Days of Thunder | 
| Director: Tony Scott
Actors: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, Cary Elwes
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $12.98
Buy Used: $2.48
You Save: $10.50 (81%)
New (55) Used (62) Collectible (4) from $2.48
Rating:  75 reviews
Sales Rank: 5825
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 0 x 0 x 0
MPN: TM2532
ISBN: 0792155211
UPC: 097363212379
EAN: 9780792155218
ASIN: B00000ILBL
Theatrical Release Date: June 27, 1990
Release Date: May 25, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: In great shape, may have light wear.
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| Features:
| • | Officially Licensed | | • | Highest Quality Recording |
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Product Description
Cole Trickle enters the high-pressure world of Nascar racing. He's a hot driver with a hot temper, and this attitude gets him into trouble not only with other drivers, but members of his own team as well.
Amazon.com essential video
With Days of Thunder, director Tony Scott tried to do for the Indy 500 what he did for the U.S. Air Force with Top Gun. But without Top Gun's go-go soundtrack and visual feats, Scott merely ends up with a Tom Cruise vehicle that's out of gas. Cruise plays (what else?) a cocky, upstart stock-car racer who faces down ruthless racing opponents. Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall, Cary Elwes, and Randy Quaid do the laps around this movie's tiresome track with Cruise, while director Scott attempts to propel the action along with his trademark visceral, gritty but glamorous visual style. Days of Thunder is notable, however, as a turning point in Cruise's then one-dimensional career. After this film--having tired even his most devoted fans by playing a bartender, an air force pilot, and a stock-car driver--Cruise was forced to take on real character parts. --Ethan Brown
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| Customer Reviews: Read 70 more reviews...
 Lossless audio in blu-ray makes this more enjoyable December 25, 2008
D. Krepak
The movie itself is good if you are interested in racing and the personalities of the people involved. The blu-ray video has good clarity. There are white sparkles throughout showing the age of the movie. Lossless audio is TrueHD which does add a lot compared to sd dvd. The surrounds are active in the racing scenes. LFE is good. During the nonaction scenes the volume is somewhat lower then raises significantly at times in some of the racing scenes. The only extra on the blu-ray is a trailer.
 A movie filled with nothing but left turns October 26, 2008
Ethan D Van Vorst (Salisbury, NC USA)
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.
 grrrrr... only english version September 11, 2007
MARIO RAUL PARAMO PRADA
i live in colombia, i like very much this movie, but it doesn't have spanish subtitles. :(
TOP GUN + Days of Thunder should be part of all movie collections! June 9, 2007
A. Wong (Seattle, WA USA)
This movie and Top Gun (Widescreen Special Collector's Edition) should be a part of all moviegoers' collection. Not only are they the pinnacle works of Tom Cruise, they incorporate a timeless theme -- speed.
I won't get into the awesomeness that surrounds Top Gun, but that same aura surrounds this movie as well. Starting off as a nobody but a reckless driver, Tom Cruise drives and performs better than any rookie. It is through this driving does he find it within himself a passion and he grows and matures like a caterpillar to a butterfly in a short 2 hours.
Awesome movie, 'nuff said.
great movie January 4, 2007
Michael L. Snider (wyoming)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
thank you for very fast delivery, movie playes great, will buy from again
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