Quentin Tarantino reviews Top Gun: Maverick: "It’s a true cinematic spectacle"

Quentin Tarantino really loved Top Gun: Maverick. The Kill Bill director gave a rare rave review about the Tom Cruise-led sequel that has been breaking box office records all summer. 

"Normally I don’t talk about new movies that much because I’m only forced to say only good things, but in this case I f***ing love Top Gun, the Maverick movie," he told CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast. "I thought it was fantastic. I saw it at the theaters. It was, as our good mutual friend Brett Easton Ellis says, 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."

Tarantino admitted he did have some reservations when he heard about the sequel continuing without Tony Scott. The director of the original Top Gun movie was involved in the initial stages of the sequel but sadly died in 2012. Maverick was directed by Joseph Kosinski with Cruise, Val Kilmer, and executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer returning.

"It wasn’t so much concern," Tarantino revealed of his conversation with Cruise. "I figure if he was going to do it he has a good handle on it. But I did ask him, I said, 'How do you do Top Gun without Tony Scott?'" Cruise told him at the time that they’d worked out a way to do it – and most importantly that they had a good story. 

Tarantino branded the callbacks to Scott "lovely". "It’s the closest we’re ever going get to seeing one more Tony Scott movie," he added. "And it was a f***ing terrific one."

Top Gun: Maverick is still out in theaters where it has currently made over $1.2billion worldwide, with the figure continuing to climb. However, for updates on when Top Gun: Maverick will come out on streaming, check out our guide to its Paramount Plus release.

If you're wondering what else is hitting the big screen this year, we've rounded up all of the upcoming 2022 movie release dates.