Most critics find Days of Thunder a loud, expensive Tom Cruise vehicle that recycles the Top Gun formula and has little to say beyond it. Five of the seven reviews are negative, and the complaints repeat: stock situations, a story that plays every scene at the same pitch, and a commercial’s idea of drama. Where there is praise, it goes to two places. Tony Scott’s racing footage is credited with making the audience feel the speed, and Robert Duvall’s performance is singled out almost everywhere as the film’s one reliable pleasure.
The disagreements are small and sit near the bottom of the scale. RogerEbert.com is the only outright recommendation, allowing that the film is predictable but entertaining. Variety credits Robert Towne’s screenplay with reaching for substance; the Los Angeles Times calls it malnourished. Slant Magazine goes furthest, calling the film hollow and misogynistic in its handling of its female lead, an angle the earlier reviews barely raise.