I can say with almost 100% confidence that homeboy Malone Zone readers will instantly recognize this lead glossy. It is, of course, the lead in scene to the first hop taken by the hot shot pilots of the Miramar Fighter Weapons School, better known as the aerial combat school and cinematic masterpiece Top Gun. Now as far as I know, when male babies are born, they leave the hospital with three things: their tanks topped off with testosterone, an inability to hold a conversation with a shorty for more than two consecutive minutes and a copy of the Top Gun DVD. When times get hard or a homeboy needs a pick me up from getting dogged Now shortys have their favorites too, but most of their joints have to do with a wayward homeboy getting his in the end (Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Waiting to Exhale) or of finding improbable love (How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Pretty Woman, Sleepless in Seattle (which featured that other shorty flick An Affair To Remember...)) - y'all know how they do. But homeboys avoid the emotions and dig the hardware and there's none more impressive than a F-4 Tomcat with the afterburners kicked in. Sure there are a few other flicks waiting on the bench for their shot in the DVD player like Heat, Scarface, Face/Off and the like - and all are good to exercise that surround sound gear, but nothing is like dropping in Top Gun and listening to Maverick coax his missile lock to 'Lock up, baby. Lock up' during a dogfight. That's good eatin', y'all. Gooood eatin'.
However, I do have to give a passing nod to another sleeper flick that connected with me years ago when I first started working my tech job (now y'all know why I'm in the basement...). I fell through a friends crib and checked out the video of a movie called Into the Night - a quirky flick starring Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer. It connected with me because Jeff was a LA engineer who was having trouble sleeping at night, but whenever he got to work he would nod right out. He was getting burned out by his dry a$$ tech job - car pooling, dull technical meeting - the whole nine - and I am like Damn Jeff - I feeling you, homeboy! So one sleepless night, Jeff decided to just drive out to LAX and watch the planes take off and ends up sitting in a parking garage wondering what he's doing with his life. 
Then out of nowhere Michelle Pfeiffer crashes down on the hood of his car screaming because she's being chased by a crew who wants to kill her (watch the movie to find out why, y'all). She jumps in the car with Jeff and just like that they're off on a night of car chases, shoot outs and straight thuggery - in other words Jeff finally falls into some excitement. Just like with Top Gun where a brother daydreams of blasting off a carrier deck strapped inside a F4, there's that other daydream of having a hot shorty just fall out of the sky and take you on a wild adventure (preferably one that doesn't end at the bottom of a canyon like Thelma and Louise or at the end of a hail of bullets like Bonnie and Clyde...). Every now and then, it's worth getting off your normal beaten movie path and checking out flicks you normally wouldn't. It doesn't have to be a blockbuster to connect with you. Normally it's the smaller flicks that more closely mirror every day reality. They may not help your surround sound system crack your drywall, but they will leave you with a little something something. Into the Night dropped in '85 y'all and I'm still typing about it so don't act like y'all don't have a few of your own closet comfort flicks stashed away for a rainy day too....(Quick Hit: If you want to get your laugh on check out this glossy over on The Dark Stuff - Howard keeps bringing it...)
Peace@Least,
Tyrone
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