Gone in 60 Seconds: Remake

Domestic:

$101,648,571

Foreign:

$135,553,728

Back in 2000, Grand Theft Auto hit the big screens...except it wasn't called GTA, but Gone in 60 Seconds. This movie had everything. The suaveness of Nicholas Cage, the sexiness of Angelina Jolie, and the hotness of tons of new and antique exotic speed machines that make you want to sit in the corner and suck on your thumb.

Cage plays ex master car thief Randall "Memphis" Raines. Raines has to return to the game and steal 50 exotic cars in 72 hours for a crime lord who is threatening to kill Raines' brother. Raines and his team successfully catch most of the cars and at the same time eluding the police. The last car, a 1967 Shelby Mustang GT 500 which is codenamed Eleanor, has been Raines' failure since he was professionally stealing cars. Raines accomplishes the feat of getting the car but it takes some serious damage in a police chase. The crime lord is displeased and tries to kill Raines but manages to escape and kills the crime lord with the aid of his friend Attly Jackson, played by Will Patton. The cops discover why Raines got back in the game and decide to let him go. Raines boss Kip, played by Giovanni Ribisi, gives him a restored Eleanor at the end as a gift.


Now in watching this movie, there are two things that I am a fan of. The first is Angelina Jolie. I think she is pretty hot, and don't you DARE judge me. The second thing, or things are the cars. I am a sports car enthusiast, so seeing Ferraris and Mustangs got my engines revved up to the max. There was no need for a sequel to this movie because doing so could totally mess up the entire package (Hollow man 2 ring a bell?) While this movie never planted the seeds of a sequel, its roots go deeper than what most people know.

In the year 1974, Gone in 60 Seconds was released. I encourage getting a copy and watching it, but don't expect the exact story as the remake. In the elder version, Maindrain Pace, played by Tony Halicki, was an insurance investigator who ran a nice quality auto shop by day, but undercover was the leader of a group of car thieves. A South American drug lord offers him $400,000 to deliver 48 top of the line cars in 5 days. After a few difficulties with obtaining the vehicles, the chase becomes about that prize dame Eleanor, which in this primary incarnation is a 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1. After try after try to get an Eleanor, one is finally captured and thanks to a plate swap, an innocent driver gets mistaken for Pace and goes to jail while Pace and his people deliver the cars.


Unlike The Longest Yard, Gone is 60 seconds does not have any of the actors from the first film in the predecessor film. The 2000 version is an all new cast, all new story plot, and even an all new Eleanor. Both incarnations worked great for the respective generations and still kept a few important plots including the hard to get Eleanor. I don't mind that because it offers such a serious challenge. The same codenamed mustang that caused problems in the 70's came back with a vengeance almost 30 years later. Will their be a remake in the next 20 years or so, maybe. I just hope that if they do decide to make a new Gone in 60 Seconds, that they use an updated supercharged Mustang like the 2011 Shelby Super Snake.