Days of Thunder [Blu-ray] at Howling Video

More Videos
A - Actors
B - Actors
C - Actors
D - Actors
E - Actors
F - Actors
G - Actors
H - Actors
I - Actors
J - Actors
K - Actors
L - Actors
M - Actors
N - Actors
O - Actors
P - Actors
Q - Actors
R - Actors
S - Actors
T - Actors
U - Actors
V - Actors
W - Actors
X - Actors
Y - Actors
Z - Actors

More Sites

Days of Thunder [Blu-ray]

	Days of Thunder [Blu-ray]
	by Paramount Sales Rank: 12729 Price: $19.95

"comes on like thunder! It's a winner!" - Joel Siegel, WABC-TV/New York "**Best movie of the summer!" - Steve Kmetko, KCBS-TV/Los Angeles From the engine roar and fever pitch of professional stock car racing, <i>Days of Thunder</i> explodes with the most spectacular racing action ever captured on film. Tom Cruise plays race driver Cole Trickle, whose talent and ambition are surpassed only by his burning need to win. Discovered by businessman Tim Daland (Randy Quaid), Cole is teamed with legendary crew chief and car-builder Harry Hogge (Academy Award. winner Robert Duvall) to race for the Winston Cup at the Daytona 500. A fiery crash nearly ends Cole's career and he must turn to a beautiful doctor (Nicole Kidman) to regain his nerve and the true courage needed to race, to win and to live. Viewer Reviews** I've lived in the south since I was 9 years old and noticed immediately upon moving here that the locals have a fanatical love of NASCAR. I never really did connect with the sport though. But this is the south, and most folks here make it a point to watch NASCAR often. I remember watching Days of Thunder when it first came out on VHS and remember thinking that it was impressive on a Surround Sound setup, but I honestly didn't remember that much else about it, and that's largely because there's not much to it. The movie, in a nutshell, chronicles the rise of up and coming rookie driver Cole Trickle, played by Tom Cruise. Cole just got bumped from his previous racing job due to some fiasco involving his father, and wants to eventually work his way up to Indy racing, and uses stock car racing as the best path to that goal. He enlists the help of Robert Duvall, a legendary crew chief who recently retired, to garner enough wins to proceed with his ultimate plans. The movie is something of a retread (pun intended) of Top Gun, as others have noted, in that the main character is a cocky, headstrong pilot of a vehicle who has a rivalry with a fellow pilot/driver (Michael Rooker in this case, Iceman in "Top Gun"), suffers an accident (a big crash in this film, F-14 crash in "Top Gun"), goes through a long period of doubt, but comes out on top in the end. And that's before you even get to the Kelly McGillis/Nicole Kidman parallels. Essentially this is a very formulaic movie plot in which the names and vehicles are changed around a bit but not much else. Thankfully they omitted the obligatory beach volleyball scene with Cole Trickle spiking Russ Wheeler in his big smug face. The acting is pretty ho-hum. Cruise plays a straight out of the archtype handbook rendition of the youthful, brash, hot shot while Duvall covers the older, more sagely guiding force. I really like Robert Duvall and I think he stood head and shoulders above the others acting-wise. He brings a great deal of realism to the characters he portrays on screen and he nails this part perfectly to the point where you'd swear his character actually did build stock cars and manage pit crews for a living. One of the most annoying aspects of the film are the names it gives to various drivers..."Cole Trickle", "Russ Wheeler", and "Rowdy Burns", as prime examples. You can almost see the producers sitting around a conference table and trying to decide on a name that encompassed the evocative image of the typical Southern standout racecar driver. One can easily think of additional names they could have used that fit this formula: Hoss Firewall, Jackson Ridge, Jet Burleson, etc. There's the inclusion of real NASCAR drivers in the movie like "King" Richard Petty and others to help introduce realism into the movie, and here it somewhat succeeds. The races look real and one can imagine the rush it must be to hold vehicles together that are largely ginormous engines strapped to four wheels with a steering wheel attached while moving at 200+ miles per hour. "Days of Thunder" is basically a very mediocre movie with adequate acting and above average racing action. But it is just about the only modern Hollywood feature where you can take a glimpse into the fast paced life of the typical NASCAR driver. And for this reason you'll find it on a lot of NASCAR fans' DVD shelves. If you're interested in stock car racing (and a pre-botox Nicole Kidman) you'll likely enjoy the film. Back To Top
Days of Thunder [Blu-ray] Available from Amazon

NOTICE: All product prices, availability, and specifications
are subject to verification by their respective retailers.

Copyright © 2008, Dominant Systems Corporation
info@HowlingVideo.com Privacy Policy
Last Modified : 11-10-2008