He plays shirtless beach sports with his fellow pilots. The first half of 'Maverick' resembles the original: Cruise's Pete Mitchell romances a woman who's onto his tricks (Jennifer Connelly). It's snowy and mountainous, so maybe it's that bastion of evil, Switzerland? Another biggie is that the foreign target Cruise is training his charges to sneak into and bomb is only referred to as 'the enemy,' probably because 'Maverick' doesn't want to annoy any countries that would be willing to put it in theaters. You have to swallow several things in 'Maverick,' which comes 36 years after the blockbuster original. In the opening of the entertaining 'Top Gun: Maverick,' a fighter pilot played by Tom Cruise gets reassigned for being a rule-breaking hotdog and his new gig doesn't make sense: He becomes a teacher, showing the next generation of pilots how to be as big of a rule-breaker as him.
