Memorial Day Movies: Top Gun: Maverick, The Duke, Operation Mincemeat

Another long weekend is upon us at last, and more movies are popping into theaters to tempt us away from the heat and into the AC. Today I've got two very British selections for you, or one of the most American movies you can indulge in for some 80's nostalgia. Let's go!

Top Gun: Maverick: This movie is going to offer up exactly what you expected. If you're a fan of the original Top Gun, or are just generally into that 80s Tom Cruise vibe, you will get the fan servicing you require. The film occasionally feels like a shot-for-shot remake of the original but with some fun updates to drag us into the 21st century, including our first female pilot, Phoenix (I will just be using everyone's call signs because who cares about the characters' actual names?), played by the wonderful Monica Barbaro. All the new recruits are great; there's Miles Teller playing Rooster, Goose's son, who has a complicated relationship with Maverick that makes for a nice emotional story arc; Glen Powell playing Hangman, the most cocky asshole every portrayed on screen - I'm sure he is a very nice man in real life, but boy he is the textbook definition of "punchable face;" and of course, the hands down best new character in this franchise is Lewis Pullman as Bob - you'll get it when you see it. 

Tom Cruise is back as Maverick, and this time he needs to train twelve elite Top Gun graduates on what amounts to a suicide mission. He is the only pilot with the real-world experience to teach this group of pilots, but the man still has the wrong attitude and general willingness to bend the rules that means he is going to clash with his US Navy superiors, including a very ornery Jon Hamm, who plays a Vice Admiral who has been forced to recruit Maverick against his better judgment. What follows is a lot of bravado and posturing, and some incredible aerial stunts and dogfighting, all shot in actual F-18 aircraft, oftentimes with the actors themselves having to turn on the cameras strapped to their dashboards as there sure was no room for anyone else to be on the plane to film them. This is not a movie you watch for its plot and corny dialogue - all of that is rudimentary and incidental. This is a movie you strap into for two and half hours of incredible action footage and swooping stunts that make you want to holler and cheer.

The movie opens with that iconic 80s synth music and half way through, there's an incredible beach football scene that is all shirtless sun, sweat, sand, and waves, and oh it's all so nostalgic and fun. Jennifer Connelly plays Penny, a bar owner who has some sort of on-again off-again thing with Maverick - you can guess the status of that relationship by the end of the movie. In fact, you can guess pretty much everything that will end up happening in this movie but who cares? It's a lot of fun, it's grandiose and spectacular to watch, and it's the best possible way to kick off summer blockbuster season.

The Duke: At the risk of giving you whiplash, we now pivot to a funny, sweet British movie based on a real-life story from 1961 when a 60-year old man named Kempton Bunton (Jim Broadbent) stole Goya's Portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery and held it as ransom for his pet cause, which was to give free TV licenses to old age pensioners. Yeah, I told you, it's a very British movie.

This movie is charm personified. Broadbent is wonderful as the eccentric but morally upright Bunton, and Helen Mirren is utterly fabulous as his much put-upon wife, Dorothy, who wishes her husband would give up his foolhardy notions and settle down with a proper job. The script by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman is wonderful and gradually doles out information about this couple and their family that helps you piece together all of the complex dynamics underlying their seemingly stoic British personas, and there's also a final twist that I absolutely was not expecting. Matthew Goode also puts in a twinkly-eyed cameo, and nothing is more British than a cameo from Matthew Goode, come on. 

Directed by Roger Michell, this movie is a masterclass in British filmmaking and is the cinematic equivalent of spending the afternoon with a cup of tea and a biscuit. It is cozy, but also tells a really interesting and compelling tale about an extraordinary man. So seek it out in theaters or streaming and prepare to be very entertained.

Operation Mincemeat: This movie stars Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen (i.e. you get two Darcy's in one movie!), Kelly Macdonald, Penelope Wilton, Jason Isaacs, and Johnny Flynn, with Simon Russell Beale popping in for a cameo as Winston Churchill. That is a veritable all-star British cast, and seeing all those actors together was my favorite part of the film. The actual movie though? Leaves a little something to be desired.

Directed by John Madden, and written by Michelle Ashford, based on Ben Macintyre's book of the same name, this is the true story of a 1943 World War II secret operation where the British tried to convince the Nazis that the Allies would be invading Greece instead of Sicily. In order to do this, they dressed up a corpse as a soldier, giving him a false identity and falsified documents, all suggesting the Greece plan, and then dumped him into the ocean to wash ashore in Spain and hopefully get into the hands of the Nazis. 

It's all very convoluted and the brainchild of Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming (yes, he of 007 fame), so this is a movie about all the machinations and plotting and spycraft to ensure everything goes right. It is fascinating at times, but it certainly needs some more judicious editing because it rapidly overstays its welcome. There are a lot of side plots involving interpersonal relationships between some of the officers that all felt very tacked on. This is a movie that would be incredible if it honed in on this insane plot and didn't bother much with fleshing out the personal lives of its characters. Keep it as a spy movie, and lose all the chaff, and you've got a masterpiece. But as it is, this feels like a slightly bloated Netflix movie (and that is where you can watch it). It's great for a lazy afternoon, but go in with tempered expectations. The cast is excellent, but the final product is somewhat lacking.