Another action movie (I just saw M:I2), this one doesn't have as much gunplay nor explosions, but it's still exciting. Nicolas Cage plays Randall "Memphis" Raines, a legend in the auto-theft world (at least in the Los Angeles area) who retired six years ago without ever having been arrested. He's working at a go-cart racetrack where an old acquaintance (Atley, played by Will Patton) comes to see him with bad news: Memphis' brother Kip has followed his older brother's footsteps and is also a car thief.

Worse yet, Kip has accepted a job from mobster from the UK who's really into the wood, if you know what I mean. Kip messed up, and the boss is going to kill him unless Memphis boosts 50 cars in four days. (Boost meaning steal, it's used all the time in the movie and about the only piece of lingo that I picked up.)

Memphis agrees to do the job and immediately recruits Otto Halliwell (Robert Duvall), his old mentor, to help him. They try to find any of the old gang, but only three are left: Donny (Chi McBride) who's currently a driving school instructor; The Sphinx (Vinnie Jones), who doesn't talk and is working in the morgue; and Sway (Angelina Jolie), who had a previous relationship with Memphis (isn't that always the case?) and is working two jobs to make ends meet.

They need more muscle, so Kip (Giovanni Ribisi) and his friends come in to help. So we have the old guard, the young punks, two police detectives (played by Delroy Lindo and Timothy Olyphant), gangsters, and a lot of cars (of all types, though most of them sports cars). There's a lot of planning, a lot of detective work, and it all comes together in a massive 24-hour boost job as the thieves try to beat the deadline.

There's more drama in this movie than in M:I2, but at the cost of less action. It just sort of builds up to the big car chase in the last part of the movie. Some funny parts, some close calls, some amount of male bonding and a rekindling of a relationship occupy the quiet moments.

Nicolas Cage does a good job, getting a lot of screen time and putting in a believable performance. Not my favorite actor, and I have a hard time seeing his appeal, but he did do a good job here. Delroy Lindo is also very good as Detective Roland Castlebeck, who would like nothing else than to top his career by arresting and convicting Memphis. Robert Duvall is ok as the wizened veteran. Christopher Eccleston does a good job as the villain (and villain roles are inherently more memorable than hero roles).

The rest of the characters got very limited screen time (there's only so much room in a two hour movie). Angelina Jolie has a small part, not enough for her to do much with it. Giovanni Ribisi has one good scene or two when Memphis and Kip try to talk it out, but otherwise is invisible. Olyphant has a few funny lines as Detective Drycoff.

This is another good movie to watch if you like action, car chases, Nicolas Cage, or Delroy Lindo. I hear that is a remake of a 30 year old movie, but it is not unsurprising. That sounded awkward. There are no plot twists and big mysteries in this movie, but neither is it quite totally predictable. Or maybe I stopped thinking by then, as it was my third movie of the day.