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Dom Robinson reviews
Paramount
- Cert:
- Cat.no: PHE 8005
- Running time: 103 minutes
- Year: 1990
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 23 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Surround, Mono
- Languages: 4 languages available
- Subtitles: 8 languages available
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Theatrical Trailer
Director:
- Tony Scott (Beverly Hills Cop 2, Crimson Tide, Days of Thunder, Enemy of the State, The Fan, The Hunger, The Last Boy Scout, Top Gun, True Romance, TV: The Hunger)
Producers:
- Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer (Crimson Tide, The Rock, Top Gun)
Screenplay:
- Robert Towne
Music:
- Hans Zimmer
Cast:
- Cole Trickle: Tom Cruise
Dr. Claire Lewicki: Nicole Kidman
Harry Hodge: Robert Duvall
Tim Daland: Randy Quaid
Russ Wheeler: Cary Elwes
Rowdy Burns: Michael Rooker
Big John: Fred Dalton Thompson
Aldo Bennedetti: Don Simpson
Days of Thunderreunites Top Gun‘s star (Tom Cruise) and director (TonyScott) for another episode of high-octane machismo, but swaps the aerialdogfights for the race car circuit.
Tom Cruise plays Cole Trickle, an up-and-coming driver who has the talentand ambition, but needs to persuade his peers including legendary crew chiefand car-builder, Robert Duvall, always an ever-reliable actor, after hisreputation being sold to him by businessman Randy Quaid.
However, as events move closer to Cole’s aim to race for the Winston Cup atthe Daytona 500, a fiery crash nearly ends his career and he has to turn to adoctor, Cruise’s real-life wife Nicole Kidman, to help him regain his fightfor life.
Cruise met Kidman on the set of this film and they’ve since made two morefilms together, Ron Howard‘s 1992 Oirish drama,Far And Awayand Stanley Kubrick‘s last film, Eyes Wide Shut.
The film also features a cameo from one of its producers, the late DonSimpson who died in 1996 from a drugs overdose, after suffering majordepression.
With this film being shot in 2.35:1 Panavision, this widescreen edition is theonly way to watch this film, as Scott, a master of the action flick, expertlybrings the thrills and spills of the race car circuit to film, with tightprecision shots from above the track, in-car shots, and tracking shots followingthe rivalry between the competitors, especially betweeu Cruise and MichaelRooker.
However, on the downside, the print can be grainy at times and it’s notanamorphic (same goes for the Region 1 DVD). The average bitrate is a high7.99Mb/s, often peaking just over 9Mb/s.
The sound comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 for English while other languages areshort-changed. Loud crashes, explosions and dialogue all come across clearly.On a musical note, the love theme for the film, Maria McKee‘s Show MeHeaven made No.1 in 1990. The soundtrack also includes Gimme Some Lovin’ by the Spencer Davis Group, Chicago‘s Hearts inTrouble and Guns N Roses‘ cover version of Knockin’ on Heaven’sDoor.
Extras : Chapters :23 chapters for the 103-minute running time which is a good amount. Languages/Subtitles :Dolby Digital 5.1 in English, but surround-only for German and Czech.Hungarians will only hear mono.Subtitles are available in English (and hard of hearing), German,Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Icelandic, Finnish and Swedish. And there’s more… :A two-minute Theatrical Trailer, in the original 2.35:1 widescreenratio but it’s rather grainy. You’ll watch it once and that’s it. Menu :A basic static and silent menu with a shot of the front cover and the usualoptions. Bizarrely, the menu appears to be anamorphic even if the filmisn’t (i.e., it looks better with the TV in the appropriate setting)
Overall, Tony Scott is a director who can do no wrong, apart fromgoing slightly off the boil with The Fan, but, in collaboration withJerry Bruckheimer (and previously with also the late Don Simpson),what is lacking in originality is more than made up with explosions andgood, fast action (oo-er, missus!)
This is the only DVD I’ve seen from Paramount so far which borders on theduff side for the picture and it’s a shame no remastered anamorphic transfercould have been found. Here’s hoping a Special Edition comes out eventually,but it was hardly the biggest blockbuster ever made so probably not thislate in the day.
All we need now, Paramount, are copious extras that we’ll revisit time andagain please.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.