As ephemeral a movie as its title suggests, GONE IN 60 SECONDS is exactly how long the endorphin thrills of this car-stealing flick last once outside the theatre. Watching the film is exciting, heart-pounding fun -- its candy-colored car chases and white-knuckle drama quickly satisfy the cravings for a summer action movie. Upon retrospection, however, its in-the-moment pleasures fade away like yesterday's sunset, revealing the lack of substance at the film's core.

Of course, substance isn't exactly a priority for producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Con Air, The Rock, Armageddon). Stylish action is more important in his films that serious subjects. Pleasing the masses, for Bruckheimer, seems to be a simple equation of big leading actor, rising stars in the supporting cast, trippy colored lighting, and massive destruction of property.

In GONE IN 60 SECONDS, the big actor is Nicolas Cage, playing a reformed master auto thief named -- get this -- Memphis Raines. He's come back to a life of crime to save his brother, Kip (rising star #1, Giovanni Ribisi), from the evil crime lord Raymond Calitri (rising star #2, Christopher Eccleston). In order to win his brother's life, Memphis must steal 50 luxury and antique cars in less than three days. (To prove how great he is, Memphis waits until the last day to steal them all -- that way, he figures, the cops won't be able to catch on to him.) Stealing all of those cars alone would be quite a task, so Memphis brings back together his merry band of thieves, including Otto (Robert Duvall - Bob, what are you DOING here?), and former girlfriend Sway (newly-awarded Oscar winner Angelina Jolie...rising star #3). On his tail, however, is his former nemesis, Detective Roland Castlebeck (Delroy Lindo), who never caught Memphis before he reformed.

That's the setup...nothing left to do now but steal the cars, which they do for the remaining hour-plus of the movie. And truthfully, some of the thefts are incredibly exciting action sequences, including a bridge chase that manages to be truly spectacular. When the film drifts off into uncharted territory, like the rekindling of the romance between Sway and Memphis, director Dominic Sena quickly gets back on track by making something explode.

Sena's contribution to this film is negligible; on its surface, GONE IN 60 SECONDS looks and feels very much like every other film Bruckheimer has produced. The screenplay is often trite and always confusing, but the writers seem to realize they're not Shakespeare...never let dramatic narrative get in the way of a good traffic accident. Although the backstory with Colitri and Kip is hard to follow, the plot isn't what's important here.

Nicolas Cage, in his third Bruckheimer outing, has a firm grip on the action hero stereotype he's playing. GONE IN 60 SECONDS demands that you pull for the criminals to win; the most effective tool to achieve this is Memphis, a former bad guy turned really good guy (in his first scene, he's seen playing with children on a go-cart track), who is only stealing cars to save his brother's life. Who can't get behind something like that? (Of course, it could be your car he's stealing, but that's another issue entirely.)

Ribisi, Jolie, Eccleston, and Duvall are accomplished performers, and each of them delivers a solid, engaging performance. It is practically impossible not to adore this ragamuffin band of thieves -- they are so darned adorable. When Jolie delivers way-over-the-top lines like, "What do you think is better...having sex or stealing cars?", audiences will only smile and enjoy. It's so bad, it's good.

GONE IN 60 SECONDS is what the Summer Movie Season was made for. You want quality and art, wait until the fall. You want to have some fun, come along and steal some cars.

- Gabriel Shanks

Read Jill's review of GONE IN 60 SECONDS

Review text copyright © 2000 Gabriel Shanks and Cozzi fan Tutti, © 2003 Mixed Reviews. All rights reserved. Reproduction of text in whole or in part in any form or in any medium without express written permission of Mixed Reviews or the author is prohibited.

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