Sometimes Hollywood does a thing perfectly, like devise a flawlessly descriptive title....You'll forget the movie exactly one minute after you watch it.
Tools:
Recommend review to a friend »
Sometimes Hollywood does a thing perfectly, like devise a flawlessly descriptive movie title. "The Perfect Storm" is a good example. Truth in advertising and all that. And so it is with "Gone In Sixty Seconds." You'll forget the movie exactly one minute after you watch it. It was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the force behind such action films as "Top Gun," "Days of Thunder," "Con Air," "Armageddon," and "The Rock." He has produced a whole string of popular, high-octane adventure thrillers filled with edge-of-your-seat excitement. Regrettably, this is not one of them.
Based on the 1974 movie of almost the same name (the older uses the numeral "60"), "Gone In Sixty Seconds" is about a car-theft ring. Like it or not, it glorifies stealing cars. I've seen the '74 film, and for all its faults, its closing forty-three minute car chase beats anything this new version has to offer. This time, Nicolas Cage plays the laid-back main character, a mild-mannered ex-thief, now six years retired, with the unlikely name of "Memphis" Raines. He's forced back into action when his kid brother, Kip (Giovanni Ribisi), gets into trouble with a new group of car thieves for bungling a job he's supposed to be doing for them. Memphis is coerced by the gang into stealing fifty cars for them in four days or his brother dies.
The brother is an idiot and doesn't generate much sympathy. His problems start when he steals a Porsche from a showroom window and then drag races another car all the way back to the gang's hideout, attracting half the Los Angeles police force along the way. This doesn't amuse the gang's boss, Raymond Calitri (Christopher Eccleston), who decides to squash Kip in an automobile compressor (he's obviously seen "Goldfinger"). We know Calitri is the head villain because he speaks with a British accent.
To help him boost the cars Calitri wants, Memphis enlists the aid of a few of his former thieving buddies, including Robert Duvall as an old friend, Otto, and Angelina Jolie as an old girlfriend, "Sway." Duvall gets to say maybe two words, and Jolie has virtually nothing to do, romantically or otherwise. I liked the pun in Otto's name best, as well as a character called "Sphinx" (Vinne Jones) because he never says anything. Kip, the brother, who is extricated from the half-crushed car, goes along on the heists and brings some of his dimwitted pals with him. They are all forgettable.
The first quarter of the film is devoted to Memphis getting his old gang back together. The second quarter is given over to setting up the heists. The last half of the film is about the thefts themselves and the inevitable car chase that by Hollywood law has to conclude these kind of movies, this chase among the longest on record. This chase was snatched from the original '74 motion picture, which was more inspiring. Following on Memphis's heels the whole way is a cop, Detective Roland Castlebeck (Delroy Lindo), who is always one step behind. Oh, and for good measure, there's also a rival gang of hoodlums out to kill Memphis for blowing up their car. Don't ask.
Director Dominic Sena is better known for his 1993 film, "Kalifornia," a dark, moody road flick. Here, he seems more intent on creating an MTV music video, ignoring characterizations and atmosphere while he quick-cuts from one shot to another. The pace is not so much exhilarating as it is numbing.
In its favor, the film does have a kind of "Mission: Impossible" fascination about it; plus, one finds touches of good humor here and there. Additionally, for a car fanatic it's fun to see so many beautiful and exotic automobiles on display--Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, Mercedes, BMW, and a steel-gray '67 Shelby Mustang GT-500, the prize of the lot--all of them given girls' names by Memphis, another romanticism that's supposed to endear him to us.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]5818[/release]