It seems that for every good film that Jerry Bruckheimer involves himself in (The Rock, Con Air, Enemy of the State), he seems to throw himself back down into the dreads with Pearl Harbor, King Arthur, Bad Boys II, and Kangaroo Jack. Add the 2000 flick Gone in 60 Seconds to that list.

The story involves a man named Kip (Giovanni Ribisi). Kip is an aspiring car thief who longs to be known as the best. Wow, what an aspiration in life. Imagine sitting in your high school guidance counselor's office mentioning that your dream is to be a car thief. Anyhow, Kip has apparently screwed a big job so badly that he may be killed. His boss, Raymond Calitri (Christopher Eccleston) has decided to be generous with Kip giving him 24 hours to steal 50 cars. If Kip fails, he'll find himself below the ground. Kip, knowing he's in a big predicament, calls his bigger brother named Randall 'Memphis' Raines (Nicholas Cage), who just so happens to be a legend in the car thievery business. Realizing he and Kip can't do this only, Randall gives all of his old buddies, who have nothing better to do than steal cars, a call hoping they'll lend a hand in bringing down Calitri and saving his brother Kip.

Having directed such films as the slightly enjoyable Swordfish, I expected a similar affair out of Gone in 60 Seconds from director Dominic Sena. But this time I felt as if I had been throw out of a car because, god forbid, I wanted to know more about the story and its characters. Speaking of this, the lack of any real character development was this film's biggest failing. There is not one character in the film, even the lead Nicholas Cage that we ever want to care about. The story these characters are involved in is so vapid and dull never creating a believable series of events. Now I shouldn't be completely rude to this film as there are a few slight positives here.

Even though her character is just as pointless as the rest of the lot, Angelina Jolie's raw beauty as Sara Wayland creates that necessary sexual energy a summer film is suppose to have to draw in crowds. Naturally, per any typical Bruckheimer summer popcorn film, we have tons of fast car sequences, big explosions and corny dialogue. The problem here is that these big car sequences are: first, stolen by the looks of Jolie (read gorgeous) and secondly, after seeing the three Fast and the Furious films, are simply not as impressive as they could have been. I'm aware that this film was made before these three, but I suppose the level of car chases has been elevated to a point in which this film never reaches.

Jerry Bruckheimer has proven that he can make a solid popcorn film with the two recent Pirate films. Unfortunately with this film, pun intended here, I wished that the film was over in 60 Seconds, so that I wouldn't have to endure the hell that is this film.

Video

Presented in a 1080p, AVC/MPEG-4 Encoded, 2:35:1 Widescreen Aspect Ratio, Gone in 60 Seconds comes off as a pretty impressive transfer that is clean and clear throughout.

Detail on this film is nearly perfect as each scene is created so the viewer can get the most out of this high-definition picture. The use of color, despite the film seemingly like it takes place in only night settings, is great as well. Blacks are deep and bold while blues, red, yellows, and greens are strong and powerful creating a very nice presentation throughout. Grain is also kept on the relatively low side for the most part (it's only really noticeable in some of the extremely darker scenes.

The only real negative here is that there were a few slight sequences where the presence of edge enhancement was noticeable. There sequences tended to occur when we got intense close ups of the film's vehicles. I suppose this may have been, similar in the Fast and Furious films, because of the excessive amount of chrome and shiny material that was put onto the cars to make them look intense and powerful.

Despite this problem, Gone in 60 Seconds certainly looks a hell of a lot better than the film actually was. But that wasn't too hard now was it? A solid job here Buena Vista.

Audio

Arriving with a PCM 5.1 Surround Sound (encoded at 48mhz/24-bit) audio track, Gone in 60 Seconds, despite all the loud, booming cars and explosions, sounded a bit un-impressive.

The film's dialogue remains clear and simple for the film. Dynamic range is a bit mixed though. The utilization of mid-range and high-range sounds are, simply put, excellent and nearly perfect. We get little sounds like engines revving, people screaming and cars screeching creating a very nice feel to the experience. The problem though is with the other part, this being the low-range sound. I expected a bit more response via the bass but I was left empty handed. The surround usage suffers from the same fate. We never really get that overall 'wow' factor sequence.

Yes, Gone in 60 Seconds when it performs, sounds great, sometimes excellent. Just the overall mix is very sporadic and tends to jump all over the place. The PCM track is good, but nothing groundbreaking, which is a true shame.

Special Features

One would simply figure that with a relatively short film (118 minutes) and a relatively high price point ($34.99), we'd get a lot of quality features right?

• The Big Jump: The only provided feature here takes a look at the film's bridge jump sequence. Director Dominic Sena, in about five minutes, gives us a quick look at the production and filming of this sequence.
• Movie Showcase: Here we get a short compilation of the film's three sequences: The bridge jump, the pressure tank on the docks, and the street chase sequence.

I must say here that the amount of features on this disc is a downright disappointment. Early Blu-Ray adopters have not paid upwards of $1299.99 for their players so they could enjoy high-definition films to have films with no real features. And considering that the Director's Cut (not included here) of this film was released with TONS of excellent features, this is an extremely poor move on Buena Vista's part.

Closing Thoughts

It's not secret among those who know me that I love car films. Considering this, I expected to highly enjoy Gone in 60 Seconds. Instead, I found myself never connecting or, for a more important fact, never caring for any of the film's characters. Despite this Blu-Ray release offering good video and audio, the amount of included features considering the number of available features, is completely unacceptable. Do yourself a favor and skip this one.