Days of Thunder (1990)

Cole Trickle, played by Tom Cruise, is invited to drive Nascar for the first time in his career; he is accustom to open wheel cars and short tracks.  The only problem is that Cole does not know how to properly drive these cars, and is not willing to really listen to the advise of his crew chief.  This stubbornness gets him into a wreck that could potentially end his career as a professional driver.  Throughout the recovery he falls for his neurosurgeon and begins to take life a little more serious, along the way he finds that he can overcome his internal fears.

I am here to tell you that this is a man's movie through and through, and it is quite possibly one of the best man movies I have ever seen.  The first part of the show displays Dennis Quaid playing a straight role of the team owner.  He is interacting with Robert Duvall (probably one of the finest character actors of a generation) who is a reluctant and stubborn retired crew chief.  Together they devise a plan to bring in a new driver that will take them to places they have never been before in the racing world.

Around the twelve minute mark the making of a great film is ruined when Maverick rides his motorcycle in from Top Gun to show Quaid, Duvall, and John C Reilly how he can drive a Nascar car.  As he gets off of his bike you can literally see the camera angles change so that you do not see the boxes that Tom Cruise is standing on to make him look as tall as the other actors.  To tell you the truth it was not until this show that I realized how one-dimensional Cruise was as an actor.  While he was arguing with Duvall, it felt like he was arguing with...well anyone from his movies (this guy cannot act!!).  Even though he has performed with some of the most talented actors of our era, I am convinced it is only because he is eye candy for the ladies; but I will get to that in a moment.

You might say that this movie was not that bad, and frankly it can't get any worse than what you have already read, but wait there is more.  How do you make Days of Thunder worse, I will tell you, add Nicole Kidman as his doctor.  Her acting was so wretched it felt like you could also envision the queue cards that were being held off set for her to read.  There was no chemistry for these two on the screen, but as a viewer you got sucked down the rabbit hole of the moronic writing of this film.  I could not look away from a movie that had the line, "You look like a monkey f$%(*ing a football."  If that is not a line for a man movie I don't know what one is.

Did I just refer to this movie as a man movie for the second time in this review....ugh, what am I thinking?  This was a chick flick through and through!!!  As my wife so lovingly said to me as I was watching this film, "Why are you watching a chick flick, all this is is a love story surrounded by racing so the girls could get their guys to watch it."  "Great," I say back to her, "now you have just ruined Top Gun and turned it into a chick flick as well."  Oh how true it is though.  The story lines were pathetically similar, the love story was identical, and the ending was intolerably predictable. 

To tell you the truth, the only reason I watched this movie was because a co-worker/friend told me how great it was, and how it was a manly movie.  Well, I hate to break it to them, but they have fallen victim to clever advertising, weak story telling, and action packed sequences all wrapped up tidily in a chick flick, honestly, what is next?  Steel Magnolias?  Up next...Rambo I - XIV