Good concept, poorly executed.

Fresh and Exciting

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I saw Rush (2013) and then I saw Days of Thunder (1990), and the result is obvious, lame. The chemistry between the racer and his car maker/crew chief, with his girl Kidman, with his rival, Cruise's charm, nothing really captivates. Apart from the racing scenes, hardly anything to catch your eye, an overall drab affair, a racing fan may just pass through this and for that I give it a generous 6.

Nascar wasn't something that interested me, but after watching this movie I've learned a lot more about Nascar. I've learned about structures of the teams. Basically it's like a normal job. Boss hires a coach and a driver and also mechanics, who try to win races and make him money. Also, I didn't know it's that dangerous and that they actually try to hit each other when racing. I watched YouTube videos and it does actually happen in real life. Tom Cruise is great here and Nicole Kidman as well. Humour is nice, loved the scene with cops lol :D This movie allows you to see the life of a racer. Interesting moment from the movie is when Cole (Tom Cruise) said that he's more afraid of becoming noone rather than becoming a cripple. Apparently for some people being a cripple is not such a bad thing, as opposed to being noone. Basically they are ready to take the risks and won't regret it

Ratings: 5.9/10 from 56,118 users... and yet, I am still going for it... Why? Because I love cars, and especially American muscle ones~! I normally don't do any reviews of the films I have seen before, but... it might have been easily 15+ years since I have watched this one, I don't remember much from it. Many say, it's like Top Gun (1986) but with cars, and I think this is how I remember it, but is it any good and worth our time? Let's find out. ( Note, that I might be a little biased, since I have started racing ovals myself recently (iRacing). I will still try my best and stay neutral about it. )2 minutes - oh god... it's gonna be tough to stay objective with this one. They show me a track and cars and I already love it lol... Or maybe it's the charm of the 90's with a nice music?7 minutes - it's so god damn cheesy and cliché... but I love it. Actually, it doesn't look so bad at all26 minutes - the music is great and it feels exactly like in Top Gun (1986) ...Oh... maybe it's because he was a director of it too... Forgive my ignorance, I didn't check it before53 minutes - once the film moves away from a track... let's just say, it doesn't get better...1h 18minutes - I like the story, I really doI am not going to lie... I enjoyed it. It is a decent film, and if you like racing, you should like this one as well.tgchan's rating: 6 /10

Yeah, Top Gun is the one that made all the very BIG bucks back in 1986 and put Tony Scott and Tom Cruise on the map in bigger ways then they had been before (not to mention producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer), but somehow, much as with De Palma/Pacino with Scarface and Carlito's Way, the follow-up seemed to probably be the actual better film of the two. Does this mean that Days of Thunder, following the travails of an up-and-comer racecar star (Cruise), is a really good movie? Well, in some ways yes, and in other ways not so much.I give the production this: it moves fast and slick, and whenever cars are on the track it's visually compelling and exciting as the filmmakers know how to cut stuff together for Fast Impact (lest not forget the camera-work, filled with colors and smoke and cool contours, even a shot with Nicole Kidman standing at one point on the side of the frame is great to look at). And the casting here is fantastic; and forget Cruise, how about Robert Duvall (has he ever been anything less than solid, and here he's actually giving this conventional Trainer-cum-Mentor some soul), or Nicole Kidman (who gets really some of the best lines in the film), or Michael Rooker (by now something of an underrated character actor national treasure, and here imbuing an a-hole with a lot of sympathy and pathos)? Why not throw in John C. Reilly in there too, he has a couple of memorable moments too.Where it flails? Sadly, and I'm not sure if this is really on Towne's end - and one should note that Cruise has his only (?) writing credit here as co-story author - or the producers, but this all the same is light-weight stuff. There's not much conflict to the proceedings, or much that sticks to the gravel, no pun intended (OK, some). This is the kind of movie that gives people like Duvall some excellent scenes to at least try to overcome the clichés of the sports movie (and make no mistake, that's what this is deep down, and a "programmer" of the old-time-studio variety, not a terrible thing inherently)... and then you got Cary Elwes as "Russ Wheeler". The last time one saw a motorist with the last name Wheeler was in a Disney Goofy cartoon about Motor Madness. And Randy Quaid, who is OK, also is saddled with some very basic material to work with here as the businessman who turns on a dime. There may be some stakes, like for Rooker's character, yet for Cruise there's not much there that makes it feel like 'Oh no, s***'s getting real here!' In other words, Days of Thunder has some genuinely good stuff to it, and it has some personality and verve and, for a couple of moments, sex appeal in that, uh, late 80's/early 90's style (and hey, this was the movie Cruise and Kidman met after all, so you can see the chemistry as white hot as they come). But it's hard not to eye-roll at some of the story choices and character motivations, or things like, say, the movie ending on an unironic freeze frame at a very silly moment. It's one of those things where I give it a tepid recommendation and/or a very strong put-down, if that makes sense. Quality, dumb-studio filmmaking for the masses - and, for sure, a step up from the waste of Top Gun. 6.5/10