Year:
2000
Studio:
Touchstone Pictures/
Jerry Bruckheimer Films
Movie:
2/5
DVD:
2/5
Movie
Gone in 60 Seconds
is a more or less typical action movie. The premise here is car thefts
(or "boosting"). Nicolas Cage plays "Memphis" Raines, legendary Los
Angeles car thief. Raines retired a few years ago before the police (or
the criminal underworld) caught up with him. He walked away from it all
to live a normal and safe life.
But now he's pulled back into the world. Raines' brother Kip (Giovanni
Ribisi) and Kip's friends took on a major boost job. But Kip is blowing
it and the employer, Raymond Calitri (Christopher Eccleston) is going
to kill Kip unless Memphis takes over the job and delivers on the
goods: 50 specific cars in only 48 hours.
Well, Memphis is going to need help. So he goes back to his old
cohorts, who have all retired and are living normal lives. The
coordinator and mechanic, Fred (James Duval); Donny (Chi McBride); the
silent Sphynx (Vinnie Jones); and his old flame Sway (Angelina Jolie).
Along with Kip and his new-age car boosters, the team is going to do
the biggest one night boost ever.
Of course the problem is the police. Detective Roland Castlebeck
(Delroy Lindo) has followed Memphis' career for a long while. You could
even say that Memphis is Castlebeck's white whale. He knows Memphis and
he knows the business. And it's only a matter of time before he catches
up tp the group.
So it's a race against time and a race against the police. And that's
the premise of the movie.
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Review
The background is interesting. The prep work and stealing the cars also
interesting. The big car chase at the end is kind of cool, other than
the totally unbelievable fake jump Memphis does with his car. The whole
Memphis/Sway previous relationship/sexual tension was badly done and
way too little screen time -- either do it right or ignore it.
Overall I thought it was an unremarkable movie. Nicolas Cage is fine.
But the action is just a bit too... pointless. Jerry Bruckheimer films
can sometimes go over the top in action. Sometimes it works. sometimes
it doesn't. This time it didn't work for me. I think it should have
been a bit more gritty because stealing cars just isn't all that
glamorous, although come to think of it The Fast and the Furious pulled it
off.
DVD
There is no commentary track. There are maybe a dozen very short
segments. Little actor bits, stuff about the car chase, stuff about
Jerry Bruckheimer and the story. I don't particularly like it when
everything is so short -- might as well have globbed it all into a
featurette.
Also the DVD menus has slow transitions. Too much trying to be cool and
have exciting little bits that get repetitive quickly. It does fit the
movie though.
Recommendations
Good Nicolas Cage movie (or at least a movie where Cage
gets a lot of screen time). Not really a good movie if you like any of
the other actors (except maybe Delroy Lindo who has a fair bit of
screen time and Christopher Eccleston who makes a great English
villain). As an action movie it's a bit low on the action up until the
end. There's nothing really cool about the movie that makes me want to
recommend it.
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