director dominic sena ( who made the highly underrated kalifornia ) and producer jerry bruckheimer ( the rock , armageddon ) bring us a slick and entertaining remake of the 1974 film of the same name that absolutely no one has ever seen .
nicolas cage plays memphis , a retired car thief who’s ” pulled back in ” to the business by an evil car thief overlord ( christopher eccleston ) determined to kill memphis’ kid brother ( giovanni ribisi ) .
memphis is ordered to steal 50 cars in four days time or his brother will meet an unfortunate demise , all while having to elude the detectives hot on his trail and a rival car thief who feels the job should have been given to him and his gang .
memphis sets out to put his old crew back together , but discovers that most of them have retired as well .
gone in sixty seconds does things right from the opening credits .
in that sequence , we get a rockin’ little tune from moby , along with some simple back story told only with photographs and assorted objects .
filmmakers can sometimes make or break a film just from its opening title sequence , and this one easily gets you in the mindset for an entertaining ride .
and what follows doesn’t disappoint . . .
cage turns in one of his good performances here ( he can easily go either way . . .
good or bad . . .
i don’t know how he does that ) , and his mannerisms and dialogue delivery carry the film along nicely .
of the supporting cast members , angelina jolie as memphis’ former love is in the film just to provide eye candy ( she’s definitely the hottest looking grease monkey i’ve ever seen ) and robert duvall as memphis’ former mentor is just around to lend the film some class .
also , i’m a big fan of will patton ( armageddon , the postman ) and would love to see him get a huge role someday .
none of these three performers are given much to do unfortunately .
some underrated performers however are given meaty supporting roles .
delroy lindo ( get shorty ) shines as the exasperated detective in pursuit of memphis , as does timothy olyphant ( go ) as lindo’s partner .
i just wish some of the other characters could have been as important .
the only real gripe i have about the film though is its conclusion . . .
mainly because you know how it will end before the opening credits even roll .
there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that the 50 cars will be successfully stolen , and the filmmakers blew a perfectly good opportunity to add some suspense to the picture by using the ” rival car thief ” plot line .
as it stands , that story line is wrapped up about halfway through the film in a tidy little package .
but if i was making this film , i’d have had the rival gang trying to get to the cars before memphis and his crew , thereby making memphis have to improvise . . .
thereby adding some meat to the plot .
the finale is essentially just a big car chase , and there just aren’t ways to make car chases interesting anymore .
it’s all been done .
the chase is also shot and edited in that ” jerry bruckheimer action sequence ” kind of way that leaves the audience wondering what specifically is going on in the scene .
sure it’s a car chase , but what exactly are the particulars of it ?
it’s very hard to tell .
finally , there’s a stunt during this scene that comes close to challenging the ” bus jumping the ramp ” sequence from speed in the ” oh , i don’t think so . . . ”
department .
despite those minor complaints , gone in sixty seconds is pure summer movie entertainment .
it’s not thought provoking , but it’s shiny , loud and fun . . .
just what a summer flick should be .
[pg-13]