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|   Nicolas gives chase ... (By Bob Thompson, Toronto Sun) Yes, high-speed car chases are great to watch on screen but I never want to be in one -- for lots of reasons. Anyway, they're back. Gone In 60 Seconds is a Nicolas Cage movie opening Friday. He plays a former car thief who has to steal 50 cars in one night or his kidnapped brother dies. Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, and Robert Duvall co-star. Most moviegoers figure that the real deal will be the chases. Cage reports that things like a Dodge Viper, a Lamborghini LM SUV, a Plymouth Roadrunner, an Aston Martin DB7 and a Ferrari Testarosa, among others, will be featured. For once, Cage gets outdone as the hero by the hero car, which is a 1967 Shelby Mustang GT 500. You can tell it's hot because the idling Shelby sounds like a broken down popcorn machine. Cage says the vehicle has a light chassis and short wheelbase with a 260-cubic-inch small V-8. This, apparently, makes it Bullitt worthy. Bullitt, of course, is THE car chase movie. Cage's Gone In 60 Seconds, a remake of a 1974 cheeseball chase picture, will have to measure up to Bullitt just as Cage will have to look as good as Steve McQueen did down-shifting in the 'stang. Cage likely will look wicked, since he is a bona fide car freak who can double clutch and heel-and-toe the gas pedal and brake into hairpin turns. "I got to take some driving courses on a track," says an enthusiastic Cage during interviews at the Four Seasons Hotel. He admits he almost lost control of his F-40 Ferrari a few times at the Willow Springs racetrack outside L.A. "It's pretty wild." A good car chase should be. Wilder the better. Shorter the better, usually, too. It has been a guy-movie staple since 1920s gangster pictures on the serious side and Keystone cops on the comedy side. Some gals like them, too. Smokey And The Bandit set the standard for silly. In fact, comedy car chases are everywhere. Some better ones include scenes from Foul Play, Cannonball Run, The Gumball Rally and Freebie And The Bean. Then there's Herbie Goes Bananas which stands alone in the beyond bizarre category, right alongside Christine, a man-eating '60s Cadillac convertible. Serious car chase freaks go for the cops-and-robbers, good-guys-bad-guys, near-death trackdown. With that mind, here's my list of the top 10 car cases with an option to add Gone In 60 Seconds after its release. 1. Bullitt: The drive-in special. It was the height of the muscle car era in the late '60s when Steve McQueen's cop gunned his souped-up 400 horsepower Mustang around the San Francisco hills. The harrowing chase is what all others are measured against -- as in, 'Is it as good as the one in Bullitt?' 2. The French Connection: New York detective Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) let nobody and nothing get in his way as he rammed his '71 Pontiac around the streets of New York. Gritty and real, the main chase sequence is a highlight. 3. Thunder Road: Cooler than cool, Robert Mitchum plays an inter-state bootlegger with a hardcore 1950 Ford that can't be caught or stopped. A natural outlaw, Mitchum looks as rugged as his ferocious Ford. 4. The Road Warrior: Apocalypse then, 1980 style. The supercharged, dune buggy-like power vehicles put a new spin on the chase sequence. Mel Gibson's loner did battle with metal bikers from hell in some incredibly tense vignettes set in the desert in this sequel to Mad Max, an okay car guy flick. 5. Ronin: John Frankenheimer edits the Citroen and Peugeot zags and turns with lots of mid-'90s finesse and energy, and some heart-stopping quick cuts. Best of the '90s for sure. 6. Days Of Thunder: Tom Cruise did a decent job portraying a cocky stockcar jockey in the mid-'80s. Race scenes are above average. So are the fleet-street bits, although most of the action is for competitive fun, which takes the edge off. 7. The Seven-Ups: Philip D'Antoni worked on the French Connection sequences. He directs this 1973 sort of sequel. Roy Scheider is the detective offering a variation on the theme as his Pontiac stops at nothing through the New York streets. 8. The Italian Job: The caper flick features Alfa Romeos and Mini-Coopers which bomb around the town and country of Italy providing some new twists and turns in the car chase genre. More droll than dangerous but still neatly done. 9. Vanishing Point: A guy has to make it from Denver to 'Frisco in 15 hours. The 1971 picture is just okay but the Dodge Challenger that takes him on his run is boss, man. 10. Duel: Steven Spielberg's calling card. A mysterious 18-wheeler is on a mission to ram poor Dennis Weaver's vehicle off the road. Spielberg exploited road rage before it became an issue. And I know your list is better. |
