Days of Thunder (Blu-ray)

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Then, about midway though the movie, Cole gets into a near-fatal accident on the track, and in the hospital meets a beautiful brain surgeon, Dr. Claire Rewicki, played by Nicole Kidman. At first, he doesn't believe she's really a doctor because his friends have played practical jokes on him before, and, besides, Ms. Kidman was only about twenty-two when she filmed the movie and looks about sixteen. I guess we can excuse Cole's mistake. Cruise and Kidman's real-life romance began with this film, incidentally. I couldn't tell you where it ended.

Like the movie "Grand Prix," this one alternates an offtrack story with the racing sequences. The only difference is that the races in "Days of Thunder" all look the same, and the offtrack romance and intrigue are stereotyped. For instance, the youngster, Cole, and the oldster, Hogge, don't communicate well. Who'da thunk? When Cole loses his temper and gets himself fired from the team, they replace him with a jerk almost as arrogant as he is, a fellow named Russ Wheeler, played with villainous glee by Cary Elwes in a part that obviously influenced his later role in "Twister."

Claire calls Cole selfish, crazy, and scared, an infantile egomaniac. She got the "infantile" part right, and it taints the whole film.

Video:
Paramount video engineers remastered the picture and transferred it to disc in its original aspect ratio, 2.35:1, using a dual-layer BD50 and an MPEG-4/AVC encode. Remastering does not mean restored, however, so you will still see occasional age flecks and noise in the print. Outdoor footage shows a good deal of natural film grain, while indoor shots show quite a bit less. In neither case is this a bad thing; it is apparently what the film actually looks like. Because of the remastering and the high-bit transfer, though, the colors shine brilliantly, deeply, and solidly, with reasonably well-honed definition. Facial tones seem a bit dark, and there is sometimes a thin veil over the image, but it is minor at worst. With no evidence of edge enhancement or filtering, the video quality is mostly excellent.

Audio:
The lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lives up to its name by providing a truly awesome experience during the races. The audio sounds sharply etched, with plenty of oomph and a great deal of surround activity during the racing sequences. Although Han Zimmer's musical score is often loud and clamorous, it comes at the right moments, matching the noisy competition. In terms of sheer technical brilliance, impact, clarity, and rear-channel information, this TrueHD track surpasses that of "Top Gun." The sounds of the cars alone make the disc worth watching.

Extras:
OK, give me room to explain all the extras. There's a widescreen theatrical trailer. Hmmm, that didn't take as long as I figured. In fairness, you also get twenty-three scene selections and bookmarks; pop-up menus; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired

Parting Shots:
If you liked "Top Gun," you stand a good chance of liking "Days of Thunder." They both provide a series of personal backdrops to a series of action sequences. The problems with "Days of Thunder" are that the background story is trite and melodramatic, and the action sequences are all alike, exaggerated. Frankly, nothing happens in this movie that we can't spot a mile on. But the picture and sound are good, and in high-def the movie passes 107 minutes harmlessly enough.

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