not horrible nor great

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This movie came out when Nicholas Cage was the it guy and most of the movies that he starred in was over the top but entertaining. He was the iconic Hollywood actor when it came to action and con artist type of movies from the 90's and early 2000. And he did portrays a likable car thief in this naturally. Before he just became the guy that freaks out and goes crazy in his future movies. So when I first saw this movie as a kid, I thought it was a fun crime action movie. With fast cars, a hot girl and a team working together to steal 50 cars in one night. It wasn't the most cleverly executed movie, and doesn't go into detail when it comes to the planning of the thefts. But it's a serviceable action/crime movie. Even the chase scene, which isn't one of the best chase scenes I have seen was at least cool. As a matter of fact this felt like a bit toned down version of "Fast Five". Overall after seeing it again, I thought it was a fairly decent early 2000's action movie.6/10

Seeing actors early on in their transition stage moving from different genres sure can be surreal sometimes. Perhaps for some, their actual screen presence is not as prevalent as it use to be, but the name itself carries a lot of weight when it comes to how successful a film could be (most of the time). Now a days, when the names Angelina Jolie, Nicolas Cage, Scott Caan, Chi McBride and Robert Duvall are mentioned, all have their names connected to some well-known movie. However, when seeing actors in a transition state where their not the main lead or are but are not given the liberties to do what they did in later films, it just feels strange. The title to this film actually sounds like a knock-off of The Fast and the Furious (2001) franchise that started after that. Pricey, shiny cars, looking to be stolen in a heist film? Sure sounds aggressive enough to be one. But does it turn out like it sounds? Ehh,...kind of but it is a bit misguided in areas. Compared to its 1974 original, the story is more of a soft remake than anything else.Written mainly by Scott Rosenberg who also wrote for High Fidelity (2000) and with uncredited rewrites by J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Hensleigh, the plot is about retired car thief Memphis Raines (Nicolas Cage) who is brought back to his old profession in order to save his younger brother Kip (Giovanni Ribisi) after a major screw up with car trafficker Raymond Calitri (Christopher Eccleston). The job Raines has to complete is stealing 50 high-end cars and have them ready to ship out, otherwise, Raines' brother dies. So in order to complete this task, Raines gets the help from his old crew played by actors, Angelina Jolie, Scott Caan, Chi McBride, Will Patton, Robert Duvall, Vinnie Jones and some others. All the while, police officers Castlebeck (Delroy Lindo) and Drycoff (Timothy Olyphant) are on Raines' tail trying to figure out if the retired thief has re-entered his old profession. Directed by Dominic Sena who's only done a handful of films heads this production. Unfortunately, both the writing and direction have their issues.Going back to what was mentioned before, one would think if the title suggests something will be gone in sixty seconds, then the end result will be a fast paced, action film. The thing is, there is action and fast cars, but the build up to this is slower than necessary. Half of this film is Memphis Raines getting his posse together and over time removing the respective cars from their location. However, when this happens very few times is anybody speeding. It's more like nonchalantly cruising off. That doesn't sound that exciting, especially when considering the padding. For almost two hours, there are definitely some scenes that either could've been trimmed or removed completely. This is in due part with the writing, which has a minor subplot about Memphis Raines and Sway (Angelina Jolie) being in love once. It's brought up at one point, then put on hold before having the cliché of "being back together" later for no real reason. What's the point? Audiences aren't exactly given the clearest of backstory to their relationship therefor so what?Another problem is the lighting and coloring. According to sources, Sena's trademark look are sepia tone / yellowish colors in his film. However, this practically the only color available because there isn't a whole lot of other things that stand out. It doesn't make the viewing experience that interesting. With that though, there are still some nice highlights. The main leads to this film do have their moments together as a crew. Nicolas Cage plays the fence in his acting changing between calm and ready beat anyone who comes to take him out. Angelina Jolie may not be as active in this feature as her later roles would be but she still has a presence that can't be ignored. Vinnie Jones is a character that never talks and isn't explained as to why but he too has some moments that showcase he's not to be messed with. On the other hand, Chi McBride and Delroy Lindo are probably the most vocal, being that they add some kind energy to their roles. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast aren't engaging because there's too many and not enough development. There are however some nice deadpan comical moments delivered by Cage and that deals with his car named Eleanor who sort of has a mind of its own for some reason. It's dumb but funny. The cinematography by Paul Cameron (Man on Fire (2004) and Deja Vu (2006)) are well shot and work well the action scenes that do occur. Since it's wide screen, the look gives a broad range of view to see what surrounds the characters. The car chases that Nicolas Cage performs are decently exciting and are nicely edited. That's the way the rest of the film should have been executed. The music composed by synth enthusiast Trevor Rabin is a mixed bag. The score itself is pretty short surprisingly, clocking in only at a half-hour. Rabin does compose a main theme to Raines and Eleanor with a synth choir that pops up from time to time, but the rest of the tracks are somewhat muddled. There are some exciting cues that involve deep scratchy synth bases but they don't show up all that often because much of the tracks run on average about a minute. It's okay but could've been better.The electronic synth musical score, cinematography and main leads make the viewing experience watchable but the premise itself is squandered by slow pacing and infrequent action. To be gone in sixty seconds, the momentum this feature creates takes much longer than that.

A retired master car thief (Nicolas Cage) must come back to the industry and steal fifty cars with his crew in one night to save his brother's life.I may not know much about cars and I know probably even less about stealing them, but this is a fun movie. A bit implausible, especially one scene with a car jumping a ramp and going like a quarter mile... but what fun, and what a great cast. Even Angelina Jolie, who is far from my favorite actress, is somewhat interesting here.This must have been around the tail end of Cage's golden age of roles. I think he did a few more that were decent since then (both "Lord of War" and "Weather Man" are great), but this was probably the last big film he did before his downfall.

Here we go.Now I have been meaning to review this movie for some time now I'll do it while it may not be one of the best films ever made I'm one of those movie fans who looks past the junk and see the treasure. But this film is pretty fun to watch if you are into Cars like I am.The films centers around Memphis Raines (Nicolas Cage) trying to help his brother Kip Raines (Giovanni Ribisi) by coming out of retirement after he was a master car thief to steal 50 cars for Raymond Calitri (Christopher Eccleston) or Kip will be killed. With Detective Roland Castlebeck (Delroy Lindo) and his partner Detective Drycoff (Timothy Olyphant) So Memphis turns to his old friends Otto Halliwell (Robert Duvall), Donny Astricky (Chi McBride) The Sphinx (Vinnie Jones), Sara 'Sway' Wayland (Angelina Jolie) while Kip turns to his friends Mirror Man (T.J. Cross), Tumbler (Scott Caan) Freb (James Duval) Toby (William Lee Scott). Now the plot is interesting to make you want to watch the film if you are into cars and action films The film is written clearly to be a film about action and it does have those moments and they actually have some knowledge on the cars they used in the film which is actually surprising. And they pick some very good cars to use in the film. There are some tense moments in the film that make you go did they just do that ? you have to watch and see what happens in the film to know what I'm talking about. The film was done to please car and action fans it actually did well for a change.My advice is to check it out you might be reward for watching a film with good car stunts.I give Gone In Sixty Seconds a 8 out of 10