I watched this movie just to see the original, having seen the remake around the time it first came out. There is a hell of a lot wrong with it, but it had a certain simple charm about it that kind of made up for the bad. I'm sure the vast majority of people won't be able to get past the horrific acting; besides the lead, I don't think a single person cast had any acting ability whatsoever, a ballsy move when making a movie. It is also overly long for a Grand Theft Auto movie; it could easily have been cut to under 90 minutes and would've benefited from losing a lot of fluffy scenes, with less scenes in this movie meaning less bad acting. However, this movie was made for the car chases and it does those nicely. There is a scene where a mobile security guard chases one of the thieves who has hooked up the stolen vehicle to a tow truck; one of the highlights of the movie. It's always nice to spot a moment or shot in a movie that was later paid homage to by Tarantino; seeing the array of sunglasses of different tints lined up on a dash just like in Earl McGraw's car in Kill Bill was a little bonus. It's also interesting to watch originals after seeing a remake. I can see why they wanted to remake this; it had the bones and polishing it up with a tidier script and some professional actors should've been an easy score if done with a competent hand. However, as is often the case the remake sacrifices the simple charm of the original and here it really "Cages" it up, loaded with extra cheese like an East Indian pizza, to the point where all you taste is the cheese. It goes without saying that you really need to have a specific desire to see this movie; I suggest reading both the 1-star and the 10-star reviews and see which camp your sensibilities most lean towards.
Review of Gone in 60 Seconds
