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DVD Gone in 60 Seconds (Director's Cut)
Kip Raines (Giovanni Ribisi) is a cocky young car thief working with a crew to steal 50 cars for a very bad man whose nickname is "The Carpenter." Being young and cocky, Kip messes up, so it's up to his big brother, Randall "Memphis" Raines (Nicolas Cage), to come out of car thief retirement and save him. With a cast that includes Robert Duvall, Angelina Jolie, Delroy Lindo, Cage, and Ribisi, it would be easy to say this story wastes all their talents--which it does, but that's not the point. This is a Jerry Bruckheimer film. A good story and complex characters would only get in the way of the action scenes and slow the movie down. No, Gone in 60 Seconds (based on the cult 1974 film of the same name) is not about the stars as much as it's about cars. Fast cars. Rare cars. Wrecked cars. All cars. Too bad director Dominic Sena (Kalifornia) doesn't come across as more of a gearhead; he seems less interested in fast cars than fast cuts. But is this movie fun? Absolutely, and it's fun because it's so stupid. With pointless car chases and hackneyed dialogue in one of the most predictable plots of the year, Gone in 60 Seconds is a comic film that's not quite a parody of itself, but darn close. --Andy Spletzer
Review(s): DVD Gone in 60 Seconds (Director's Cut)
IF ITS JUST ABOUT THE CARS, THEN IT'S 5 STARS
If this movie were just about the cars, then this would be a "reel classic". The trouble is the plot and two-dimensional characterizations that are quite a hurdle for Nicolas Cage and Robert Duvall to overcome. And then there's that brother!
The hurdle that can't be overcome is Giovanni Ribisi who plays Nicolas Cage's brother, "Kip Raines". You see the whole movie is about saving this man's life. If Nicolas Cage comes out of retirement and recruits some friends and everybody does the impossible at great risk to everyone doing so, then Kip Raines' life is spared. You see Kip deadbeated the wrong people and either Nicolas Cage & Co. steal these 50 cars by tomorrow or the Kipster buys it.
Well, I say let this bum die. Kip Raines is depicted as a wholly-unsympathetic character for whom nobody in his right mind would risk his life. This obvious element makes the meaning of this lavishly-produced film seem trite, which really spoils the cinematic value to the viewers. It is impossible to enjoy the film without recalling why everybody is knocking themselves out in the first place. That's when I think, "If he were my brother . . .". I'm sure you can fill in the rest.
Ice Cold, Hot Wired!
Gone in 60 Seconds is a guilty pleasure - its vacuous and superficial, full of typical Hollywood produced "guy-movie" cues. Cars, guns, explosions, anti-heros, and Angelina Jolie abound, as well as comically evil villains, comically thin plot devices, and comically honourable car thieves. All that being said, though, the movie is great for what it is - a typical Bruckheimer celebration of over-the-top action. Its fun to get lost in the action, and director Dominic Sena imparts a great sense of pace (which he failed to carry over into 2001's Swordfish), keeping the tension level-high, the action front & centre, and the cars at full throttle. There's also some real funny moments too - the "Brick House" rendition at the police impound lot makes me laugh every time.
Just a brief comment here: some movies, it just looks like everyone's having fun on the set. This is one of them. Regardless of how goofy or superficial the roles are, everyone on screen is far into them, and looks like they're enjoying every second of it. It makes for a great viewing experience - its always more fun to watch a movie where the actors are invested in the script, compared to one where the staff plods through and reads their lines in zombie mode. Jolie and Cage have good resonnance, and Ribisi is great as always - this movie makes we want to go out and get a copy of Boiler Room.
Let me start by saying that the menus will give you a seizure if you're epileptic, so watch out. They're attempting to communicate "fast," I guess, but it comes across more as "spastic" and "illegible." Oh well. The 5.1 mix is great - full of life, with well-deployed bass and great motion and spatial placement. These are important characteristics for this movie, as you'll be hearing plenty of cars zoom across the screen, helicopters hovering behind you, and so on. I'm a little surprised that there isn't a DTS track or anything really fancy on this disc though - given the Director's Cut nature of the release, I expected a top shelf audio treatment. While this is certainly good, its hard to imagine that its the best.
Director's Cut: Apparently this version of the film includes "never before seen footage cut into the movie." Its not disclosed where this footage is in the film, however, or how much of it there is, so its hard to say if it has a material impact or not. I saw the original years ago, and didn't notice any major deviations between that version and this, so I'm not feeling a lot of excitement about this "feature."
Jerry Bruckheimer Filmo- and Bio-graphy: One little known fact is that to judge by his picture as included on this disc, Jerry B. is in fact a very close relative of Chuck Norris, if not actually Chuck Norris himself. Other than that revelation, this feature is pretty uninspired - lots of ho-hum text to scroll through.
Conversations with Jerry B.: This feature has much more substance than the prior one, even though its fundamentally unrelated to Gone in 60 Seconds. In his conversations, Bruckheimer explains the role of a producer, from conception, to funding, to staffing (finding a director, for instance), and so on. This is some interesting material, and Bruckheimer comes across as a really humble guy who knows how lucky he is to be working with top knotch talent.
Action Overload: Here's some filler for you. A montage of action scenes from the movie, set to some nameless soundtrack piece. Underwhelming.
The Big Chase: This is a series of several vignettes, dissecting the big finale chase in the film, with the Shelby Mustang vs. 500 cop cars. This is very, very good material - director Sena and various stunt crew explain piece by piece how the visual effects of the film were put together. Lots of great knowledge to absorb.
Various Featurettes: 0 to 60: This is an "ok" featurette, which centers mainly on character development, writing, and casting. Worth watching, and nice and short. Wild Rides: Believe it or not, Nick Cage was his own stuntdriver for the movie. Nicely done! Stars on the Move: A series of featurettes about the key characters and their stories, narrated by Bruckheimer, writer Scott Rosenberg, and the actors.
Notwithstanding the fact that I have no idea what's different about the "Director's Cut," this was a great release. There's some real quality extras in there, good audio and video, and, well, that all adds up to quality.
Actors Upstaged By Some Beautiful HOT Cars!!!
I sometimes wonder about the mentality of geek scriptwriters in Hollywood. It seems like one of these nerds thought"Let's make a movie about lotsa cars being stolen. This is because the cars thief's brother is in trouble". Well that's about the entire plot of this movie. Cars get stolen but no pedestrians are killed which would have made this movie "rawther sordid" I do believe. Once again Hollywood has made a movie which glorifies Criminal Activity.Angelina looks good as always but even she can't save this turkey of a movie.If you have seen one Hollywood car chase then you have seen them all.
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Vin Diesel is no James Bond, and he doesn't want to be. That's why XXX announced Diesel as the adrenalin-junkie Bond of the PlayStation generation, copying the Bond formula so shamelessly that this action-packed silliness would be a Bond movie if it starred Pierce Brosnan. Reuniting Diesel with his Fast and the Furious director Rob Cohen, XXX has an attitude (if not a brain) all its own, plucking Diesel's Xander Cage from his celebrity as an extreme sports renegade, recruited by a National Security Agency big shot (Samuel L. Jackson) to foil a nasty Czech villain (Marton Csokas) who's eager to depopulate Prague with remote-controlled biological weaponry. Toss in a sulky, sultry Russian agent (Asia Argento) and you've got extreme Bond-age for anyone who thinks... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vin Diesel - Asia Argento Director(s): Rob Cohen DVD Release Date: Released the 31 December 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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