Tony Scott
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An orange tabby cat named Goose (dig the Top Gun reference) is a fur-ball of feisty surprises, and surely earns a place in filmdom’s feline Hall of Fame.
It’s on Earth, around the one-third mark of the film, where Larson really takes over the role because while the Hala sequences visually recall Blade Runner and Star Trek , C-57 is a Top Gun homage.
Also, Fury falls in love with an adorable cat named Goose, who’s not only the film’s umpteenth “Top Gun” reference, but also a more fun and less tiresome riff on the Groot archetype that “Guardians of the Galaxy” has already driven into the ground.
Chaotic and darkened action blurs comprehension, Top Gun parallels are disappointingly short-lived, and it appears as if the Half Nelson directors are merely tracing Marvel templates used so many times before.
In Wonder Woman , by comparison, Diana’s gender and her upbringing are instrumental to her and to us in terms of understanding the fierce, disciplined, compassionate worldview that drives her heroism; Captain Marvel ’s Carol is a wry, rule-breaking individualist with unique skills, strong ambitions and a broken-home background - the stuff of dozens of male heroes, including some of the protagonists from films like Top Gun that exert a palpable influence over the film’s story and tone.
She will succeed, because Captain Marvel is a blistering two hours of action, comedy, awesome '90s tunes from the likes of Hole, No Doubt and The Breeders (that could do for Riotgrrl and Grunge what The Guardians of the Galaxy did for '70s pop and funk), knowing nods to the rest of the MCU (and Top Gun ), and an overpowering sense of female empowerment.
And while those and other more obvious inspirations such as Bonnie and Clyde and Terrence Malick’s Badlands (of which actually borrows its score) are noticeable, it still packs enough verve and gusto to create something entirely fresh and influential in its own right.
Scott was doing it on purpose, and he comes right out and tells us he's doing it on purpose in the second scene, which finds Patricia Arquette reciting voiceover narration in an airy, storybook register, while Hans Zimmer's score taps out a melody that can be best described as "the closest that you can get to the Orff music used in Badlands without actually running into copyright issues".
An enchanting score by an uncharacteristically restrained Hans Zimmer (paying vigorous homage to the music from Badlands) further alludes to that intoxicating feeling of blossoming love.
Maybe if Michael Tronick and Christian Wagner did anything with the editing, or if Hans Zimmer’s music was any good (though he does rip off the Badlands theme to some success), but the film’s a technical yawn.
Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette are the Badlands -style lovers who head to California with a stash of stolen cocaine, but the show is stolen by Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken, whose “vendetta kinda mood” head-to-head became one of the most memorable sparrings of 1990s cinema.
When Detroit comic-store assistant Clarence (Slater) and novice whore Alabama (Arquette) meet, not only do they immediately fall in love, but the tone of her voice-over lets us know that we're in for a Badlands-style rerun.
F1 (2025)
Directed by Joseph Kosinski
influenced by Days of Thunder (1990), Top Gun (1986)
Visuals Themes
…possibly since “Days of Thunder,”…
One of the following three movies is on the TV, no earlier than half over: Days of Thunder, Remember the Titans, or Glory Road.
In order to see the issues in F1: The Movie clearly, I have to talk about Days of Thunder (again).
It's a film that makes Days of Thunder look downright subtle and muted.
Jerry Bruckheimer’s attempt to shoehorn “Top Gun” into an earthbound jet…
…you could say “F1” uses car racing much like “Top Gun” used flying fighter planes. And much like “Top Gun”, Kosinski’s film features its own perfectly cast A-lister who brings some notable star wattage to an already brilliant movie.
The Neon Demon (2016)
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
influenced by The Hunger (1983)
Visuals Themes
If “Drive,” his 2011 crime-thriller with Ryan Gosling, paid homage to the wet-asphalt action-films of Michael Mann, then “The Neon Demon” is his tribute to Ridley Scott’s Euro-trash vampire flick, “The Hunger” (1983).
If you want to see Tony Scott’s porny vampire drama “The Hunger” again — to cite another obvious influence — hey, I just checked and it costs $2 on Amazon.
At turns seductive and repulsive about its world of dangerous sex and violence, The Neon Demon combines horror movie tropes with arresting images and clever references to a body of genre entries, including Hammer Films' Dracula pictures, Cat People, and The Hunger.
Neon Demon reads like a vampire movie, with the sexy chill of The Hunger and the stark, hypnotic imagery of Under The Skin.
A House of Dynamite (2025)
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
influenced by Crimson Tide (1995)
Themes Plot
…from 1964's Fail Safe or Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove to Tony Scott's Crimson Tide (1995) to this year's Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning and Hulu's Paradise.
This steely, apocalyptic tone owes something to John Frankenheimer’s Seven Days in May and Tony Scott’s Crimson Tide, though Bigelow’s approach is more clinical than those films were inventive.
…or those silly spectacles that are actually Certified Bangers™ like The Hunt for Red October (John McTiernan, 1990) and Crimson Tide (Tony Scott, 1995)…
…the ’90s had Crimson Tide…
Crimson Tide is a terse two-hander with nuclear war as the MacGuffin…
Thanks for the reminder that “Crimson Tide” rules.
One might even compare it to Tony Scott’s brilliant Man On Fire, another film that saw a broken man succumb to violence in order to protect a young child.
Hargrave also manages some moments of, if not actual emotional poignancy, certainly the aesthetic kind, bringing to mind the hazy poetry of the late, great Tony Scott’s similarly themed Man on Fire , in which Denzel Washington rained havoc down on Mexico City on a determined course to protect Dakota Fanning.
But there's also a lot of his backstory and motive that reminds me of Denzel Washington's John Creasy in the late Scott's "Man on Fire."
Starting on a bridge that could pass for a “Call of Duty” map, with abandoned cars meticulously scattered across, all similarities to Tony Scott’s “Man on Fire,” another save-the-kidnapped-kid-in-foreign-territory adventure, are thrown out the window.
Denzel Washington’s John Creasy in the very good Man on Fire is a first-class grumparoo, and Keanu Reeves’ John Wick would be a gigantic bummer to be stuck with at a party.
On its own merits, Chris Hemsworth's "Extraction" is an above-average action flick with kickass stunts, but a story that feels cliche in the wake of "Man on Fire" (2004) and "Taken" (2008).
It is just one of many sly cinematic homages that range from "True Romance" to TV series "Chuck" in a film that is unsuspectingly sweet in the face of blood being copiously strewn across the screen and protagonists Mike and Phoebe getting progressively banged-up as their night from hell comes to a head.
One that echoes the lovey-dovey anti-hero sentiments of True Romance while wholly embracing the frivolous and preposterous action of True Lies.
It uses quirky, punk rock energy to tell a lovers-on-the-run story that aims to hit the sweet spot Tony Scott's True Romance nailed so eloquently back in 1993.
With its affecting central romance enduring unimaginable violence from outside sources, "American Ultra" has a little drop of "True Romance" in its DNA.
It's kind of a cross between Jason Bourne and Jay and Silent Bob, with more than a little "True Romance" thrown in for good measure.
American Ultra isn't True Romance by a long shot (or one point-blank in the face, for that matter).
Pacific Rim (2013)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
influenced by Top Gun (1986)
Themes Dialogue Characters Plot
The visual design recalls “ TRON ,” some plot elements recall “ Inception ,” the crunching action recalls “ Transformers ” and the relationships recall “ Top Gun ,” wherein a group of cocky flyboys try to one-up each other in the name of saving the world.
Oh, the human elements are there—the trauma-laced backstories, the Top Gun-flavored pilot conflict, the occasional comic relief—but it all takes second billing to the battles.
Unfortunately, the script, primarily credited to Travis Beacham and the director, also feels like it was written by a teenager who has only seen humans interact in movies like Top Gun.
Many of them seemingly swiped rather obviously from “Top Gun.” There’s Charlie Hunnam’s maverick character—he’s too unpredictable, doesn’t follow orders and “improvises”—and all the other jarhead teams are worried his incalculable nature will spell their doom.
Like Top Gun, this is an all-out recruitment PSA for the supercool machismo of combat.
Add a prolonged and unnecessary rivalry with an up-and-coming pilot (Robert Kazinsky) and the movie begins to feel like Top Gun with robots.
Having tackled Rear Window in Disturbia , director D.J. Caruso (again with LaBeouf) seems poised to undertake North by Northwest this time, but the film owes as much to Enemy of the State (the phrase is actually used) as any Hitchcock fare, with a dash of Live Free or Die Hard thrown in for good measure.
Like Smithâs Enemy of the State, Eagle Eyeâs backdrop is a world gone mad with surveillance and, like The Terminator trilogy, one where the machines have slipped their leashes and taken over.
The Will Smith version was “Enemy of the State” (1998).
Arriving at least a half decade too late (it’s a blatant rip-off of 1998’s Enemy of the State, among other Big Brother-gone-wrong yarns); it’s truly shocking that Steven Spielberg attached his name to this.
If the plot of Eagle Eye resembles 1998's Enemy Of The State, LaBeouf's performance is similarly reminiscent of Will Smith's in that Tony Scott-helmed techno-political blockbuster (high praise, in a movie star kind of way).
A number of scenarios appear to have been cut and pasted from the likes of Enemy Of The State, Die Hard 4.0 and even 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The movie is an original take on the vampire genre (although there’s a nightclub scene that nods in the direction of Tony Scott’s vamp-camp classic The Hunger).
The first movie to plow this turf — vampirism as a playground for attractive bohemians — was “The Hunger,” the 1983 Tony Scott film in which David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve, and Susan Sarandon went elegantly at each others’ throats.
Style, color, throwaway incidents and music are essential, as in unaccountably maligned The Hunger, in oddball Cronos, in now-coming-into-its-own Ganja and Hess and its aka?s, even non-physical-bloodsuckers Performance .
In Atomic Blonde , Charlize and her adversaries finish fights wheezing, staggering around covered in blood, spit, and snot — like Patricia Arquette and James Gandolfini’s bathroom fight in True Romance .
“John Wick” is a touchstone here (Leitch was “Wick’s” uncredited co-director), and there are several visual homages to “True Romance.”
Pain & Gain (2013)
Directed by Michael Bay
influenced by True Romance (1993), Domino (2005), Enemy of the State (1998), Man on Fire (2004)
Themes Visuals
The blending of genres (the buddy movie and heist film are turned on their heads) and the obvious odes to Scarface , Boogie Nights and True Romance (everything starting out so right before going so wrong) feel inspired, and moments of comedy lurk beneath the lurid surface, particularly in the lead performances and co-star Rebel Wilson as Mackie's doctor-turned-wife.
True Romance is probably the best of this small, but distinct genre in post-1980 cinema.
A convoluted soundscape of tracks and effects, shots that last for nano seconds, freeze frames, bursts of rainbow-coloured flushes and filters and sticker boxes flung onto the screen like McDonald’s pickles hurled at glass windows evoke the frantic feeling of latter era Tony Scott (ala Man on Fire, Domino, Enemy of the State) but cranked up a notch.
The comparison that was dead clear to me during the movie was the late, great Tony Scott’s Domino.
A convoluted soundscape of tracks and effects, shots that last for nano seconds, freeze frames, bursts of rainbow-coloured flushes and filters and sticker boxes flung onto the screen like McDonald’s pickles hurled at glass windows evoke the frantic feeling of latter era Tony Scott (ala Man on Fire, Domino, Enemy of the State) but cranked up a notch.
A convoluted soundscape of tracks and effects, shots that last for nano seconds, freeze frames, bursts of rainbow-coloured flushes and filters and sticker boxes flung onto the screen like McDonald’s pickles hurled at glass windows evoke the frantic feeling of latter era Tony Scott (ala Man on Fire, Domino, Enemy of the State) but cranked up a notch.
When Annie’s ex Gil (Michael Rosenbaum) gets suspicious enough about Charlie to blow his cover online and get the bad guys back after him, a “True Romance”-esque journey across country ensues.
"Hit & Run" is closest in tone to the Tarantino-penned "True Romance," but it lacks that movie's menace.
But Bradley Cooper turns out to be the weakest link as the lead heavy, a weak-tea variant of Gary Oldman 's faux renegade Rasta in "True Romance."
A chase-oriented B-movie that borrows from True Romance for both good and ill, Dax Shepard and David Palmer's Hit and Run benefits from a surprisingly sweet vibe and easygoing chemistry between Shepard and co-star Kristen Bell, both in fine form.
Shoot-outs, lovers on the lam, a villain with dreadlocks: yes, this hit-and miss comedy sure does want to be True Romance .
“Unstoppable” is, of course, reminiscent of the 1994 smash, “Speed.”
Contrast “Unstoppable” to “Speed”, where Jan de Bont shows Keanu’s bus zipping by other cars and buildings to show us just how fast this crazy thing is going.
Likely to replace "Runaway Train" (the 1985 thriller about escaped convicts onboard an unmanned and brake-less train) in the minds of most viewers in terms of this sub-genre of the action field, but not quite as fun, exciting or entertaining as that other transportation thriller, "Speed," this one delivers as needed.
But since Washington is Washington and Scott is Scott and Hollywood is Hollywood, Unstoppable feels strictly old hat: Speed with a train, located in Scott's tiresomely hyperactive, tirelessly dumb oeuvre of high-tech "man caves" and pointless snap zooms.
Unstoppable is like Speed for a new generation and it makes for some of the most thrilling 100 minutes you’ll experience in 2011, I’m sure of it.
…an opening credit sequence—a first for a Star Wars film—that tips its hat to Top Gun…
…other modern classics (“Top Gun” to “Blade Runner,” even a little “Streets of Fire” for the real ones out there)…
…a bit of Top Gun…
Baby Driver (2017)
Directed by Edgar Wright
influenced by True Romance (1993)
Visuals Characters Dialogue Themes
From beginning to end, Wright chews through dozens upon dozens of songs, making this seem like one long, epic music video, but here’s the thing: While, yes, this film exists in a very surreal, dreamlike state — think David Lynch’s Wild at Heart and Tony Scott’s True Romance — the action never loses its footing.
Baby’s a lot like rabid B-movie connoisseur Clarence Worley in the Quentin Tarantino-scripted “True Romance,” or fellow Elvis devotee Sailor Ripley in David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart”: Such obsessive characters prove intensely passionate, slightly crazy, and as committed to their women as they are to the quirks that preoccupy them the rest of the time.
His screenplay rivals that written by Quentin Tarantino for True Romance (1993) both in its wisecracking wit and the way it combines hardboiled gangster movie tropes with youthful romanticism.
A movie-as-mixtape with few slots available for catch-your-breath downtempo tracks, Edgar Wright's rollicking Baby Driver is a Gone in 60 Seconds for the La La Land crowd, a True Romance that relishes the long wait before its young lovers can finally go on the lam.
The scenes between them sparkle with all the charm of La La Land crossed with True Romance.
Despite his occupation, Baby and Deborah are innocents in love amid eloquently profane criminal circumstances, like Clarence and Alabama in True Romance, a movie this one's rush often feels like.
It’s a sort of science-fiction riff on the old film-noir classic Laura, where detective Dana Andrews finds himself falling in love with the portrait of a woman (Gene Tierney) whose murder he’s investigating, probing her life through the flashback reminiscences of her associates.
…even if its romance is essentially a time-travel variant on the classic 1944 Otto Preminger film, Laura.
The Conversation (1974)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
influenced Enemy of the State (1998), Déjà Vu (2006)
Themes Characters
I realize this may brand me a philistine--did I mention my theory that Tony Scott's Enemy of the State is a sequel (and a pretty good one) to The Conversation?
Mr. Hackman�s role is a sly reprise of his classic role from 1974, the paranoid investigator in The Conversation.
(There is an echo here of Francis Coppola's 1974 film " The Conversation ," which also starred Hackman as a paranoid high-tech eavesdropper; the workplaces in the two movies resemble each other--deliberately, I assume.)
Veteran filmgoers should appreciate Hackman's part -- he offers a clever echo of his role as the surveillance expert in Francis Ford Coppola's seminal '70s film The Conversation.
Two dozen years after Francis Ford Coppola's great privacy-violation nightmare The Conversation, Tony Scott (who most recently directed The Fan), working, as he did in Top Gun and Crimson Tide, with producer Jerry Bruckheimer (who most recently delivered Armageddon), has come up with a high-adrenaline, high-concept action thriller that mixes hot-button issues of privacy and surveillance, easy-to-identify good and bad guys, attention-getting stars, and well-choreographed chase scenes, then sexes up the works with an array of supercool hardware and software you'll wish you were getting for your birthday.
A convincing Jon Voight plays NSA zealot Thomas Brian Reynolds, the devil in a Brooks Brothers suit, and Gene Hackman helps make this film "The Conversation" on steroids with a tough turn as a rogue surveillance wizard.
The best one was probably “Runaway Train,” starring Jon Voight and Eric Roberts .
They always have worked well together, and this film, not to be confused with the 1985 movie "Runaway Train" about two escaped convicts aboard such a vehicle, is no exception.
Two other films that come to mind are Buster Keaton's "The General" (1926) and Andrei Konchalovsky's " Runaway Train " (1985), which won Oscar nominations for the two men in its locomotive, Jon Voight and Eric Roberts .
It's almost impossible to write about a runaway train movie without mentioning Andrei Konchalovsky's 1985 thriller, Runaway Train .
The actors get a lot more to do in the admittedly brisk second half of Unstoppable, but the filmmakers come up with a surprisingly small number of cliffhanger scenarios involving the speeding locomotive: 1985’s Runaway Train, although a dramatically different picture, did infinitely more exciting things with its premise.
That was the year Eric Roberts and Jon Voight starred in Runaway Train, capping off a couple decades worth of movies and made for TV endeavors in which the railroads lose control of a locomotive, sending it willy nilly down the tracks towards a heavily populated area with no way to stop it.
Black, who costarred in the original Predator and cowrote this new installment, has intermittently flourished as both a writer (Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout) and a writer-director (Iron Man 3, The Nice Guys), and he remains a reliable source of zippy and fantastically profane dialogue, the laughs and the winces layered just so.
Black had a reputation for being a purveyor of some of the greatest action movie screenplays of the 80’s and 90’s, including Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, and The Long Kiss Goodnight, before breaking out into directing with 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Ever since he first came up with the characters of Riggs and Murtaugh in 1987’s Lethal Weapon, Black has been slowly but surely building up his resume and experience with the likes of The Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero and The Long Kiss Goodnight.
Shane Black may have a reputation as an action writer (Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout), but his true stock in trade is smart-ass repartée, especially in some of the films he has directed, including Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Nice Guys.
Cela dit, j’avais quand même espoir que The Predator serait un retour en force, étant coscénarisé (avec Fred Dekker) et réalisé par nul autre que Shane Black, à qui l'on doit notamment les scénarios de Lethal Weapon et The Last Boy Scout ainsi que les films Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man 3 et The Nice Guys.
For those who don’t know, Shane Black is responsible for writing cult-classic films of the 1980s and 1990s, including Lethal Weapon (1987), The Monster Squad (1987), The Last Boy Scout (1991), Last Action Hero (1993) and The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996).