In short, Top Gun is a dumpster fire of flimsy cliches and groan-inducing corniness at it's best.
It is well documented the film's production was a monumental undertaking at the time, however said vast efforts and expenses didn't actually equate to a good film, save for the mouth breathing folk who are readily enamored by sparkly objects...
I must admit that both the dialogue and screenplay are so utterly horrendous at times that they miraculously circle back around and morph into a campy near-greatness, however it's blatantly clear there was ZERO intent even in the most distant corners of the writers' cocaine-fueled heads.
The absolute BEST part of my experience in revisiting this film after close to 30 years was that I was constantly reminded of Will Ferrell's delightfully moronic character in Tim And Eric's Billion Dollar Movie, as his character was likely the sole person on modern day Earth that actually found this sizzling-hot and overflowing adult diaper of a film to be profound in any semblance of imagination. And he watched it again and again.
I suppose this is actually more of a rave review for Tim And Eric's Billion Dollar Movie than it is an endorsement of the schlock that is Top Gun.
Meh, the 80's was a delightful decade of drug-addled buffoonery, and we should all pray for modern film studios to somehow miraculously evoke the capability to squeeze out even a minuscule hiss of a fart that can be something close to 1/1000th of the originality that was summoned back then...
One MASSIVE compliment: The main song (Berlin's "Take My Breath Away") is an absolutely gorgeous tune, and lifted the film to elevations that it had no business being in.
All that said, I want Tom Skerritt, I don't want Brad Garrett, I want Tom Skerritt, I don't want Brad Garrett. GREAT JOB!