Gone in 60 Seconds

This movie starts off with a slide show of Kip Raines (Giovanni Ribisi), first with his father and brother then with his mother and  brother, then just his mother and finally with thugish looking friends. We then cut to the real Kip and two of his friends, Mirror Man (TJ Cross) and Freb (James Duval). The three of them pull off a car heist of a gorgeous car. They blow past a cop car and they head back to their HQ where Toby, Tumbler and Atley Jackson (William Lee Scott, Scott Cann and Will Patton) are waiting for them. They scratch the car off their really long list and prepare to congratulate themselves, only the police arrive.  Surprisingly they all manage to escape, (even Atley with his limp), even thought they were surrounded by cops.

Enter the fuzz: Detective Castleback (Delroy Lindo) and Detective Drycoff (Timothy Olyphant), they drool over the cars for a few moments and the skills in the perps, before we cut to the star of the movie, Memphis Raines (Nicolas Cage). He's working at a go cart speedway when Atley comes to see him. The old friends have a chat about Kip and the deep trouble he's in. Raymond Calitri (Christopher  Eccleston) is the big new guy in town and he gave Kip a job for 50 cars; the job he just fumbled. Memphis is retired and he points that out to Atley, but he tells Memphis that Calitri will kill his brother, so Memphis swings back into town and visits Calitri. Memphis tries to give him back the money he gave Kip, but Calitri refuses. He needs 50 cars so he gives Memphis an ultimatum; he has three days to get the cars to the pier or he will kill Kip.

Memphis reluctantly agrees and then visits his old friend and mentor Otto (Robert Duvall). Together the two of them call up other car boosts and assemble a team. There is Donny (Chi McBride), Sphinx (Vinnie Jones) and Sway (Angelina Jolie). Sway originally refuses because of the past between her and Memphis, but then joins, and makes it clear that she is doing it to help Kip only.  Together with Kip's crew they have their team and they begin their plan. First they find the location of all 50 'ladies' and then with only 24 hours left, they begin boosting cars. There are a few problems considering that the cops are always one step behind them and are making a constant nuisance of themselves and with Toby getting shot on a boost he wasn't supposed to be on. Even with all that they manage to get 49 out of 50 cars to the pier. The last car is Memphis' bane; the 1967 Shelby Mustang, or "Eleanor". She has almost gotten him killed on a few occasions and this occasion is no different. Memphis has just boosted her when Catleback shows up and there is a very long car chase through the city, ending when Memphis jumps over a fifty car long pile up.... yeah, just go with it. He makes it back to the pier a little late and Calitri is pissed, but this time Castleback showing up actually saves Memphis' life and everything ends happily. Well, except for Calitri who is dead and the owner of Eleanor because she's all smashed up.

I really enjoyed this movie, it wasn't the greatest, but it was very entertaining. It has a story line that made sense and was well thought out with great action and a light funny side even thought it deals with grand theft auto and possible homicide. There were a few scenes that really didn't advance the story whatsoever, but they were over quickly.

I only wished that they  had picked another actor beside Cage to play Memphis. He's an okay actor at best and beside such awesome actors like Duvall, Patton, Jolie and Ribisi he falls short. It showed in the supposedly touching scenes with his brother, he looked awkward and uncomfortable. Or maybe I was just uncomfortable watching him, but I found him unbelievable in parts of this movie.

The only other comment I have is that if there is a bane to your existence then why don't you go after it first instead of waiting to the very end. If Memphis had gone after Eleanor first, if he screwed up there was time to try again, there wouldn't have been any problems. There also would not have been a grand finale in the movie, but it was a little tacky anyway.

Grade: 8.5/10