NASCAR never looked so cool, seriously… it never did.
Cole Trickle (no relation to Dick) is an up and coming driver from smaller circuit racing. Brought up by Tim Daland, a shady businessman, Cole looks to shake things up on the stock car circuit. His mechanic, Harry Hogge, is skeptical of Cole’s skills in the highest of racing scenes and puts his young driver to the test. Once Cole and Harry get on the same page, their racing team is unstoppable. Regretfully, Cole ends up in a horrible crash that nearly ends his career, but thanks to the help of a head trauma doctor named Dr. Claire Lewicki, he gets back on track with his racing career. Can he overcome his crash though? Only the movie will tell.
You can call this the time before people thought that Tom Cruise was crazy, or you can refer to it as the time before Tom Cruise made one of the longest productions of his life (Eyes Wide Shut), regardless this is the last of the pure Tom Cruise films. He plays a very dramatic, more mature, role than his roles in previous films like Top Gun or Cocktail, this time around he’s in need of help and seeks it it through Robert Duvall’s character, Harry Hogge. The chemistry between the two actors is solid, it makes you believe that Harry is the teacher and Cole is the student. Typically, Cruise’s roles are a bit stronger, more leading than this, but it’s refreshing to see him back off the ‘tough guy’ role and accept the ‘I don’t know everything’ take.
As for the story, it makes NASCAR look like an adventure. If you are like me, and I’m sure you are, you have tried to watch more than three laps of a NASCAR race. I just can’t bring myself to sit down and watch cars run in a circle 300-500 times. It just doesn’t give me that rush that I need like I get from the NFL or NCAA Basketball. Tony Scott has made NASCAR look like an exciting adventure that is packed with action and could lead to career ending finishes and heated rivalries. Tony Scott is brilliant for this and should be commended. With that said, it still is a movie about NASCAR which isn’t something I would watch on a day-to-day basis. NASCAR aside, he has put together some strong, entertaining characters, although it’s mighty difficult to hate or loath Cary Elwes’ Russ Wheeler. Sure he’s a dickhead, but he’s still damn entertaining to watch pick apart Tom Cruise and bring him down a notch or two.
Overall, I think the film is good, not great. Compared to Top Gun, it’s not as good. Compared to other NASCAR films, you can’t get better than this. Dramatic, witty at times and more human than you could imagine.
Feeling Blu about the lack of features
This is the perfect movie to show off the blu-ray capabilities with picture and sound. Despite the heart attack I almost had with the opening credits, the movie looks fabulous in HD. The scenes that run across the wall as the stock cars scrape it look out-of-this-world beautiful. As for the audio, it truly doesn’t get better than this. It’s one of the best Blu-rays for audio, top-notch. It probably sounds better than an actual NASCAR race, especially since you don’t get the smell of the shouting bubba and his beer beside you.
As for the special features, nothing regretfully. Infinite sadness. It would have been nice to get a good documentary on how things got put together and the personalities that were involved.