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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)

Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)

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Released 7-Feb-2001
Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Action	Featurette-Conversations with Jerry Bruckheimer Featurette-Action Overload Featurette-The Big Chase-LA Streets Featurette-The Big Chase-Naval Yard Featurette-The Big Chase-The Big Jump Featurette-0 to 60 Featurette-Wild Rides Featurette-Stars On The Move; Memphis, Kip, Young Gang Featurette-Stars On The Move; Old School, Adversaries Music Video-The Cult Theatrical Trailer Biographies-Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	113:07
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (89:10)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Dominic Sena
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Nicolas Cage Angelina Jolie Giovanni Ribisi Delroy Lindo Will Patton Christopher Eccleston Chi McBride Robert Duvall
Case	Amaray-Transparent	Starring
RPI	$36.95	Music	Trevor Rabin

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Russian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No	Miscellaneous
Subtitles	English Swedish Norwegian Danish Finnish Icelandic English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

Memphis Raines (Nicolas Cage) is a retired professional car thief, probably the best there ever was...which tells us he wasn't stealing Fords and Holdens, that's for sure! His little brother, Kip (Giovanni Ribisi), always looked up to him and has now taken up Memphis' old profession, much to their mother's disgust. Kip has a crew and is boosting exotic cars like Porsches, Ferraris and Mercedes Benz to fill a big order for a particularly nasty individual named Raymond Calitry (Christopher Eccleston). Things go wrong, and the police find the stash of cars. Atley Jackson (Will Patton) one of Memphis' old crew and friend, goes to warn Memphis about the trouble that his little brother has gotten himself into.

Memphis tries to pay Raymond back Kip's cash advance, but Raymond wants the 50 cars he was promised or someone's head will roll, namely Kip's. Memphis has no choice but to go back to his old lifestyle, reassemble his team and steal 50 cars in 3 days to save his little brother's life.

When detective Castlebeck (Delroy Lindo) sees the stolen cars in the warehouse, he immediately thinks of his old nemesis Memphis and when Memphis resurfaces a day later, Castlebeck is convinced that he is behind the thefts. Detective Castlebeck starts trailing Memphis, itching to bring him down, something which he failed to do before. Of course, this just makes Memphis' job just that bit harder.

The rest of the movie is not just about boosting cars and clichéd police car chases. In fact, there is only one of these. There is a surprising amount of character development for this genre of movie, which I found very pleasing, as it put a nice human perspective onto the whole movie.

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Transfer Quality

Video

The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

The picture is extremely clear and sharp at all times, with tons of foreground and background detail. No low-level noise, edge bleeding or edge enhancement was noticed. There is plenty of shadow detail, too.

The colours were vibrant and deeply saturated throughout, basically perfect.

The tiniest amount of grain was noticed on a couple of occasions, but for all intents and purposes this transfer is grain-free.

No MPEG artefacts were noticed. There were a couple of instances (five in fact) of aliasing or moiré artefacts, but they were trivial, with venetians being the most troublesome - all still very minor though. Examples are at 16:00, 37:18, 70:33, 72:06 - 72:12 and 83:43 - 83:47. There are several scenes that have some trivial jitter in them. I could not determine if they were induced during filming or during the telecine transfer. Examples are at 13:23, 14:15, 19:21, 22:30, 29:12, 34:44, 39:48, 75:14, 81:07, 106:17 and 107:03.

There is a light sprinkling film artefacts throughout the film, but overall they were mostly small and one-offs. More noteworthy examples are at 45:43, 94:31 and 103:15.

This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change occurring at 89:10 in Chapter 26, mid scene, during a pause in the dialogue. There isn't much happening in this scene, so it is not really disruptive to the flow of the movie, but it is very easily spotted.

*Video Ratings Summary*
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

There are two 384Kb/s Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks present on this DVD, in English and Russian. I listened to the default English soundtrack. It is a shame that the soundtracks aren't 448Kb/s, but this is a minor point.

The dialogue was extremely clear and easy to understand throughout the entire movie, even during the action sequences. No audio sync problems were noticed with this transfer.

Trevor Rabin's musical score suited the movie perfectly.

I can sum up the surround channel use in one word - superb. The surround channels were very aggressively used for ambience, music and lots of special effects. Directional effects and precise sound placement within the sound field are the norm rather than the exception, which put you right in the midst of the movie at all times and not just during the action sequences (which are just fantastic, by the way). Surround sound highlights are at 0:30-2:00, 4:21, 5:47, 6:25, 12:17, 51:18, 71:10, 73:13, 83:20, 88:18 and 93:40.

The subwoofer is continually being used to subtly add bass to most scenes, and is highly active during the dramatic sequences. Of course, the subwoofer use doesn't compare to the exemplary The Haunting, but for this type of movie its use is excellent. Highlights are at 17:28, 41:50, 61:14, 68:15 and 76:53.

*Audio Ratings Summary*
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

There are a ton of very good quality extras present. Interviews and behind-the-scenes footage are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Movie footage is presented in various non-16x9 widescreen formats. The accompanying soundtracks are 192Kb/s Dolby Digital 2.0, unless otherwise stated.

Featurette - Conversation with Jerry Bruckheimer (Producer) (7:13 minutes)

Jerry Bruckheimer talks about what a producer does and some of his experiences while producing Gone In 60 Seconds and other movies. I found this featurette very interesting. There is some behind-the-scenes footage, plus actual movie footage from Armageddon, The Rock, Con Air, Coyote Ugly, Remember The Titans, Pearl Harbor, Enemy Of The State, Crimson Tide and Gone In 60 Seconds. The picture and sound quality is great, but there is some strong grain present in some of the interview footage.

Biography/Filmography - Jerry Bruckheimer

This is an extensive biography, plus a complete filmography for Jerry Bruckheimer.

Featurette - Action Overload (1:26 minutes)

Short snippets of the action sequences from Gone In 60 Seconds, plus some behind-the-scenes footage. Presented in 1.33:1 and 2.40:1 non-16x9 enhanced aspect ratios, with a 384Kb/s Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Excellent quality, cool soundtrack.

Featurettes-The Big Chase (3 - 11:21 minutes)

There are three featurettes contained in this section. Each has movie footage and interviews with Jerry Bruckheimer (Producer), Chuck Picerni, Jr (Stunt co-ordinator) and Dominic Sena (Director). Very interesting.

    L.A. Streets - Great Quality. Some grain in interviews (4:53 minutes)
    Naval Yard - Very Good Quality. Strong aliasing in one scene (3:27 minutes)
    The Big Jump - Great Quality (3:01 minutes)

Featurette - 0 to 60 (3:54 minutes)

Very good quality. Interviews with Jerry Bruckheimer, Scott Rosenberg (screenwriter), Dominic Sena and Nicolas Cage. Some behind-the-scenes footage, interviews very grainy.

Featurette - Wild Rides (5:05 minutes)

Great quality with behind-the-scenes footage, movie footage, interviews with cast and crew (some grain). This is yet another really interesting featurette.

Featurettes - Stars On The Move (11 - 14:54 minutes)

There are eleven short featurettes in this section. The actors talk about the characters they play, plus there are interviews with the Producer, Director, Screenwriter and more behind-the-scenes snippets.

    Memphis - Nicolas Cage (1:33 minutes)
    Kip - Giovanni Ribisi (1:36 minutes)
    Tumbler - Scott Caan (0:35 minutes)
    Mirror Man - TJ Cross (0:56 minutes)
    Toby - William Lee Scott (0:56 minutes)
    Otto - Robert Duvall (1:23 minutes)
    Sway - Angelina Jolie (1:22 minutes)
    The Sphinx - Vinnie Jones (1:36 minutes)
    Donny - Chi McBride (1:00 minutes)
    Det. Castlebeck - Delroy Lindo (1:56 minutes)
    Raymond Calitri - Christopher Eccleston (2:01 minutes)

Music Video - "Painted on my Heart" by The Cult (3:34 minutes)

This music video clip is of excellent quality, presented in the non-16x9 enhanced aspect ratio of 1:85:1, with a 256Kb/s Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Theatrical Trailer (2:08 minutes)

The theatrical trailer is of excellent quality, presented in the non-16x9 enhanced aspect ratio of 1.85:1, with a 192Kb/s Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

Forced ads prior to the main menu
Higher 448Kb/s Dolby Digital 5.1 audio stream
French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks

The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

Russian Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack

Apart from the slightly higher Dolby Digital 5.1 bit-rate, the R4 DVD is basically identical, which makes this a pretty easy choice, R4.

Summary

For me, Gone In 60 Seconds was a great action flick presented on an excellent DVD.

The video quality is excellent and only misses out on being reference quality because of some occasional jitter and a light sprinkling of minor film artefacts.

The audio is of Reference Quality. What more do I need to say?

There are a ton of great quality extras present.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment
DVD	Sony DVP-725, using Component output
Display	Sony Projector VPH-G70 (No Line Doubler), Technics Da-Lite matt screen with gain of 1.0 (229cm). This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio Decoder	Built in to DVD player. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
Amplification	Onkyo TX-SV919THX
Speakers	Fronts: Energy RVS-1 (3), Rears: Energy RVSS-1 (2), Subwoofer: Energy EPS-150 (1)

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