# Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    GONE IN 60 SECONDS
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes
    RATING (0 TO ****):  * 1/2

GONE IN 60 SECONDS is a Jerry Bruckheimer production. You know the drill. Nonsensical explosions and crashes happen with a regularity that rivals an atomic clock for accuracy. And like the constant ticking of a clock, the movie's repetitive pyrotechnics quickly become tiresome. Why, you will be asking yourself, do they keep doing the same old thing if they can't find any fresh ways to stage them? (One has only to look at Jackie Chan in SHANGHAI NOON to see how one can find imaginative variations on an old theme.)

GONE IN 60 SECONDS is exactly how fast I wish it would have lasted. With such a pathetic lack of original ideas, the ironically titled movie should never have ground on for two hours.

A remake of a 1974 picture of the same name, GONE IN 60 SECONDS has a mildly interesting premise. Randall "Memphis" Raines's (Nicolas Cage) brother, Kip (Giovanni Ribisi), is in trouble with a not very convincing bad guy, Raymond Calitri (Christopher Eccleston). Memphis is lured out of car-thief retirement by Raymond's threat to kill Kip unless Memphis steals a precise list of 50 cars in 3 days. Many of these are hard to find, none more so than Memphis's nemesis, a 1967 Shelby Mustang GT 500.

The rest of the story concerns the countdown as they steal the cars. And it's about as much fun to watch as staring at the hour hand on the clock. If you're new to movies and haven't seen car chases, you may find this all diverting. But if you've seen one of the better Bruckheimer's films, such as THE ROCK, then you'll know how lame most of the car chases are in GONE IN 60 SECONDS.

Others come along with Memphis for the big heist. Robert Duvall is the wise old veteran. Angelina Jolie is there to supply the sex appeal. And there are lots of others in a largely wasted cast. Finally, Delroy Lindo is the police investigator who can't quite catch the thieves even with a hundred cop cars to support him.

Do they steal the cars in time? Is Kip killed? Unfortunately, the movie gives us remarkably little reason to care about any of this.

The only completely satisfying part of the production? The deep-throated growl that the Shelby machine produces from the theater's subwoofers. This low-pitched roar is the movie's only genuine visceral thrill.

GONE IN 60 SECONDS runs 1:57. It is rated PG-13 for violence, sexuality and language and would be acceptable for teenagers.

Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews