"Gone in Sixty Seconds" has a terrific cast and a score
of awesome stunts, yet the plot suffers. Nicholas Cage plays
Randall Raines, former car thief extraordinaire. For the
past six years, he's been reformed - but now, in order to
save his younger brother's (Giovanni Ribisi) neck, Randall
is forced to steal fifty cars in three days. For such a
job he needs help of course; he composes a crew of his old
car-thieving buddies (including his ex-girlfriend, who he
dumped because she wasn't ready to give up her life of crime
yet). Another of his now-reformed friends is a driver's-ed
instructor - after witnessing him give a lesson to a very
bad driver, you can understand why he would be drawn back
to a life of crime! But since I'm currently learning to
drive myself, I won't pass judgment.
I had very high expectations for this film. I'm sorry
to say I was disappointed. The main problem is that the
plot is too weak: The brotherly love concept has been done
to death. Some aspects of the plot don't make sense. Aside
from that, the movie is slow getting started; the plot drags
lethargically for the first hour. The characters seem to
be little more than props.
Here's a hint for filmmakers: If you're going to make a
movie with a flimsy plot, at least put more action in the
film - a lot more- right from the beginning. Don't spend
an hour getting to the good stuff. (That, incidentally,
is the secret to "The Matrix's" success - I don't know anyone
who understood the plot, but all that shooting and breaking
stuff sure was fun.) And there is some good stuff in this
movie...if you haven't fallen asleep from boredom getting
to it. The action scenes - which include driving backward,
crashing through walls, and a flying leap over a row of
cars- are fantastic. I was certainly impressed with the
stunts, special effects, and excellent actors - it's just
too bad they didn't have real characters to play.
Discuss "Gone
In Sixty Seconds" or Vivian's Review in Cyberkids
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