It allows for justification of cinematic garbage like this.
"Gone In Sixty Seconds" is not only a rework of a previous work, but a rework of an incredibly bad thing. So bad, in fact, it attained cult status before it was killed financially.
Which, usually, is a euphimisim for crap.
And this movie is Crap.
Nicolas Cage plays Memphis Raines, once upon a time the greatest car thief in Los Angeles. But he has gone straight because his mom asked him to. (Oh, what a solution to crime.) Now he lives in the desert, running a gas station and a go-kart track.
Why did he go the straight and narrow? Because his mother was afraid if he didn't his younger brother, Kip (Giovanni Ribisi), would become a thief.
Here's the thing: Kip did become a thief. A lousy one, at that: He steals a car, leads pursuing cops to a chop shop, and infuriates a crime lord named Raymond (Christopher Eccelston).
Word gets back to Memphis by way of one his former crew members. So he goes to see Raymond, only to find Kip has been handcuffed inside a car Raymond threatens to crush and mash if Memphis doesn't do his bidding: Steal 50 collector cars.
Of course Memphis agrees. To do this job, however, means recruiting. Which he does, by way of an old pal (Robert Duvall).
These are pros, these guys. But they are caught before they are done with their work. Delroy Lindo, as the cop, knows who and what and why. But he is sadistic in a way, and wants to catch them red-handed.
And how will he do that? Well, he seems to know (all too conveniently) that Memphis will go for a 1967 GT 350 Mustang, Shelby. And that this car will the brass ring--the last one taken. So he puts out a trap to catch Memphis with the car.
And as to the other 49 cars? Well, it seems Memphis will already have those, easily taken because the cop is willing to let him have them.
That basically is the plot. Cage is playing one-dimensional character stuff here, left over from the cutting room floor of "The Rock" and "Con Air". Duvall is. . . I don't what he is doing, other than collecting a steep paycheck. Angelina Jolie is here as the slut girlfriend. (Which seems to be her niche in life.) And that's it.
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