NASCAR, and film? who would have thought that the two could make such a good movie?

Rating: 8/10 (23 July 2000)

The answer to that question is obvious--producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, director Tony Scott, and superstar Tom Cruise, as they reunite after Top Gun for this Loud, Engine roaring racing romance. This crew has taken what worked well for Top gun, and used in in a different, but not that much slower, mode of transportation. Thrills and spills abound, of course there is ONE great wreck in the movie, and from this wreck spins the romance of this film. Nicole Kidman, and Tom Cruise once again hit it off in the Movies, but by this time they were together in real life too. As such, the chemistry between the two was much greater in this film than in Top Gun. Cole Trickle (Tom Cruise) must realize that driving stock-cars is different than driving indy cars, just as much as veteran stock-car racer Harry Hogge (Robert Duvall), must realize when building the car for Trickle. As always, neither ever wants to admit that they could possibly be wrong, or not know something. But Hogge isn't the only one that Cole butts heads with. Champion driver Rowdy Burns (Michael Rooker), Trickles major rival, is just as stubborn, and thick headed as the rest of them. After the wreck that takes both Trickle, and Rowdy out of a major race, the two are hospitalized together, and become friends--of a sort.
Trickle and Burns must both face their own mortality, but in different ways.
(as a side note, and my opinion only, this is one of the best examples of what a difference a DVD player and home theatre speakers can make compared to a plain old VCR).