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Has not aged well...

Posted : 10 years, 7 months ago on 21 August 2013 05:20

"You and Rowdy have the same sickness, it's called denial and it's probably going to kill you both."

The racing sequences in Days of Thunder are fantastic. Everything else is borderline unwatchable. That's about all you need to know about this early Tom Cruise vehicle. (Excuse the pun.)

A rebellious hotshot race car driver, Cole Trickle (Cruise) dreams of NASCAR fame and fortune. Recruited by car dealer Tim Daland (Randy Quaid), Cole gets the opportunity to drive for an underfunded race team, supervised by veteran mechanic and crew chief Harry Hogge (Robert Duvall). Cole and Harry initially clash due to their dissimilar racing philosophies, but Cole eventually adapts, which allows him to win a string of races and become a favourite for NASCAR, irritating the competitive Rowdy Burns (Michael Rooker). While being reckless on the racetrack, Cole and Rowdy are almost killed in a major collision which lands them in the hospital. Here, Cole meets brain specialist Claire Lewicki (Nicole Kidman), and a romance burgeons. However, Cole is mentally jumbled up from the crash, forcing him to make a tough decision: retire or risk his life for NASCAR glory. Complicating things is Tim's new driver, Russ Wheeler (Cary Elwes), who will not take kindly to Cole's return to the track.


Days of Thunder reunited Cruise with director Tony Scott and producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, whose previous collaboration resulted in 1986's smash hit Top Gun. What we have here is essentially a blatant attempt to recapture the success of their earlier movie, replacing naval aviation with NASCAR racing but changing little else. Once again, Cruise plays a young hotshot with a big ego who can't follow the rules and clashes with authority. Also, there's a romance involving a confident, strong-willed professional woman who's reduced to Cruise's personal cheerleader in the climax. And the narrative is very similar to Top Gun, with Cruise's character suffering a crisis of confidence. Hell, the change from planes to cars even allows for plenty of shots of helmeted professionals bantering through their microphones, not unlike Top Gun. It's laughable, and it's surprising that the script is actually credited to the legendary Robert Towne (Chinatown). Days of Thunder is awkwardly-structured and episodic, which is probably because filming started without a finished script and scenes were written on the fly.

Not surprisingly, Days of Thunder comes alive during the racing sequences, which are exhilarating and well-assembled. Many scenes were actually shot during real NASCAR races (with shrewd editing effectively inserting the actors into the action), giving them a more believable disposition and heightening the sense of speed, sound and fury. Scott and cinematographer Ward Russell put their cameras in the thick of the action, allowing us to feel the power of the cars zooming around the track. It's magnificent stuff. However, when the film veers off the racetrack and into character dramatics, the wheels really fall off. The relationship between Cole and Harry is admittedly effective, as is the friendship Cole develops with Rowdy, but everything else is half-hearted at best. Most egregious is the introduction of Russ, who's an antagonistic jerk literally because the script demands it. Cole apparently needed a nemesis to overcome in the climactic race, which is where Russ comes in, but he's so cartoonish and lacking in motivation that the entire subplot feels ridiculously forced. By the same token, the romance between Cole and Claire is incredibly flat, emerging again because the formula necessitates a romantic angle. The generic construction wouldn't matter so much if the narrative were smoothly executed, but Scott was unable to liven these plot elements, as they play out in a perfunctory, uninteresting and cheesy manner.


Another huge issue is the script's treatment of Cole. He's meant to be the protagonist of the movie, but he's an arrogant asshole only concerned with his own ego and desire and is never forced to come to terms with the hubris of his actions. Cole does things that are borderline criminal at times, intentionally crashing into a car while its driver does a victory lap, and carelessly speeding in a juvenile fashion while his girlfriend pleads for him to stop. Cole is egocentric and infantile; he needs a good slap across the face, but apparently, we're meant to care about him. It doesn't really work.

It doesn't help that Days of Thunder is mainly carried by banal acting. Cruise is an okay pick for Cole, but it's Cheese City; he emanates an aura of corniness when a more down-to-earth performer could've made Cole feel like an actual human being. Meanwhile, Kidman (with her original nose) makes no effort to hide her Australian accent, and her performance is appalling. Quaid is also mostly awful, doing nothing worthwhile with his shallow character who becomes villain-ish for no reason, while Elwes seems to put in zero effort. Elwes had The Princess Bride on his filmography by this point in his career, making his empty performance as Russ all the more disappointing. Honestly, Elwes is like a walking rice cake here. Fred Dalton Thompson also plays the NASCAR chief in this film before he considered running for President.


Days of Thunder may appeal to NASCAR fanatics, die-hard Tom Cruise lovers, or folks who need a better quality threshold for their action entertainment. Everyone else can do a lot better. Scott is right at home with the exciting action sequences that render the film watchable from time to time, but it's pure formula, in need of a stronger vision and smarter scripting.

4.8/10



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An average movie

Posted : 13 years ago on 7 March 2011 11:37

By now, I have seen all the movies directed by Tony Scott and it is probably the worst one he has made. I mean, I have seen this movie like ages ago but I still remember that the whole thing was pretty boring... The biggest issue, in my opinion, is how can you make an exciting movie about a sport like Nascar racing?!? I mean, no offense, but you only have those guys making circles for hours and it looks rather tedious, except maybe when they crash but it sounds rather morbid to follow a sport for those reasons. Anyway, back then, Tom Cruise was becoming the biggest movie star on earth and it was the second time around he was working with Tony Scott, following 'Top Gun' which was for both their first bonafide box-office success. Honestly, this movie was not so bad, I mean, Tony Scott is one of the best action director, no question about it but the story was kind of boring, not original at all and completely predictable. Even the great Robert Duvall couldn't make this more interesting. For Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, it was the start of a new romance but, eventually, it didn't end up very well for them, I'm afraid. To conclude, the whole thing is pretty average and not really worth a look, in my opinion.


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Racing flick, with heart

Posted : 17 years, 5 months ago on 18 October 2006 07:13

You've got to respect a movie that can make NASCAR look watchable. The chemistry between Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise was great in this movie, the racing footage was top notch and filmed at actual NASCAR events, and the story was compelling enough, although a bit of a cookie-cutter formula to it.


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