The Need For Speed

In honor of this year's Daytona 500 race, taking place on Sunday, February 19th here are my thoughts on Days of Thunder, from 1990.

Given all of his strange behavior of late, I sometimes have to remind myself that Tom Cruise has had a lot of success as movie star, and is not some newcomer kook bursting onto the scene...

After the wild hit of Top Gun in '86, Cruise and director Tony Scott traded in fighter planes for hot wheels in their next collaboration. Days Of Thunder came about after Cruise was turned onto auto racing by his Color Of Money co-star Paul Newman. And while not a huge hit, the film is a solid "guy" film, with plenty of the right ingredients to entertain.

Hotshot race car driver Cole Trickle (Cruise) is poised to have quite a career after he's discovered by businessman Tim Daland (Randy Quaid). Daland teams the up and comer with veteran crew chief/car designer and father figure Harry Hogge (Robert Duvall) to win the Daytona 500. Those dreams take a turn for the worst though when Trickle suffers a near fatal accident and is placed in the care of neurosurgeon Dr. Claire Lewicki (Nicole Kidman), who naturally finds Cole attractive, even as he vows to race again.

Is the film's script from Oscar winner Robert Towne routine? Most definitely yes. That said though, Scott keeps the audience distracted, with enough noise and realistic looking racing footage, to make you forget the fluffyness of the screenplay. Meanwhile, the future (and now ex) Mrs. Cruise lights up the screen as she and Tom definitely share quite a few sparks with each other. In fact, with so much confection around, you barely even notice that Kidman looks way too young to be at the top of her profession. As the film's seasoned pro Duvall gives a convincing performance that helps sell it as well.

With the sport and NASCAR enjoying more widespread popularity than ever before, I'm a bit surprised that a special edition disc hasn't come along yet...but don't worry, I'm sure that one will pop up sooner or later, just as one has for Top Gun For now, the theatrical trailer is the DVDs sole extra, on the current Days of Thunder disc