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 does n't disappoint .
.. cage turns in one of his good performances here ( he can easily go either way .
.. good or bad .
..
i do n'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 are n'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 do n'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 ]
Output: P