AUTO EROTICISM
GONE IN 60 SECONDS
Directed by Dominic Sena
Screenplay by Scott Rosenberg
With Nicolas Cage, Delroy Lindo
UA South PG-13 117 min
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, in a philanthropic moment, bought the rights to a grade C 1974 quickie called Gone In 60 Seconds, which was made by a guy named H.B. Halicki and is remembered, if it is remembered at all, for a 40-minute car chase. Halicki himself was gone in short order, erased in an accident while filming a sequel.
Both movies involve stealing a lot of cars, and driving recklessly and very fast. A less sensitive man than Bruckheimer might not have felt this was worth paying the big bucks for, but Jerry's the man who brought us The Rock and Armageddon, so he has certain standards to maintain.
Bruckheimer veteran Nic Cage is the central character, an ex-car thief known even to his family as Memphis. Cage once won a Best Actor Oscar, but he's been trying successfully to live it down ever since. Memphis is going straight, working at a go-kart track with little kids, but his brother (Giovanni Ribisi) has run afoul of a homicidal crime boss (Christopher Eccleston), and Memphis has to heist 50 high-end autos in a night to save the lad's bacon.
Gone In 60 Seconds is all speed and shiny surfaces, with odd little moments of pathos spotted in to support Bruckheimer's assertion that this movie is "character driven". Driven, yes; character, no.
I could tell you how Memphis puts together a "team", and mention names like Robert Duvall, but that would give you false hope. I could mention Delroy Lindo, reduced here to an Inspector Javert-like detective who grouses "I should have put you away when I had the chance," sounding like George Bush bitching to Saddam Hussein. I could mention Angelina Jolie, yet another Oscar winner, but that would give you the impression that there's a female presence here. I couldn't figure for the life of me what Jolie was doing in the movie, except to ponder with Cage the question "Which is better, boosting cars or sex?"
The answer is neither, when it becomes as monotonously repetitive as it does here. Boosting one car could be pretty exciting. Boosting 50 is just plain tedious. It's like one of those tours that takes you to 12 European cities in 6 days.
If all you ask for in a movie is lots of car chases, you'll find plenty of that in this one. Memphis's main automotive squeeze is a '67 Shelby Mustang GT 500 (similar to the car Steve McQueen drove in Bullitt.) Her name is Eleanor, and he comes a lot closer to orgasm with her than he does with Angelina Jolie.
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