Days of Thunder is a 1990 sports movie with Tom Cruise playing Cole Trickle, a somewhat reckless, and too competitive for his own good, NASCAR driver. If you've ever seen Top Gun and thought "I'd like to see a version of this, but with race cars instead of fighter jets" then you'll probably enjoy Days of Thunder.
In the film Cole is a young racer who's experience has primarily been in open-wheel racing and, after having a bit of success with that, he wants to make the transition to stock-cars. So, he's recruited by Tim Daland (played by Randy Quaid) to race for his team, and former crew chief/car builder Harry Hogge (played by Robert Duvall) even comes out of retirement to lead the pit crew. Early on a rivalry begins to brew between Cole and NASCAR veteran Rowdy Burns (played by Michael Rooker). The two crash and bang race after race, until one day there is a major accident and both men are hospitalized. Even while recovering, the two are bitter rivals; they race wheelchairs in the hospital and destroy some rental cars while on they way to a dinner with a racing executive. It's also around this time that Cole ends up in a romantic relationship with a neurosurgeon from the hospital named Dr. Claire Lewicki (played by Nicole Kidman). Cole ends up recovering from his injuries just fine but Rowdy, on the other hand, has to undergo brain surgery and he asks Cole to race the Daytona 500 in his place. Of course Cole wins at Daytona for a nice, happy ending.
This isn't Tom Cruise's best movie and I wouldn't even call it a great film overall but, if you don't take it too seriously and just accept it as dumb-fun, then you'll probably be entertained.
I give it a 3 out of 5.
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