I like to tell you EVERYTHING. I have no secrets, no shame, no common sense. Almost no filters. I NEED you to know about every illness, every surgical procedure, every thought, idea, love, hate, desire, what I eat, drink, the drugs I take to keep me alive, the ones I take to make it worth living, I want you, my biggest fan, to know EVERYTHING!!!

Not just because I’m stupid but also because that way I can always blame you for not helping when it all goes wrong.

And then I forgot the most important thing which happened to me during the Mexico experience. The whole experience, which I ‘shared’, from take off to landing 9 days later, because I’m that kind’a guy. And yet I forgot…

Top Gun: Maverick!

I’ve already done the movies on the plane, both ways, even the ones I half-slept through (most of them). And yet forgot that one. How could I? The one we’ve all waited 40 years for!

Possibly because it really is almost infinitely forgettable. Possibly because it is, unsurprisingly, the original film re-made with grown-ups, and way more concealer and make-up taking much more care with lighting Tom Cruise’s face to keep the Dorian Gray version off screen where possible.

I had to watch it. Not just because I was stuck in a little hole for 9 hours with a screen 21 inches from my face and a complete inability to move, but also because I simply love Top Gun (no subtitle), the first. It had everything. Starting with Kelly McGillis and ending with the Porsche speedster she drove. Nothing else was important. Ok, they shot a few Russian planes out of the sky, sang ‘you’ve lost that lovin’ feelin’’, had hi-jinks and shaved their chest hair, but it was Kelly’s film. I may have been impressionable when it came out. I think Tom Cruise may have been in it to; who can remember?

Actually I’m being cruel. This film was totally different. Except for the shooting Russians out of the sky, shaved chests and laddish hi-jinks. It even had Val Kilmer in it!!! The Ice Man!!! Looked like he’s been on ice for a decade or so. But (no spoilers) as he dies of cancer in the movie, (ok, some spoilers) perhaps it was just ‘brilliant acting’.

But the worst thing about the film really was that it didn’t have a 25 year-old Kelly McGillis in it. I can’t forgive that.

Happy Friday

A xxxx