Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)

Movie Info

I’m Nic Cage…I have a cool name, talk funny, and drive fast!

Kip Raines (Giovanni Ribisi) has made a mistake.  His order for fifty cars by crime lord Raymond Calitri (Christopher Eccleston) has not been met, and Kip will have to pay in blood.  Kip’s brother Memphis (Nicolas Cage) is pulled back into the life and must assemble a team to steal the cars in four days.  With the Los Angeles Police Department team lead by Castlebeck (Delroy Lindo) and Drycoff (Timothy Olyphant) getting closer and closer, Memphis must make his move quick if he hopes to get himself and his brother out clean!

Directed by Dominic Sena, Gone in 60 Seconds is a remake of the 1974 movie.  The movie was met with mostly negative reviews but was a big box office success.

A “super villain” who loves wood

This movie is one of those recipes of disaster for me.  I don’t like Bruckheimer (who produced it) and Nic Cage is one of those 50/50 actors, and he’s backed up with a cast of actors that I’m also split upon…add in a plot built around car chases, and I’m not that interested.

The story for Gone in 60 Seconds is pretty thin but the actual dialogue and some of the plotting is pretty weak.  The story could have been either a light and easy story loaded with jokes or a down and gritty story…instead it is neither.  You get Cage hamming it up and Eccleston a cold hearted killer…who likes wood furniture?  It is stupid and cliché when it should be fun.

Seriously…just be in this movie, please?

The movie just allowed Nicolas Cage to be Nicolas Cage.  I think Cage has potential when he is forced to reel it in, but here he has free reign.  Sometimes Nicolas makes a movie more interesting, but other times he’s a distraction.  Giovanni Ribisi is one of those actors who generally is irritating and he’s irritating here, but fortunately, the movie has actors like Robert Duvall, Delroy Lindo, and Timothy Olyphant to balance out some of the bad.  Angelina Jolie as “Sway” doesn’t have as big of a role as you’d expect as the love interest and Vinnie Jones is kind of fun as the Sphinx.  I have loved Eccleston in some things (like Shallow Grave and Doctor Who), but here his character is generic “villain” who is almost Bond-like.

Something about LA makes cars and buses fly

A big draw of this movie is the cars.  Lists of the cars can be found all over the internet and car nuts actually get a shot at seeing a lot of them.  It is fortunate that the cars are sleek because much of the visuals aren’t.  A lot of the car chases don’t just have the energy and the last “big jump” made by Memphis in “Eleanor” is more laughable than dramatic.

Gone in 60 Seconds is rather harmless fluff.  The movie has little substance, but also little interesting or memorable scenes.  I do like some of the car stealing techniques but that segment actually feels a little short (for a movie about stealing cars).  A long set-up and long end sequence just kind of kill any fun that this movie has and the actors and dialogue kill the rest of it.  Gone in 60 Seconds isn’t the worst movie you’ll see, but it also isn’t very fun.

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