DVD Review: Gone In 60 Seconds
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::Movie review
One of the dangers of watching a lot of movies and writing a lot of reviews is that you run the risk of thinking you've written a review of something when you haven't. Such is the case with Gone In 60 Seconds. I could have sworn I wrote something about it and I was going to reference that review here.
Such is life.
Well, if I had written that other review, I would have mentioned that the original theatrical version was rather shallow. (As an aside, when I refer to the "original" version in this review, I'm talking about the original theatrical release of the 2000 remake, and not the original original Gone In 60 Seconds, which came out in 1974.) I would have told you that it was all loud noises and bright lights and very little actual substance. And I also might have said that the characters seemed to be frustrated because all of their development was being left on the cutting room floor in favor or more chase sequences.
On that last point, I would have been dead on. This new Director's Cut of Gone In 60 Seconds adds about 10 minutes to the overall running time and almost all of the new additions are character-driven. I can't honestly say that this new version makes for a superb film, but the added character depth is an improvement.
The film opens with Kip Raines (Giovanni Ribisi) stealing a car from a dealership and leading the police right to a warehouse full of other stolen cars. Unfortunately for Kip, these cars were all meant for Raymond Calitri (Christopher Eccleston), a crime lord on loan to Los Angeles from England.
Kip is the younger brother of Memphis Raines (Nicholas Cage), who was the most notorious car thief in LA, before he retired because, get this, his mother asked him to. Now Kip is the hands of Calitri, who has vowed to kill him for failing to deliver the 50 cars he needs. Reluctantly, Memphis agrees to take on his younger brother's job and steal the cars within 72 hours.
In scene that has become obligatory (and done far better) in caper movies, Memphis assembles his team of car thieves. There is a ongoing joke with these sorts of scenes that the retired thieves are always doing jobs one would least expect. For instance, Otto (Robert Duvall) has converted his chop shop into a restoration business. Donny (Chi McBride) teaches driver's education. And The Sphinx (Vinnie Jones), who never talks, works in a morgue.
Once the team is assembled, a plan is put into place to steal the cars. Memphis decides that the best plan will be to try to take all 50 cars in one night. His logic is that by the time the first car is reported stolen, they'll already be delivering the last car to Calitri. Perhaps this is sound logic, but on the other hand, everything in the plan rests on all 50 cars being exactly where they expect them to be. Seems like a pretty big risk when Kip's life hangs in the balance.
Meanwhile, a diligant cop, Detective Castlebeck (Delroy Lindo) is hot on the trail of Memphis and his team. Castlebeck knows that Memphis steals cars, but he's never been able to catch him. At first, Castlebeck's plan to catch Memphis seems sound. He only knows of 3 of the cars Memphis is after, so he has them watched. Later, however, after Castlebeck finds the complete list, his police IQ seems to take a dip and he places all of his efforts into just one car, a 1967 Shelby Mustang GT 350 (but hey, if you gotta watch just one car, this is a mighty fine car to watch).
Because the police place all of the their eggs into one Shelby Mustang basket, the Mustang is naturally the last car to be stolen and it initiates the film's final, climactic chase sequence.
It's unfortunate that a film entitled Gone In 60 Seconds and that features a plot about car thieves, couldn't end with car chase. Instead, we're given the tired old factory shoot-out, and even the director's cut doesn't change that. But then I guess it wouldn't be Hollywood without catwalks, lots and lots of steam and people dangling by their fingernails.
::Video
The first release of this film on DVD was over 4 years ago. At the time, it was a remarkable example of quality and this new version upholds that standard. I'm hard pressed to tell if they've done anything to tweak the video further this time around, but it still looks pretty darn good. The additional scenes are inserted seamlessly, which is sometimes tough to do with Director's Cuts.
Overall, colors are very rich and vibrant. It should be noted that there were some stylistic choices made in terms of the color palette, sometimes nearing nostalgic sepia tones, so while things like skin tones may not be real-world accurate, they fit within the artistic tone of the film.
I noticed very minimal digital defects and almost no edge enhancement.
::Audio
The 5.1 audio mix makes very aggresive use of the surround speakers, offering up a completely immersive, if not very loud, experience. Transitions from left to right and front to back seems very smooth and transparent. A DTS track might be the only way to improve on this sound presentation, but even so, what we get is impressive.
::Special Features
For this Director's Edition, they chose to simply repackage the same supplements from the previous version, so if you're looking for something new in this area, you're out of luck. Unfortunately, they don't even offer up anything pointing out what was added into the film.
First up are Zero to 60 From Script to Screen and Wild Rides. These two featurettes discuss the pre-filming preparation for the film, including the driving school the actors were put through and work on the backstory of the characters. Interestingly, the comments about the backstory were mostly pointless for the theatrical release, but make a lot more sense in this Director's Edition.
The Big Chase is actually broken up into three sections of featurettes and takes a look at the technical difficulties involved in creating the final chase sequence, including the shutting down of major roads for days on end.
Next up is Stars On The Move, which offers up nearly a dozen interviews with cast and crew, each offering more insights into character choices and motivations. Again, this is a section that now makes more sense given the added character depth in the extended version of the film.
Conversations With Jerry Bruckheimer features Bruckheimer talking about his role in the film. While interesting at times, there is also a massive ego trip going on here that is hard to look beyond. Perhaps this is earned, given the enormous box office performance of his films, and it's certainly preferable to false modesty, but it is a little grating at times.
Rounding things out is a music video by The Cult, a series of action sequences from the film set to music (in a section called Action Overload), a theatrical trailer and previews for upcoming releases.
::Bottom Line
Gone In 60 Seconds is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a great film. However, anything with Nicholas Cage, Angelina Jolie and Robert Duvall in it is at least going to be interesting to watch -- and this film is not only that, but mildly entertaining as well. This Director's Cut version goes a long way to flesh out the characters, giving some much needed emotional depth, but even so, Gone In 60 Seconds will never be anything more than just a mostly mindless action flick. It's good fun, but not great cinema.
Buy Gone In 60 Seconds at DVDEmpire.com
| Movie |  |
3 / 5 |
| Video | |
4.5 / 5 |
| Audio | |
4.5 / 5 |
| Extras | |
3 / 5 |
| Family Friendly | |
1 / 5 |
| Gone In 60 Seconds is fairly light in both sex and violence (at least as far as these sorts of films generally go), but both are still present. It's best to keep the young ones away. | ||
| Overall | |
3 / 5 |
- Robert Wurth, ©2005
::Technical Specs
Studio:
Touchstone Home Entertainment
Year of Theatrical Release:
2000
Disc Format:
1 single-sided, Dual Layer
Image Format:
Anamorphic Widescreen
Aspect Ratio:
2.35:1
Region Encoding:
1 (North America)
Sound Format:
Dolby Digital 5.1
Running Time:
127 minutes
Director:
Dominic Sena
Stars:
Nicholas Cage, Angelina Jolie, Robert Duvall, Giovanni Ribisi
MPAA Rating:
Unrated
Disc Supplements:
- Zero to 60 featurette
- Wild Rides featurette
- The Big Chase featurette
- Stars On The Move featurette
- Action Overload action scene montage
- Conversation With Jerry Bruckheimer
- The Cult music video
- Trailer and Previews
