"A critic is a legless man who teaches running." - Channing Pollock (Gone in Sixty Seconds (DVD))

Member Name: ILoveJackDaniels

Product:	Gone in Sixty Seconds (DVD)
Date:	27/04/02 (522 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast Cars, Angelina Jolie, REALLY Fast Cars

Disadvantages: Not much else other than Fast Cars

I like dooyoo. dooyoo gives me the chance to read what normal people honestly think of things that I am contemplating using. I especially like this where film reviews are concerned. There is nothing more irritating than reading the drivelly claptrap most film critics spout off in newspapers about films because they find small faults with things that are very entertaining. And that, in my opinion, is what films are for - entertainment.

Gone in 60 Seconds is a prime example of a fun film, slated by the critics for being badly made and wasting a superb cast. They seem to have viewed the fact that the film focuses on fast, beautiful, fast, expensive (did I mention fast?) cars as a bad thing, and whinged about just every aspect of the film they possible could. What they seem to have overlooked is that this film is not intended to be an incisive look at political theology, or a love story littered with pretty prose and delicate dialog.

What it is intended to be is an action-packed, fast-paced, edge-of-the-seat two-hour action movie, nothing more. (Jerry) Bruckheimer has stuck to his usual (very successful) format, though working with director Dominic Sena (of Swordfish fame) for the first time. The film will remind you very closely of The Rock, Con Air and many of Bruckheimer's other movies, and this is no bad thing, with Bruckheimer sticking to a formula that he knows and that has worked time and time again.

The plot is certainly not an essential part of the film, nevertheless it is more than adequate - bearing in mind all it needs to do is provide excuses to show fast cars moving fast. Randall "Memphis" Raines (Nicholas Cage) is a retired car thief forced to return to doing what he does best (that's stealing cars in case you hadn't guessed) to save his kid brother Kip (Giovanni Ribisi) from the clutches of the deeply evil Raymond "The Carpenter" Calitri (Christopher Eccleston). You see, after Memphis left town,
Kip followed big brother down the fast lane. He had to steal fifty cars for Calitri, but the police interfered, leaving Memphis with a choice - steal the cars for Calitri or Kip dies.

Once Memphis has been subtly convinced to take the job, and assembles his crack team of car thieves, Sena gets to spend plenty of time making sure we stay firmly on the edge of our seats, ooh-ing and aah-ing at the sheer magnificence of the cars that fill the rest of the movie. The crack team, incidentally, is beautifully formed. It combines Memphis' old-skool crowd, with their eccentric rituals and years of practice, with Kip's team of technologically adept yet highly inexperienced youths.

Sphinx (Vinnie Jones, mostly silent) and Sway (Angelina Jolie, entirely sexy) are two of the most entertaining characters. Sphinx is a typical Vinny Jones character, tough yet intelligent, and entirely ruthless when needed. Bruckheimer's movies always require comic relief, and it is Sphinx with, to a lesser degree, Donny Astricky (Chi McBride) that provide this. Sway, on the other hand, is the irresistible love interest: Memphis' ex-girlfriend and also a retired car thief.

The cars themselves are as much a part of the cast as the actors themselves. Given ladies' names to confuse any police who may be eavesdropping on communications, the ladies are a mammoth selection of the most beautiful and powerful cars you will ever see in a movie. Ferraris, Porsches, Mercedes and the elusive Eleanor, a 1967 Shelby GT 500, are but a small selection of the beauties that spend time racing along narrow streets, through puddles and generally evading the ridiculously out-classed police with ease.

Many have said that this movie delivers every cliché imaginable, and from the stereotypical psychotic European villain to the red-blooded adrenaline junkie car thieves themselves, those people are spot on. But that is the beauty of the film. You know what is going to ha
ppen, and you know how. It is predictable, and it isn't especially clever, but it is packed with fast cars and action, and that is good enough for me.

Do no watch this movie expecting to appreciate the script. Do not watch it expecting any surprises. Watch it with a bucket of popcorn, a few beers and some loud mates on a Saturday night, with the volume up as loud as you can. Whatever you do though, do not drive home afterwards - at least until you've managed to calm down enough to avoid taking corners at 90 after swapping your clapped-out old banger for the nearest sleek sports convertible.




CAST

Nicholas Cage (The Rock, Con Air, Face Off, 8mm)
Angelina Jolie (Tomb Raider; Girl, Interrupted)
Robert Duvall (Apocalypse Now, Bullitt, Falling Down)
Christopher Eccleston (eXistenZ, The Others, Shallow Grave)
Delroy Lindo (Broken Arrow, Ransom)
Vinnie Jones (Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Swordfish)
Giovanni Ribisi (Friends, The Gift)
Scott Caan (Ocean's Eleven, Enemy of the State)
Chi McBride (Mercury Rising, The Frighteners)
Willian Lee Scott (Gattaca)



RATING

UK - 15
US - R



INTERESTING TRIVIA

Seven Eleanors were made for the movie, of which only two survived. Nicholas Cage and Jerry Bruckheimer kept them, and Bruckheimer is apparently afraid to drive his.

The cars were all given ladies' names, and a list of which cars were on the list and what they were called can be found here: http://tcotrel.tripod.com/gone/goneladies.html



MY FAVOURITE QUOTES

Sway: "I've got two jobs. I've discovered that you have to work twice as hard when it's honest."

Raymond Calitri: "They threw us out of England, they threw us out of France, so here we are. Flourishing, really, except for the minor inconvenience of despising everything about your country.&quo
t;

Sway: "So, what do you think is more exciting? Having sex or boosting cars?"

Summary: