DAYS
OF THUNDER (1990)
Starring
Tom Cruise, Robert Duvall, Nicole Kidman, Michael Rooker, Cary Elwes,
Randy Quaid. Directed by Tony Scott. (107 min)
ON
BLU-RAY FROM PARAMOUNT
Review
by Tiger the Terrible😼
I
know a lot of you are terribly distraught that the release date for
the long-gestating sequel to Top Gun has been pushed back due
to the ongoing pandemic. But in the meantime, why not amuse yourself
with its other sequel?
That
“sequel,” of course, is “Top Car,” better known as Days of
Thunder, which follows the Top Gun blueprint so closely
that one could almost accuse Tom Cruise and director Tony Scott of
self-plagiarism. But lets not hold that against them, since it
remains a lot of flashy, frivolous fun and a vast improvement over
Cruise’s previous sequel, “Top Bar” (aka Cocktail).
You
know the formula. Cruise is another cocky hot-shot with a cool name,
this time NASCAR driver Cole Trickle. Over the next 107 minutes, he
drives fast, gets schooled, gets mentored, finds love, loses
love, finds it again, makes enemies, makes frenemies, faces
tragedy, becomes conflicted, soul-searches and finally waxes
philosophical about what really matters in life (which is, of course, the need for speed). Throw in a soundtrack of booming power ballads
and you’ve got Top Gun on a racetrack, minus the homoerotic
volleyball scene.
 |
| Guess who just got a look at their paychecks. |
Days
of Thunder is #5 in the Paramount Presents series,
consisting of some of the
studio’s iconic films. Paramount
currently appears
to be focusing on the era when they pretty-much dominated the
box office with high-concept commercial blockbusters (roughly
1977-1990). As
such, you kinda have to include a Tom Cruise movie, don’t you?
Might as well be this one, which not-only features Cruise at his
Cruisiest, but
typically flamboyant
direction by the late Tony Scott, still
honing the critic-confounding aesthetic
sensibilities that
made him the Michael Bay of his day.
Like
other films in this series, Days
of Thunder is
nicely remastered
with improved
picture and sound,
enhancing the
kinetic racing scenes, not-to-mention David Coverdale’s
already-sinus-clearing theme song. But
for me, the niftiest aspect is the packaging, which
folds-open
to reveal the film’s original poster art. The
series is obviously intended
for those of us who still take pride in displaying
how we've blown our
discretionary income.
One
might argue that Top Gun would have been the more logical
choice for the Paramount Presents series, since it
was one of the studio’s biggest ‘80s films and created the
template for what Roger Ebert would cheekily dub “the Tom Cruise
picture.” For all I know, they plan on including it later (perhaps
closer the Top Gun: Maverick’s release date). In the
meantime, it’s kind-of cool that they went with the less-obvious
choice, reminding us that we actually got a Top Gun “sequel”
30 years ago, and a pretty fun one at that.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
"FILMMAKER
FOCUS” - Retrospective interview with producer Jerry
Bruckheimer.
ISOLATED
FILM SCORE
KITTY CONSENSUS:
PURR-R-R...LIKE A GOOD SCRATCH BEHIND THE EARS
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