This is such an under-rated movie, which is a real bummer, because it is awesome. Watched it again over the weekend and loved it — again. I seem to get more out of the film every time I watch it. This time around I was amazed at how good the driving in the film is. There was this one moment where Tom Cruise is driving up a parking garage and when they reach the top he does a spin and brakes at the same time to land perfectly within the lines of a parking stall. Then he jumps out, sure enough it’s Tom Cruise driving as the moment was all caught in one take. I re-wound it several times, it’s a perfect piece of driving.
I think the film got caught in the vortex that was Oprah’s couch. After he professed his love on national television, there were several years there where the media seemed hell bent on ruining Tom Cruise’s life. He just tried to ignore it and kept pumping out great movies, but there was a significant dip in attendance for his movies, as people on the street fell for the media storm and wrote him off as, “kookie”. I have personally been around Tom Cruise at several different times and always found him to be engaging, authentic and sincere. He’s extremely nice in person and I never felt like the media ever gave him a fair shake. Anyway, he never stopped putting out great movies and his audience is now back up to where it should be and he seems to be doing just fine again.
One thing can definitely be said about Tom, he puts everything he has into his movies and always seems to put out high quality work. No one can ever accuse him of “mailing it in”. Both Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz did a majority of the stunts on their own. Both Cruise and Diaz are avid drivers and have experience in doing sharp turns and 180’s. They trained very hard on the driving as they both share a love of racing. While Cruise and Diaz were promoting this movie they both appeared on the BBC’s Top Gear: Episode #15.5 (2010) where they competed in the traditional speed lap in the “reasonably-priced car.” Their respective time records were 01m:44.2s and 01m:45.2s. Diaz beat every previous time set (by people who weren’t professional racing drivers). Then Cruise drove and beat her time by a second – his car was on only two wheels going around the last corner! His time was equal to some of the F1 drivers who’ve gone around the track (in an ordinary car).
If you haven’t seen the movie, there’s a fantastic stunt on a motorcycle you just have to see. Cruise is driving and Diaz is behind him on the motorcycle and she gets the guns and comes around to face Cruise and shoots behind them at the cars chasing them. They really did this stunt several times for the film, and it’s a great scene. It’s a fun movie with comedy, romance and a lot of action. I highly recommend it and I hope it has a second life as a cult favorite on DVD, digital and Blu-Ray.
