Gone in 60 Seconds

GONE IN 60 SECONDS / (2000) *** (out of four)

"Gone in 60 Seconds" is an energetic, slick, stylish action picture with high octane star power and lots of awesome looking automobiles. If you are a viewer interested in cars this production, by producer Jerry Bruckheimer ("Con Air," "The Rock"), is worth seeing just to feast your eyes on the glossy vehicles. Although the film secretes a stench of weakness in many areas, its precise sense of action and excitement make it a moderately successful summer thrill ride.

The film stars Giovanni Ribisi ("The Mod Squad") as a young crook named Kip Raines, who, as the movie opens, fails to deliver a long list of expensive cars to the powerful criminal Raymond Calitri (Christopher Eccleston). When Kip's life is threatened because of such, his older brother, Randall "Memphis" Raines (Nicolas Cage), a retired but skillful car thief, is called upon to complete a task in exchange for his brother's survival: steel fifty cars-specified by model, color, year, and make-in only four days.

Memphis disburses the first three days recruiting a team of bandits to help him pull off the heist. The crew includes Sara "Sway" Wayland (Angelina Jolie), a sexy yet gruff retired car swindler knowing Memphis through previous business, a fellow named Mirror Man (T.J. Cross), the aging and wise Otto Halliwell (Robert DuVall), as well as Tumbler (Scott Caan), Atley Jackson (Will Patton), Toby (William Lee Scott), and Donny Astricky (Chi McBrde).

Contributing to the film's drive and tension is a subplot involving two police detectives, Roland Castlebeck (Delroy Lindo) and Drycoff (Timothy Olyphant), who suspect from previous experience that Memphis and his crew are up to no good and keep an extra close eye on them.

There is not much time for character development here; the audience gets to know these people though their rugged lifestyles and assume tough personalities through the films hard core, stylish atmosphere. To make matters even worse for the film, the dialogue fails to define the characters with a gritty cultural tone. I am not stating I think profanity and vulgarism is necessary for thrillers to flourish; I actually honor the director's decision to sustain from extreme foul language in a movie that could have very effortlessly earned an R-rating. However, I do believe in a movie such as "Gone in 60 Seconds," to strongly develop the character's enlightenment, dialogue needs to be believable and authentic.

In spite of problems, the characters are effective due to the top notch, perfectly cast performers responsible. Nicolas Cage's melodramatic performance is intense and convincing. Angelina Jolie's sleazy appearance is completely appropriate here. Delroy Lindo is deliciously sturdy and believable. Giovanni Ribisi, Scott Caan, Robert Duvall, Will Patton, and Christopher Eccleston provide persuasive supporting roles.

The film contains standard structure, with a satisfactory first act that elaborates on the story's style and the character's motives, sets up a fast-paced theme of action, but lacks depth and strong character introduction. In the second act we run into a few more problems: the story wastes time during much of this segment, never really building up for the third act. While the middle of the movie occupies much time, and a sex scene provides a solid mid-plot, not a whole lot happens. The third act is pretty much a sheer adrenaline rush containing furious wall-to-wall excitement and one of the most intense car chase sequences ever filmed.

The soundtrack to "Gone in 60 Seconds" contributes a great deal to the inspirational action scenes. It is scenes like the car chases that makes this movie work in spite of several destructive faults. Dominic Sena, whose career has mostly consisted of directing commercials, has an appealing style and a decisive attitude in "Gone in 60 Seconds" which will grant audiences with two hours of commotion, thrills, and excitement…but not much more.

As much as I like big epic pictures - I'll spare you the namedropping - it's great to kick back with a few beers and a simple action flick sometimes. Films where the plot takes a backseat to the set-pieces. Films where the dialogue isn't so cleverly written that it ties itself in endless knots of purple prose. There are HUNDREDS of films that fit the bill... but in my opinion Gone In Sixty Seconds is one of the better ones.

It's an update of the movie that shares its name. It also shares that picture's ethos, but not quite it's execution. Whatever was great about the original has been streamlined. Whatever was streamlined was also amped up thanks to a bigger budget. Often these kinds of endeavours are recipes for complete disaster - see the pug-ugly remake of The Italian Job for one that blew it - but here, thanks to a cast of mostly excellent actors, Sixty succeeds.

The plot and much of the dialogue isn't much to write IMDb about. Often you'll have scenes where the same line of dialogue goes back and forth between the actors, each of whom will voice it with different inflections. A lot of people found this annoying; I find it raises a smile. Each actor gets a chance to show off his or her definition of style here, with Cage, Jolie and Duvall leading the pack of course (and it should be noted that it's also amusing to see Mrs Pitt not given first billing here). The chemistry between good ol' Saint Nick the stalwart (see date of review) and Angelina leads to a couple of nice moments.

The villain is not even a little scary - I've seen Chris Eccleston play tough-guy roles before so I know he can handle them, but I think he was deliberately directed to make his role inconsequential as not to distract from the action. We know the heroes are going to succeed, somehow; we're just sitting in the car with them, enjoying the ride. I think a lot of these scenes were played with tongue so far in-cheek that it went over the heads of a lot of people giving this a poor rating. In fact, I wouldn't have minded some fourth-wall breaking winks at the camera: it's just that kind of movie.

All this style and not so much substance - something that often exhausts my patience if not executed *just* so - would be worthless if the action wasn't there. And for the most part, it is. Wonderfully so. I've noticed that it seems to be a common trend to be using fast-cut extreme close-up shots to direct action these days. I personally find this kind of thing exhausting. I prefer movies like this where the stunts are impressive enough to not need artificial tension ramping by raping tight shots all the time. I've been told that Cage actually did as many of the car stunts as he could get away with without losing his insurance (in real life I mean - his character clearly doesn't care) and it shows. The man can really move a vehicle and this is put to good use in the slow-burning climatic finale where he drives a Mustang into the ground in the most outlandish - and FUN - way possible.

So yes, this movie isn't an "epic, life-affirming post-9/11 picture with obligatory social commentary" effort. The pacing is uneven, some of the scenes could have been cut and not all the actors tow the line. But car movies rarely come better than this. So if you hate cars... why are you even reading these comments?!

I'd take it over the numerous iterations of "The Flaccid And The Tedious" (guess the franchise) any day. 7/10

GONE IN 60 SECONDS was one of the most fun experiences I've had at the theater in the last couple of years. Though a little too long and not really full of action until the final twenty minutes, it moves well and has a good cast: Nicolas Cage, Will Patton, Robert Duvall, Giovanni Ribisi, Delroy Lindo, Christopher Eccleston, and others. Angelina Jolie is the only weak point. She's in desperate need of a talented hairstylist, and while she's hardly a good actress, she really doesn't do much in the film when you look at it, which is a good thing. But the film has style and a good pace, with some great theft scenes, well-spotted humor, and a final chase that (while not among the greatest ever filmed) is certainly a wild ride. GONE IN 60 SECONDS isn't a great film, but it sure as hell is fun.

Also, poor Nicholas Cage, I knew him well... Once upon a time (possibly in Las Vegas) he was a Box Office heavyweight. Now... well, you can probably pick up one of his latest films from those buckets you find of DVDs for £2.99 in petrol stations. However, before his decent into depressingly-bad cinema, he made some pretty fun films. Yes, he's won an Oscar in his time for his deep and meaningful acting, but you won't find any of that here. Just fun.

Nicholas Cage plays (basically) Nicholas Cage – only a Nicholas Cage who used to steal expensive cars, only to retire. However, his loose cannon of a brother steals (or doesn't steal – I forget – it doesn't matter!) for (or from) the wrong mobster in L.A. meaning Nicholas Cage the now not-so retired car thief must steal a load of flash motors in one night or his brother ends up in the car crusher (literally!).

If you like fast cars driving even faster (and, judging by the 'Fast and the Furious' franchise a lot of people do) then this one is basically for you. It's an action film and it's pretty much by the numbers, but, when it's such fun, who cares? Everyone cranks their performances up to eleven and it all comes across as one of those adorable eighties and nineties 'over-the-top' action flicks (yes, I know it was made it in 2000, but it sure feels like a nineties movie) with a real cartoony vibe to it. You have Christopher Ecleston plays the 'evil Brit villain' much like any other evil Brit villains you've seen in cinema. Vinnie Jones and Angelina Jolie are on hand to show their faces, but feel a little underused for what they could have been.

Ultimately, it's all on Nicholas Cage's manic shoulders and he does the film proud. It's loud, dumb and it's basically one long car crash that you'll probably be unable to tear your eyes away from.

A film that by the synopsis should appeal to all teens but it felt like the Writers forgot that, Apart from the ending there was literally no car chases and little action, The plot was ok but even though their task was near impossible they never felt like they were in any problems doing it, It had quite a big cast and they all did their best but I don't think they really needed Angelina Jolie as she offered nothing that was needed and wasn't even used for her sex appeal, The ending was pretty fun as it felt like they saved all their budget on it, With some good chases and a few ok stunts but as I said earlier it never felt like there was any danger in completing his mission and got very predictable, It's not a bad movie but it should of been so much more fun.