‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Ties as the All-Time Best Reviewed Tom Cruise Film

Hollywood summer tentpoles aren’t necessarily known for being critical darlings. There are always exceptions, of course. One of those is Top Gun: Maverick, which is finally hitting theaters today after being grounded for two years because of the pandemic.

From Paramount and Skydance, the pic ranks as the best-reviewed movie of Tom Cruise’s prolific career, alongside the most recent installment in the Mission: Impossible series.

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The movie presently sports a stellar 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, the same score as Mission: Impossible — Fallout (2018). It’s possible the score for Top Gun 2 could move a point or two in either direction as final reviews are tallied.

The first Top Gun (1986) may have been a huge commercial success, but it didn’t garner the same respect of reviewers. Top Gun’s score is 58 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Cruise’s lowest score on Rotten Tomatoes is 1988’s Cocktail (7 percent).

From Paramount and Skydance, Top Gun: Maverick  earned $19.3 million in previews this week, the highest preview number in Paramount’s history and the best preview for a Memorial Day release.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the long-awaited sequel to the iconic film returns Cruise as the ultra-gifted and confident Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.

The film co-stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell and Ed Harris, while Val Kilmer also makes a brief appearance as “Iceman,” Maverick’s onetime nemesis turned pal. The film also features Lady Gaga’s ballad “Hold My Hand,” while the producing team includes Jerry Bruckheimer, who guided the original film.

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