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Gone in 60 Seconds...
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The Film :
Gone in 60 Seconds is one of those films that you feel
sorry for, before it's even released. Why? The title alone invites a
plethora of jokes at the film. "Oh, yeah, I was gone in
60 seconds," one critic is bound to say, while another would say
that, by the time the credits roll, the audience was gone in 60
seconds. Rest assured, you won't get any such jokes, here. However, that's
probably only because the best jokes have been taken...
Nicolas Cage stars as
a "retired" car thief, Randal "Memphis" Raines, who
now makes an honest living. His little brother, however, has entered
Memphis' old business, and made a couple of his old "friends"
mad. Memphis must now leave retirement behind, and save the life of his
brother Kip (Giovanni Ribisi) by finishing the job Kip promised to
complete. This is a nearly impossible task, of stealing 50 of the most
expensive and hard-to-steal cars, By 8 AM that Friday. Fortunately, with
Memphis taking over the job, there's a chance the deal can be done. Why?
Because he's the best. After all, he's the one that break into a car, deactivate
the alarm, and drive it away, in under 60 seconds (hence the title).
Along for the ride are past acquaintances, who Memphis trusts with his
life (in this case, quite literally). Among them is Sara "Sway"
Wayland (Angelina Jolie), who he had a torrid affair with before he left
town. Robert Duvall is also present, who provides a "base of
operations" in the auto repair garage he now owns. Kip is also there
for help, if only temporarily, if he can't finish the job. He'll need
their help more than ever, because there are two groups of people
who want to stop him from completing the job; a group of enemy car
thieves, and the police, who both got word that Memphis was back!
The film is well paced, and yet there aren't half as many car chases as
one would expect. Most of the main chases occur at the end of the film, as
the deadline gets dangerously close. This climactic car chase also
includes one of the least believable car leaps in car chase history, that
is even less likely than the bus jump in Speed. However, the
final battle between Memphis and the car thief kingpin is well played out,
and the ending is enjoyable, even if it is a bit too unlikely for
everything to end this happy.
My final feeling was that, while the film wasn't as great as it could
have been ---and truly could have been FAR better--- it wasn't half as bad
as it could have been, either. I certainly didn't look at my watch, or
fidget in my seat once, which in an action film is saying a lot. If
anything, it certainly was never dull, at least not to me. Lastly, in case
you were wondering, I was not gone from the theater in 60
seconds...I needed to throw out my soda cup first.
The DVD :
The particulars of the DVD film are typical: Widescreen anamorphic format,
Dolby Digital Surround Sound, with closed captioning for the hearing
impaired. Commentary is by Jerry Bruckheimer alone, which makes this one
of the less contributive comment tracks recently. More often, a comment
reel these days includes the producer, director, and at least two or more
of the main cast (the best examples of such audio commentary collaboration
would be the comments made by no less than 7 cast and crew mates in the
DVD for As Good As It Gets, or
the jovial musings of the guys behind Evil Dead 2).
Poor Bruckheimer is winging it alone here.
The rest of the bonus materials is
acceptable. There's the Cult Music Video, as well as (of course) the
theatrical trailer. A Behind the Scenes feature is offered, as well as an
"Action Overload" highlight reel. These materials may not make
you change your mind of the film one way or another, though it is nice to
see a film that quite frankly didn't do very well in the box office,
include so much extra in its DVD...
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