Gone in Sixty Seconds ***½ (2000, Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi) – Classic Movie Review 939

Director Dominic Sena’s 2000 action thriller remakes a low-budget cult 1974 movie with a big budget, some flash and zest, and Nicolas Cage starring as legendary master car thief Randall ‘Memphis’ Raines.

In Scott Rosenberg’s screenplay based on H B Halicki’s 1974 original, ‘Memphis’ is forced by the evil crime boss villain (Christopher Eccleston) to come out of retirement to steal 50 luxurious vehicles in a night, with the help of Sara ‘Sway’ Wayland (Angelina Jolie), the Sphinx (Vinnie Jones) and an old-timer (Robert Duvall), in order to save the life of his brother (Giovanni Ribisi).

Cage (‘I didn’t do it for the money: I did it for the cars’) is virtually the whole show in this breathless, ultra-flashy, high-octane thriller, done without much actual conviction but with plenty of turbocharged slick energy and enough style. This movie is best seen and enjoyed with feet up and brain in neutral, and probably a beer and pizza in hand. It boasts great stunt driving and thrilling car chases, but, with cliché situations, stereotypes instead of characters and cheesy dialogue, it’s pretty unbelievable as a thriller.

Class acts Jolie and Duvall are pretty much wasted. It’s particularly surprising to find Jolie in such a subsidiary role with so little to do. Eccleston is encouraged to overdo his turns as the super-villain, and he obliges manfully. Jones has one line to say. But Cage keeps the show on the road.

Also in the first-rate cast are, T J Cross, William Lee Scott, Scott Caan, James Duval, Will Patton, Delroy Lindo, Timothy Olyphant, Chi McBride and Grace Zabriskie.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 939

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