Gone in 60 Second
Touchtone, 2000
Directed by Dominic Sena
$$3/4
Gone in 60 Second
Touchtone, 2000
Directed by Dominic Sena
$$3/4
You'd think from the hype that Gone in 60 Seconds was chock full 'o car chases. You'd also be sadly disappointed.
Don't get me wrong, the movie is a diverting couple of hours, and if you love cars, you gotta see it. But it's a bit of a letdown that a film that's all cars, all the time, would have just one balls-to-the wall chase sequence. The only bigger letdown is the chase itself, which has its moments, but whiffs on the big chance to join the ranks of the Great Movie Car Chases, like those in Bullit, or To Live and Die in L.A., or the more recent Ronin. It's all very surprising considering that the movie is a remake of the 1974 cult classic, Gone in 60 Seconds which is famous solely for the fact that it features a 40 minute car chase which took up about half the film.
The '90s update stars Nicolas Cage as Randall "Memphis" Raines, a retired car thief who is forced back into a life of crime. It seems an evil black market car trader is threatening to kill his little brother (Giovanni Ribisi) unless Raines steals 50 cars in 72 hours. It's an irresistible set-up that both the script and director fail to capitalize on.
Instead, producer Jerry Bruckheimer gives us Armageddon with a garage substituting for the oil rig -- Raines assembles a motley gang of thieves (including Robert Duvall, Chi McBride and Angelina Jolie) and for two hours, we get to see how gosh darn entertainingly quirky they are(!). All of this is only mildly interesting, however, since the characters are barely developed beyond the most superficial details -- the young guy, the black guy, the tall guy. Along the way, we get plenty of helpful car stealing tips -- some uptight critics are sure to complain that this movie will give people bad ideas, to which I respond: Bad ideas only have a bad influence on bad people.
Jolie is particularly skanky as Cage's love interest (that Billy Bob Thornton thing will start to make sense after you see her trashy get-up here). The wonderful Delroy Lindo makes an appealing impression as Cage's detective nemesis. But the person who seems to be having the most fun is Christopher Eccleston, who is rescued from snooty British films to play the villain.
Cage for his part, tries his best, but the script doesn't give him much of a chance to act very Nicolas Cage-ishly. In the end, Gone in 60 Seconds is a fun ride, but it doesn't fulfill your need for speed.
(c) Copyright 2000