Quentin Tarantino has made many masterpieces over his decades-spanning career as a director in Hollywood. And while they went on to become cult classics with numerous celebrities and audiences alike praising them, Tarantino himself pretty much refrains from commenting on films.
Quentin Tarantino, American director
Not only because he finds this recent culture of blowing people’s words out of proportion overwhelming, but because he reckons that he would be forced to say only nice things lest it gets taken out of context.

However, an exception to this rule came last year with the release of Tom Cruise’s blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick. Talking in a podcast he went real deep about his likes and dislikes about the movie, and while he claimed he absolutely loved it, there was a specific sequence he found cheap.

Quentin Tarantino loved Top Gun: Maverick

The visionary director, fortunately, wants to share his insights about movies after years. And to provide himself with a proper platform, Quentin Tarantino launched his own podcast The Video Archives with his long-time friend Roger Avery last year.

During the promotion for that, he appeared on another popular podcast of Cinemablend called ReelBlend and professed his love for Cruise’s $1.49 billion flick. He noted,
“Normally I don’t talk about new movies that much because then I’m only forced to say good things, or else I’m slamming someone. And I don’t want to do that. But in this case, I fucking love Top Gun: Maverick. I thought it was fantastic.”
Quentin Tarantino on the sets of Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
To him, he claimed Top Gun: Maverick along with Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story were absolute masterpieces. According to him, they provided a cinematic experience that had been missing from movies for quite some time. He also expressed his love for Tony Scott and his craft saying how this was the closest he would ever get to watching another of his movies. He explained,
“(Joseph Koskinski) did a great job. The respect and the love of Tony was in every frame. It was almost in every decision. It was consciously right there, but in this really cool way that was really respectful. And I think it was in every decision Tom (Cruise) made in the film. It’s the closest we’re ever going get to seeing one more Tony Scott movie, and it was a fucking terrific one.”
Quentin Tarantino on the set of Django Unchained
For Quentin Tarantino, Cruise and Koskinski’s love for the late original director of the movie bled through the screen, making it all the more impactful.

Quentin Tarantino found a scene pretty cheap in Top Gun: Maverick

Although, The A Clockwork Orange director kept raving about Top Gun: Maverick, there was one specific scene he found way too cheap. Basically, the movie boasts a scene with Val Kilmer reprising his role of Tom Kazansky from the first movie in a short cameo.

And the problem rose with that very scene when Cruise’s character Pete Mitchell went to meet Kazansky who is apparently dying from throat cancer.
Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer in Top Gun
The scene was especially impactful for a lot of fans as Val Kilmer himself battled throat cancer in his real life. Quentin Tarantino, though, claimed that he found the scene “Almost too cheap.” However he also noted, that the sequence actually worked in the movie. He added,
“But it absolutely works. It’s a bit like Charlie Chaplin dying on stage for the last scene of Limelight…but it f***ing works. You’re waiting for it and the f***ing scene delivers.”
All of these nuances are what added on to this impressive experience for him he explained. In fact, the Pulp Fiction director admitted that these were precisely the reason he went to watch the movie on theaters.

Well, it is safe to say that Quentin Tarantino is incredibly impressed by Tom Cruise‘s performance in this movie. And while there are no confirmations yet, it indeed gave hope to both their fans of finally watching these two Hollywood legends collaborating on a project soon.

The Video Archives podcast is available on Apple Music, and Spotify.

Source: ReelBlend Podcast