but it's still playing in select theatres.