6.09.00
Gone in Sixty Seconds

6.09.00
Grass

6.06.00
Road Trip

6.02.00
Small Time Crooks

6.02.00
Mission: Impossible 2

6.02.00
Dinosaur

5.16.00
U-571

5.09.00
Gladiator

5.09.00
Frequency

5.05.00
The Virgin Suicides

6/09/00 1:25 p.m.
Gone in Sixty Seconds
One big silly two-hour car chase...

By Ben Domenech, NRO contributing editor

roducer Jerry Bruckheimer is the uncontested master of the mindless summer blockbuster. The creative mind behind such movies as Con Air, The Rock, and Armageddon, Bruckheimer seems to be on a continuing quest to attain the ultimate nirvana-like adrenaline rush, and has attracted countless teenage males along the way. His most recent film, Gone in Sixty Seconds, is chock- full of Bruckheimer trademarks — spastic editing to electric soundtracks, Oscar-winning actors in incredibly shallow roles, and plot holes bigger than Jonah Goldberg's hernia. Keep in mind, though, that it's all in good fun.

Seconds, directed by Dominic Sena (Kalifornia) and written by Scott Rosenberg (Con Air), was adapted from a little-seen 1974 H.B. Halicki film of the same name. The plot, as in most Bruckheimer films, is incidental to the onscreen action, but provides an excuse for lots of unbelievable car chases and crash scenes, turning Los Angeles streets into the Days of Thunder racetrack.

Bruckheimer attracted an enormous amount of acting talent in this film, with three Oscar winners (Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie, and Robert Duvall), as well as Giovanni Ribisi, Delroy Lindo, Will Patton, Vinnie Jones, and Christopher Eccleston as a whiny British psychopath. But with a script that's as witty and intellectually stimulating as your average issue of Mother Jones, the cast's abilities are almost completely squandered.

There's the mandatory car chase through the L.A. River Aqueduct (which, at this point, is exclusively used for filming Hollywood chase scenes), and the big shoot-'em-up action finale is inconceivably over the top. And don't miss Jones's hysterical one-liner afterwards, which made me laugh harder than Alyson Hannigan's "One time, in band camp." confession in American Pie.

Of course, there's always the chance that your brain's defensive mechanism will kick in, and it'll curl up and die while you're sitting in the theatre — but if you're interested in chewing on popcorn and letting Bruckheimer's action-packed nonsense provide two hours of entertainment, take Seconds out for a spin.

Columns / Current Issue / Goldberg File / Nota Bene
Washington Bulletin / Subscribe / Ad Info / Home