I’ve decided to do a film review of sorts for today’s blog article. I guess it’s actually more of a commentary, and not necessarily a review. Regardless, I will preface this article with the disclaimer that when it comes to movie releases, I am way behind the curve. If you asked me to name even one movie playing in theaters right now, I wouldn’t have a clue.

I suppose this is slightly ironic considering I used to have to watch movies for a living. Back in my early 20’s, I worked for a high-ranking executive in the film marketing division for Walt Disney Studios. I have no idea how Disney operates now, but at the time, there were 3 major motion picture companies that fell under the Disney umbrella, so it wasn’t just kid-friendly animated films. Disney released major motion pictures under the Miramax, Touchstone, and Pixar labels as well.

My boss was responsible for deciding which movies got made and which ones didn’t, so multitudes of producers, directors, and actors were in our office on the daily, kissing ass to get their films approved. I was merely a junior assistant, but one of the perks of the job was getting VHS (yes, this was before the days of DVD’s and Blue Ray…) screener copies of movies before they were released in the theaters.

This was particularly exciting during Oscar season because all the prominent movie studios would send their Academy Award contenders to each other. So, aside from Disney-produced films, I got to watch all of the impending releases from major studios like Warner Brothers, Paramount, 20^th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, DreamWorks, Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures, and United Artists.

Even after I left the film industry, I used to love going to the movie theater and experiencing blockbuster films on the big screen. In fact, I loved it so much that I would often go to the movies by myself. One of my favorite things to do on a day off was to hit a matinee show mid-week, when only a handful of people were there. I would order a large tub of popcorn and a package of Red Vines, pick a perfect seat smack in the middle of the theater with nobody near me, and settle in for 2 hours of getting lost in an awesome story. By the end of the movie, the popcorn tub and the Red Vines package would be empty, and I’d be sick to my stomach, but I couldn’t wait to go back the following week for another big screen adventure.

Flash forward 20 years later, and I don’t even have cable television. Go figure…

Sadly, I must confess that I haven’t been to a movie theater in probably 5 or 6 years. These days, I don’t end up seeing movies until they wind up on Netflix, Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video, or my HBO Max app. And even then, it’s hard to find something I want to watch.

I still love movies, but I’m tired of being inundated with politically correct propaganda that has been on the rise in mainstream movies over the past decade. I want to watch a movie to get lost in an epic adventure or a love story or a thrilling mystery! I don’t want to watch movies to have ad nauseam underlying themes of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), sexually confused relationships, anti-American sentiment, overly sexualized children, and political agendas shoved down my throat.

Maybe I sound like one of the old people I used to criticize when I was younger, but I miss the good old days where being American was celebrated on the big screen, our country was portrayed positively, characters freely made inappropriate comments and off-color jokes because they were funny, and nobody got offended or complained that a race, gender, or culture was being underrepresented or misappropriated.

I’m a huge fan of the early black and white films, but I’d have to say my favorite movie genre is the 1980’s. In fact, I spent much of this past Christmas holiday on an 80’s movie binge, watching classics like “Pretty in Pink,” “Overboard,” “Working Girl,” “Lost Boys,” “Trading Places,” “The Breakfast Club,” “Young Guns,” “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” and “Some Kind of Wonderful.” I’m not a film critic, but these are fucking great movies!!

Anyway, like most people who love 80’s flicks, I’m a fan of the original “Top Gun.” When the sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick” was released last May, I had no interest in watching it, as I assumed it would be another movie ruined by politically correct propaganda. Plus, sequels are rarely as good as the original, and this was 30 years after the fact, so my expectations were low. However, people kept telling me it was a great movie, so when it finally came out in December on Paramount+, I decided to give it a shot.

I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. Watching this movie was just as good as watching the 80’s original, only with better special effects. It was a feel-good, nostalgic, all-American movie with great action scenes, a sidebar romance that wasn’t overly sexualized, and witty, sarcastic characters who bonded in friendship over being high achievers and talked shit to each other without getting offended.

More surprisingly, our military was presented in a competent and positive light without any CRT or DEI bullshit convoluting the storyline, and even though the “enemy” was never named, there was a very old-school sense of patriotism and loyalty throughout the movie as a whole. Overall, I thought it was a refreshing and entertaining non-political, yet pro-America movie, and I really enjoyed it. Although, I did find it slightly disturbing that Tom Cruise has hardly aged in 40 years. Maybe there is some truth to that crazy Adrenochrome conspiracy theory…

Anyway, if you haven’t seen “Top Gun: Maverick,” and you like the idea of a contemporary, yet good old fashioned American movie, this one is worth checking out. I think it would have been even better if I’d seen it on the big screen. Perhaps I should try to make it to a movie theater sometime this year. I’ve got a craving for that damn popcorn now.

Unapologetically Outspoken,

Tara