Friday, March 30, 2007

Days of Moderate Rumbling

WGN is showing Days of Thunder right now, and given I've had a mere seventeen years to see this one, I figure I should jump in and see what the buzz is about this young promising "Tom Cruise" person I keep hearing so much about.

From what I can gather halfway in, Tom Cruise's job is to roll back and forth to exterior shots of a Daytona Beach Memorial Hospital, which would be a fine facility if it actually existed. As for the people of my current place of residence, they are largely portrayed as Blob O' Shirtless Fan, so... some pretty fair accuracy, then.

Nicole Kidman puffy-faces around in crunchy hair, somebody just said "Rubbin' ain't racin'," and people keep addressing Cruise as "Cole Trickle." You go, Tom. You go for those roles in which your character's name sounds like a symptom of a urinary tract infection. He's going to be an extremely respected figure someday.

please stop the thunder at: mbe@drinktothelasses.com

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, and did you like the umpteenth time Mr. Cruise played the same role? You know, the cocky underdog role with the crooked but oh-so-charming grin?

OK, so I'm not a big Cruise fan. I may be in the minority, but I'm right darn it!

Anne

Anonymous said...

As a sometime NASCAR fan, I am pretty sure that Tom or Ridley Scott, revolutionized the way races are filmed with Days of Thunder. Apparently, this helped to make NASCAR more appealing and grew the fan base. (I could be wrong but I think I remember reading something about that.)

Personally, I am still waiting for a pit crew to eat popcicles during a race.

Anonymous said...

[P]eople keep addressing Cruise as "Cole Trickle." You go, Tom. You go for those roles in which your character's name sounds like a symptom of a urinary tract infection.

Uh, JTP can probably tell you this, but there was a grizzled old geezer who used to race in NASCAR named Dick Trickle. Even though he wasn't a very successful driver, he was well-known both for his name and for the fact that NASCAR allowed him to smoke cigarettes during caution laps; he drilled a hole into his helmet so he could puff away during yellow flags.

Anonymous said...

MB, you & Matt Lauer are so glib.
(I can't stand Tom Cruise!)

SN

Anonymous said...

We have a misquote in the blog! because, as I'm sure JTP will verify, rubbin' is in fact racin'. Or in double negative land if it ain't rubbin' it ain't racin'

Josh The Pilot said...

It's true, there was a driver named Dick Trickle. I've never heard the story about his smoking during cautions, however I wouldn't doubt that something like that went on in the old days. He wouldn't have had to drill a hole in his helmet because back in the day the drivers wore open-faced helmets.
My favorite driver name of all-time remains "Buckshot Jones". He made some noise in the Busch (the beer, not bush) Series a while back, but never had any success in Cup. Quite a shame. I would love to meet him sometime and ask him if he's related to Davy Jones, 'cause Dave sure knows Buckshot's career! (rimshot, please!)

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