Plot
Years ago, Memphis Raines was one of the worst criminals and car thieves in the streets of Long Beach, California – until his mother begged him to leave to give his little brother Kip a chance at a future.
Now, Kip has gotten himself into trouble with British crime lord Raymond Calitri, having been busted ‘mid boost’ of 50 luxury cars.
Calitri gives Memphis an ultimatum. Finish the boost, or Baby Brother gets a bullet. So Memphis begs his old crew, for one last hustle. With a couple of over zealous cops on his tail, can he pull it off?
Director
Directed by Dominic Sena, it has all the looks and feels of a Michael Bay movie
Cast
Nicolas Cage plays Memphis, he is fine – but I just wish they did more with his character. I’ll touch on this later.
Angelina Jolie plays his ex ‘Sway’. She is just ‘okay’ – but at 25 years old here, she was far too young to be believable as his ex with such long standing history.
Giovanni Ribisi plays Kip. Nothing from him that we haven’t seen before.
Christopher Eccleston plays Calitri, but his “scariest bad guy” is a little cliche. That there is no real ‘follow through’ makes his threats… rather empty.
Delroy Lindo and Timothy Olyphant play the cops Castlebeck and Drycroft – hot on Raines’ tail.
Other cast within both the Raines Bros crew include Will Patton, Chi McBride, Robert Duvall (RIP), Scott Caan, Vinnie Jones, James Duvall
Breakdown
Released in 2000, (a remake of the 1974 film – which I will have to find and review) this has a distinct ‘early aughties’ vibe to it, that mirrors the look and feel of many of Michael Bay’s action romps (or any of the Nic Cage trilogy) in the mid to late 1990s.
The fact that it has Trevor Rabin as the composer – he composed one of Cage’s trio of action films Con Air, makes you comfortable and nostalgic.
With a whose who of “that” guys in supporting roles, most of them get their own shtick (McBride is a driving instructor, Jones is a mute mortician etc). The inclusion of the late great Robert Duvall who we just lost is solid. But there needed to be more from powerhouse female performers Grace Zabriskie and Frances Fisher who only get ‘tertiary’ characters… if that.
One nitpick I had was Angelina Jolie’s age. She was only 25 when she made this, but Sway is supposed to have a historic relationship with Memphis. She just seemed too young.
The main premise – where Memphis Raines’ (cool name by the way) little brother Kip (terrible name by the way) botches a 50-car boost for British crime boss Raymond Cilitri.
Calitri is dubbed by some of the other charaters as ‘very scary’ – but despite a solid performance by Eccleston… isn’t that scary. He also has little screen time, so his overall presence is too low to be a real threat. What would have made him a better villain is to have killed one of Raines’ people. Maybe the aging Otto just to add a bit of drama… or anyone. It just felt a little safe, even after one minimal character does get shot… and walks it off. I was also expecting one of Raines people to double cross him to Calitri – but the screenwriters were obviously not trying to add every cliché to the book… good idea too.
I did enjoy the third act punch up between Raines and Cilitri (as Raines saves cop Castlebeck), but how cool would it have been if Raines’ past was just a little darker and Calitri realised he picked on the wrong family? With Cage being Cage, he could have pulled this off.
Speaking on Castlebeck and his partner, I found their over zealousness almost on the absurd… and even the screenplay acknowledges this when a homicide cop after the same bad guy makes fun of their department (they’re auto theft cops…)
There is some great car chase choreography, even if some of the events put to screen are a tad unbelievable (such as how many cars are on the road at midnight, and this has the most unrealistic jump sequence since Speeds bus jump!)
There is a fun screenplay, with good banter between most of the characters (and even some puns that even the characters say in good fun – such as Calitri’s “it never Raines it pours” playing on the good guys last name. the mute Sphinx even gets a prolific bit of dialogue at the end which surprises everyone – as they thought he was from Long Beach…
Amazingly there has been as much time as the original and this film to this film and now… man I’m getting old…
Overall
Slightly by the numbers ‘early 00s’ action movie, that is a little forgettable.
A stacked cast, with some great powerhouse performers, but not powerhouse performances…
A little more in the narrative structure, could have made this a better ride (pun intended).
Still solid enough to score a solid B+
3.5/5
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