the audience applauded

Excellent but underrated film

best movie i've ever seen.

Absolutely brilliant

Was Memphis Raines an alpha male? His Character Seemed Like He Was An Alpha Male. One of the best movies I've seen.Nicolas Cage plays Memphis Raines, who used to be the greatest car thief in Los Angeles ("I didn't do it for the money. I did it for the cars"). Now he has retired to the desert to run a gas station and go-kart track. He retired because his mom asked him to. She was afraid his younger brother Kip (Ribisi) would become a thief, too. Kip became a thief anyway.

Seeing actors early on in their transition stage moving from different genres sure can be surreal sometimes. Perhaps for some, their actual screen presence is not as prevalent as it use to be, but the name itself carries a lot of weight when it comes to how successful a film could be (most of the time). Now a days, when the names Angelina Jolie, Nicolas Cage, Scott Caan, Chi McBride and Robert Duvall are mentioned, all have their names connected to some well-known movie. However, when seeing actors in a transition state where their not the main lead or are but are not given the liberties to do what they did in later films, it just feels strange. The title to this film actually sounds like a knock-off of The Fast and the Furious (2001) franchise that started after that. Pricey, shiny cars, looking to be stolen in a heist film? Sure sounds aggressive enough to be one. But does it turn out like it sounds? Ehh,...kind of but it is a bit misguided in areas. Compared to its 1974 original, the story is more of a soft remake than anything else.Written mainly by Scott Rosenberg who also wrote for High Fidelity (2000) and with uncredited rewrites by J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Hensleigh, the plot is about retired car thief Memphis Raines (Nicolas Cage) who is brought back to his old profession in order to save his younger brother Kip (Giovanni Ribisi) after a major screw up with car trafficker Raymond Calitri (Christopher Eccleston). The job Raines has to complete is stealing 50 high-end cars and have them ready to ship out, otherwise, Raines' brother dies. So in order to complete this task, Raines gets the help from his old crew played by actors, Angelina Jolie, Scott Caan, Chi McBride, Will Patton, Robert Duvall, Vinnie Jones and some others. All the while, police officers Castlebeck (Delroy Lindo) and Drycoff (Timothy Olyphant) are on Raines' tail trying to figure out if the retired thief has re-entered his old profession. Directed by Dominic Sena who's only done a handful of films heads this production. Unfortunately, both the writing and direction have their issues.Going back to what was mentioned before, one would think if the title suggests something will be gone in sixty seconds, then the end result will be a fast paced, action film. The thing is, there is action and fast cars, but the build up to this is slower than necessary. Half of this film is Memphis Raines getting his posse together and over time removing the respective cars from their location. However, when this happens very few times is anybody speeding. It's more like nonchalantly cruising off. That doesn't sound that exciting, especially when considering the padding. For almost two hours, there are definitely some scenes that either could've been trimmed or removed completely. This is in due part with the writing, which has a minor subplot about Memphis Raines and Sway (Angelina Jolie) being in love once. It's brought up at one point, then put on hold before having the cliché of "being back together" later for no real reason. What's the point? Audiences aren't exactly given the clearest of backstory to their relationship therefor so what?Another problem is the lighting and coloring. According to sources, Sena's trademark look are sepia tone / yellowish colors in his film. However, this practically the only color available because there isn't a whole lot of other things that stand out. It doesn't make the viewing experience that interesting. With that though, there are still some nice highlights. The main leads to this film do have their moments together as a crew. Nicolas Cage plays the fence in his acting changing between calm and ready beat anyone who comes to take him out. Angelina Jolie may not be as active in this feature as her later roles would be but she still has a presence that can't be ignored. Vinnie Jones is a character that never talks and isn't explained as to why but he too has some moments that showcase he's not to be messed with. On the other hand, Chi McBride and Delroy Lindo are probably the most vocal, being that they add some kind energy to their roles. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast aren't engaging because there's too many and not enough development. There are however some nice deadpan comical moments delivered by Cage and that deals with his car named Eleanor who sort of has a mind of its own for some reason. It's dumb but funny. The cinematography by Paul Cameron (Man on Fire (2004) and Deja Vu (2006)) are well shot and work well the action scenes that do occur. Since it's wide screen, the look gives a broad range of view to see what surrounds the characters. The car chases that Nicolas Cage performs are decently exciting and are nicely edited. That's the way the rest of the film should have been executed. The music composed by synth enthusiast Trevor Rabin is a mixed bag. The score itself is pretty short surprisingly, clocking in only at a half-hour. Rabin does compose a main theme to Raines and Eleanor with a synth choir that pops up from time to time, but the rest of the tracks are somewhat muddled. There are some exciting cues that involve deep scratchy synth bases but they don't show up all that often because much of the tracks run on average about a minute. It's okay but could've been better.The electronic synth musical score, cinematography and main leads make the viewing experience watchable but the premise itself is squandered by slow pacing and infrequent action. To be gone in sixty seconds, the momentum this feature creates takes much longer than that.

60 seconds, 60 seconds, 60 seconds… you missed the point, really. This isn't about stars, characters, plot. The cars are your stars. I watched this version back to back with the original, and wow, there is really no comparison. This loose remake tried way too hard to re-think such a basic concept that didn't need so much re-thinking. The original was low-budget and high-speed, which worked. That's the movie it was. For this version to share a name with that version is akin to false advertising. This one was without a doubt low-speed and certain more high-budget than the original. Attempts at humor? Forced. Excitement about the illicit behavior of stealing cars? Not there. It is derivative, not of its source material, but of various other heist-style films, by trying to find suspense in the behind-the-scenes drama of who ordered the car thefts and why and what was going to happen if the team didn't come through. Whatever. Let's just get some cars on the road and see 'em wreck! Check the original for a movie that lives up to its premise. This one is a vehicle for anything other than cars. (Yes, that's deliberately pointing to irony that wasn't intended by the filmmakers.)

I really like this movie. It's a very inventive, creative idea for a movie. And Nicolas Cage does fantastically as the lead in this movie.This movie is about a car thief, Memphis Raines. He's a former thief, actually. But when his brother gets into some trouble with other thieves, Memphis must get his crew back together to pull off the greatest car heist in history. He needs to get fifty specific, high end cars and transport them to the big boss in only a matter of days. Memphis doesn't really want to be risking it, but for his brother, he does. With the cops on their trail, and only a few hours left, Memphis must get that very last car.Overall, I give this movie an 8 out of 10, which in my ratings book is: Awesome.