30 Second Bottom Line: A retired car thief is called back into action to save the life of his brother, who botched a job for a mobster. Fifty cars, identified by year and model, must be delivered within four days for the mobster to make his commitment for an overseas shipment.

Story Line: Cops know a major heist is in the works and we have a high action movie with the good guys against the bad guys, some of whom are now reformed. Randall "Memphis" Raines (Nicolas Cage) is the former king of car thieves, who Detective Roland Castlebeck (Delroy Lindo) should have caught while he was active. Memphis comes back to LA to make peace with a gang leader after his younger brother Kip (Giovanni Ribisi), causes a large shipment of cars to be confiscated by Castlebeck. The gang leader makes a deal with Memphis not to kill Kip if he can fulfill the car order. This is important because if he cannot, the next big order will go to a rival gang who will be deemed more dependable.

Once Memphis is blackmailed into taking the job, he must recruit a crew. Otto (Robert Duvall) is a former car thief and partner in crime who now owns an auto body shop that does renovations of classic cars. Memphis enlists a reluctant Otto and other former car thieves to help with the heist and save Kip's life. But the job is so big and time is so short, that Memphis agrees to have Kip and some of his not so professional friends to also help them out.

In case you are not up on street slang, "boost" is a term used often in the film to describe stealing a car. Castlebeck is a smart, good-humored detective who can make his career by busting Memphis. When Memphis comes to town, he is immediately spotted and the report is given to the detective. They meet and Memphis is warned that he will be watched and taken down for the slightest infraction. When the detective tells Memphis "I'll catch you later," he is thinking of something other than it simply meaning "goodbye."

The link to figuring out the heist is realized by Detective Castlebeck. The common thread is just how hard it is to steal a Mercedes Benz because they require laser cut keys, which can only come from Germany.

The car chases qualify under the description as the "mother of all car chases." The chases on city streets are sort of old hat, with the near misses and crashes of the cars that don't matter. But a few scenes are in the master stunt category and are worth the price of admission. In one scene where the cars are at flat out Indy 500 speed is awesome and we can see why the actors had to attend stunt-driving school before making the movie.

Tell Me More About It: Just when I was thinking that Cage could only be an over the top actor, I was pleasantly surprised to see him mellow, which permitted me to focus on the film and not his antics.

The dark humor in the film provides some James Bond type, tongue in cheek laughs. . Chi McBride, as a driving school instructor, tells an Asian American student, who is downright dangerous, that she should not drive for the same reasons that he keeps his non swimming, black a-- out of the pool; it walks the fine line of humor versus insulting racism (an oxymoron).

There is more realism here than we would like to see because if someone wants your car, possibly only Lo Jack (the hidden radar system) might give you any chance of retrieval.

Sarah "Sway" Wayland (Angelina Jolie) joins the film about 30 minutes into the story and is a pleasant surprise as I had almost forgotten about her. She is smart, good looking and carries an edge that tones down Cage-they are perfect together. Jolie did the right thing by taking this assignment for far less money than she would have gotten in Charlie's Angels: 2000.

Do see this before it comes out on video, as it's a fun movie to see on the large screen, with the big sound, and a room full of strangers who, like you, will laugh at various quips as the action is being played out. I don't know how a sequel could be based upon this but I have a feeling that after Gone in Sixty Seconds speeds through the box office, setting records, a way will be found to see Memphis driving a 1967 Shelby GT 350 Mustang once again.

Warning to parents: while this is rated PG-13, to me it has the "feel" of an "R" rated movie. The sex takes it right to the edge; and the violence mixed in with the car racing might encourage young men who love cars to speed and drive in an unsafe manner.

Nicolas Cage: The Family Man	Delroy Lindo: Heist
Giovanni Ribisi: The Gift	Robert Duvall: The 6th Day
Angelina Jolie: Tomb Raider	Vinny Jones: Swordfish
Chi McBride: Disney's The Kid	Dominic Sena: Swordfish