directed by dominic sena . screenplay by scott rosenberg . starring nicolas cage , giovanni ribisi , delroy lindo . running time : 121 minutes . rated aa by the mfcb . reviewed on june 11th , 2000 . movies like " gone in 60 seconds " boggle my mind . here we have a cast of academy award-winning actors . we have a scenario that promises lots of high-octane action and excitement . we have a screenplay written by scott rosenberg , who penned the entertaining " con air " . we have that film's producer , jerry bruckheimer , who has also overseen such thrilling fare as " the rock " , " crimson tide " and " beverly hills cop " ( although , it should be noted , also masterminded that most gratuitous waste of celluloid , " armageddon " ) . and yet despite these promising ingredients , we have a movie that just doesn't deliver . " gone in 60 seconds " feels like it can barely get out of neutral , let alone shift into high gear . nicolas cage plays " memphis " raines , formerly california's best car thief and now retired to run a gas station and go-kart track . unbeknownst to memphis , his brother kip ( giovanni ribisi ) has followed in his footsteps and is trying to make his own name boosting autos . but kip messes up one night while on the job for raymond calitri ( christopher eccleston ) , who took over when memphis left town . contacting memphis , calitri informs him that he needs to steal fifty rare cars in the space of four days , or kip will be killed . reluctantly agreeing to reenter his old profession , memphis starts getting back in touch with members of his old gang , including mentor otto ( robert duvall ) and ex-girlfriend sway ( angelina jolie ) ; kip brings along his own young accomplices to fill out the ranks . but by the time the team has been assembled and the reconnaissance carried out , only twenty-four hours remain before calitri's deadline , forcing memphis and his friends to boost the fifty cars in a single night . and to add to their troubles , they must contend with veteran cop roland castlebeck ( delroy lindo ) , who missed his chance to nab memphis once , and does not intend to let it pass him by again . " gone in 60 seconds " is based loosely on the popular 1974 drive-in feature by hb halicki , and i headed into the theatre expecting one of those movies which sacrificed plot and characterisation in favour of relentless excitement . i was half right : there's not much plot and not much characterisation , but it takes an hour and a half before the film even starts trying to get the adrenalin pumping . the big problem with the movie is that it feels like it was made from the first draft of the script rather than the final version . rosenberg's storytelling is extremely clumsy . after a mildly entertaining opening bit , we are sucked into a dull and overlong middle section in which memphis brings together his team , checks out the cars , and reencounters old sparring partner castlebeck . not only is all this extremely tedious , it feels almost unnecessary . rosenberg is obviously trying to give each of the players a distinctive personality but lacks the skill to do so , and would have been better off spotlighting just a handful . the result is that memphis' team consists of a dozen people all with minimal characterisation , and none of whom we end up caring very much about . this is particularly unfortunate because it means that some very talented actors like duvall , ribisi and jolie are pretty much wasted in roles that struggle for screen time . duvall , for example , is consigned to standing around a warehouse most of the time . jolie appears just long enough to remind us of the tremendous charisma she brings to any role , and make us wish her part was more significant . eccleston , as the malevolent calitri , seems like he could have been a delightfully cartoonish sort of villain , but appears only briefly , in the film's first and last half hours . cage , meanwhile , seems to be on autopilot as memphis ; he does what he can with the paltry material , but there is no real enthusiasm to the performance . cage lowers himself to the standards of the script , rather than trying to bring it up to his own level . examples of these low standards litter " gone in 60 seconds " . there are some sequences which are so contrived , and feel so obviously shoehorned into the plot , that i found myself shaking my head in the theatre . for example , late in the film , one of kip's friends -- a computer wizard who usually stays behind a laptop rather than heading out into the field -- suddenly demands to go on a heist . that he nearly screws everything up should come as a surprise to no one . rosenberg's dialogue also verges on the excruciating at several points ; calitri is described as coming after kip " like stains on a mattress " , for instance . " gone in 60 seconds " finally gets moving when after an hour and a half -- gasp , shock -- we finally get some car chases . these are undeniably engrossing , although i was disappointed that they weren't a little more inventive . certainly , they are inferior to such memorable chase sequences as , say , gene hackman's in " the french connection " . they are also somewhat hamstrung by dominic sena's otherwise competent direction . more than once , sena is unable to keep the depiction of the car chases fluid and coherent , and this difficulty in following the action works against its entertainment value . but perhaps the worst thing that can be said about the car chases is that they lead up to the film's routine , lacklustre and faintly ludicrous conclusion . it is here that the laziness of rosenberg's script is most evident , giving us an ending which not only steals from every other b-grade action movie , but also totally dismisses one of his principals' established characterisation . as mindless summer entertainment , " gone in 60 seconds " isn't bad , but even the most avid action fan is likely to be turned off by the movie's lethargic pacing . compared to the film's two hour running time , the twenty minutes or so of car chases seems paltry , given that the anticipation of these scenes is the movie's main selling point . " gone in 60 seconds " will make you wish you'd been gone from the theatre in a lot less than 119 minutes . copyright © 2000 shannon patrick sullivan . archived at the popcorn gallery , <a href= " http : //www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies/gonein60seconds . html " >http : //www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies/gonein60seconds . html</a> _______________________________________________________________________ / shannon patrick sullivan | " we are all in the gutter , but some of us \ | <a href= " mailto : shannon@mun . ca " >shannon@mun . ca</a> | are looking at the stars . " - oscar wilde | \___________________________|__________________________________________/ | popcorn gallery movie reviews www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies . html | | doctor who : a brief history of time ( travel ) /drwho . html | 
