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The Complete Works Ep. 117: Tom Cruise – DAYS OF THUNDER (1990)

·30 min·2 clips

Doug Hess argues Days of Thunder reruns the Top Gun, Color of Money and Cocktail formula: young talent, older mentor, taller woman.

1. The Complete Works Ep. 117 covers Days of Thunder (1990), the Tom Cruise stock car racing film that Doug Hess reviews as part of his chronological run through Cruise's career. 2. Host Doug Hess presents the show for Filmbook, and this solo episode centers on a cast including Cruise, Robert Duvall, Nicole Kidman, Randy Quaid, Fred Thompson and John C. Reilly. 3. Hess's thesis is that the film belongs to a 'Tom Cruise picture trilogy' with Top Gun, The Color of Money and Cocktail, running the same formula in what he calls 'copy, paste, repeat' fashion. 4. He lists the formula's parts: a young naive talent, an older mentor (Robert Duvall here), a superior older woman (Nicole Kidman as a doctor), a craft to master, and an enemy in Michael Rooker's Rowdy Burns. 5. He highlights Tony Scott's direction, the same director as Top Gun, praising fast pacing and close-up shots of drivers side-swiping each other, and he notes the hospital wheelchair race between Cruise's and Rooker's characters. 6. He rates Duvall, Rooker and Randy Quaid highly, saying Duvall brings 'calm and levity' and Quaid plays a serious owner, while saying Kidman's role is thin although the film would lose something without her. 7. He compares the film to Talladega Nights (2006), Rush (2013), Ford v Ferrari (2019), Grand Prix (1966) and Le Mans (1971) with Steve McQueen, acknowledging that Formula One and stock cars are different forms of racing. 8. He reports an estimated $60 million budget, a $15.4 million opening weekend, $82.6 million in the U.S. and Canada, and $157.9 million worldwide, plus one Oscar nomination for Best Sound. 9. His trivia includes Cruise co-writing with Robert Towne, Greg Sacks doing most stunt driving for insurance reasons, Cruise's 180 mph first lap, and the character name Cole Trickle as a salute to Dick Trickle. 10. Fans of Tom Cruise's early career and racing movies will like it.

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