Gone In 60 Seconds

GONE IN 60 SECONDS

Rating: B
Gone in 60 Seconds remakes a 1974 film of the same name which went on to become a cult hit. This updated version stars Nicholas Cage as "retired" car thief "Memphis" Raines. With a name like that, you might think he'd be better suited for working in porn, but we're told he was the best "booster" there ever was. ("Booster" is apparently slang for a car thief, for those of you who aren't hip.) Little brother Giovanni Ribisi signs on to steal 50 exotic cars to fill the shopping list of a local underworld figure, but screws things up royally on the first "boost" and gets "jammed - jammed real bad" (you dig?). Not only is the boss upset about the screwup, but it puts him in a real bind on his delivery schedule. To save his brother's hide, Cage must come out of retirement and steal all 50 cars within a 72-hour period. Unfortunately, the list includes a 1967 Shelby GT 500, a model Cage has been stung on in the past. Talk about being forced to confront your inner demons...

The setup is actually pretty interesting, considering the subject matter. After all, Cage is still being heroic while stealing your car (remember this if you wake up one morning to find your driveway conspicuously vacant). What follows is a mixture of car chase action with, well, other car chase action, but the movie does keep the viewer entertained. Scott Rosenberg's script isn't as polished as it could have been; a subplot involving a rival gang of car thieves could have been better integrated into the main story, and another scene involving police detective Delroy Lindo barging into the shop after a stolen Cadillac makes absolutely NO sense whatsoever from his character's perspective. Angelina Jolie's romantic scenes with Cage are a bit forced, and beg a lot of suspension of disbelief from the audience regarding the times and places they occur. And, frankly, to make an intriguing villain requires more than just a British accent.

For all you aspiring car thieves out there, it would probably behoove you not to follow the examples set onscreen. For instance, if you've just stolen a Porsche (and crashed it through a plate glass window in the dealer's showroom, no less), you should probably not draw any more attention to yourself by racing through the streets against a local hot rodder. It would also probably not be a good idea to head directly back to your chop shop when you have a fleet of pursuing cop cars following you like a row of ducks. I mean, c'mon guys, this is car thievery, not rocket science. In another scene, Jolie watches admiringly as Cage removes a steering wheel with a "club" latched onto it and substitutes another. Obviously, there are faster and easier ways of defeating the club than switching out the steering wheel, but if "professional car thief" Cage doesn't know them, I'm sure not gonna spill the beans. I suppose this means that if you're walking in a parking garage someday and you pass a guy carrying a spare steering wheel, he's probably on his way to steal your car.

The plot runs out of steam at the end, resulting in a final gunplay scene which could easily be from any cops-and-robbers movie ever made. It's a weakness in the script when the resolution of the plot falls outside the main premise of the film; since this is a movie about car thieves, why not have the resolution of the conflict be in terms of car thievery?

After watching all those exotic cars being stealthily stolen, I left the theater with a powerful urge to do something illegal. I would've boosted a car, but I was afraid I might get jammed. Jammed real bad. So I jaywalked instead.