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by Blender Dumbass
Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".
From 1 years ago.
Information or opinions might not be up to date.
7 Minute Read
What is it with Jerry Bruckheimer of the late 90s and early 2000s and with Nicolas Cage? First in 96 we get Michael Bay's The Rock. A year later in 97 Jerry puts Cage in Simon West's Con Air. And then in 2000 Dominic Sena under the supervision of Bruckheimer puts Nicolas out of his Cage and into a driver's seat of 1967 Ford Shelby GT500, in the subject of this review, the loose remake of H. B. Halicki 1974 film Gone in 60 Seconds.
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26% Rotten Tomatoes rating doesn't seem like a good indicator. The film must have been stupidly terrible. Right? Well if you read my other reviews you sometimes may see that ratings are not necessarily the best predictor of enjoyment. A lot of the "best movies" are dull as fuck. And a lot of the "worst" ones are entertaining as hell. And Gone in 60 Seconds is not an exception. Yes it is a bit rough. But so is Con Air and so is The Rock and so are most Jerry Bruckheimer produced films. But Jerry Bruckheimer is Jerry Bruckheimer and Jerry Bruckheimer has a very fucking good sense for entertainment value.
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Like in Con Air this film has an ensemble cast. We obviously get Nick Cage showing us the unbearable weight of his massive talent. We get Robert Duvall who helped Cage's uncle Francis Ford Coppola win some Oscars on The Godfather films. We get Angelina Jolie who you may know from other Angelina Jolie movies. We get Giovanni Ribisi who worked with Steven Spielberg on Saving Private Ryan and will work with James Cameron on Avatar. We get Will Patton who had the most emotional arc in another Bruckheimer movie, Michael Bay's Armageddon.
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We get an evil British character in the form of Christopher Eccleston who played an evil British character in a Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later. We get a nice British character ( that sometimes can be a little intimidating ) in a form of Vinnie Jones who you may know from early Guy Ritchie films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Which is by the way an interesting Bruckheimer moment here. I discussed on my review of Bad Boys how Michael Bay apparently got inspired by Tarantino to change the dialogue in the movie. And that prompted Bruckheimer to actually hire Tarantino for dialogue touch-ups for Tony Scott's Crimson Tide and Bay's The Rock ( giving us a film where Michael Bay directs Tarantino dialogue spoken by Nicolas fucking Cage ). But then Tarantino apparently had enough of this job and quit working on other people's movies. So poor Jerry has a problem now.
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In that same time, on the other side of the globe, young Guy Ritchie was imitating not just the dialogue of Tarantino, but his entire writing style altogether with his first few films. Which coincidentally are also starring... you guessed it, Vinnie Jones, who gets then hired by Bruckheimer, probably chasing some remains of the Tarantino sauce. Even if it's Pepsi.
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But the cast doesn't stop there. We get Scott Caan who appears throughout the Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven franchise. We get Timothy Olyphant who actually ended up working with Tarantino on Once Upon The Time In Hollywood. We get Chi McBride who worked with the legendary Alex Proyas alongside Bad Boy's Will Smith on I, Robot. We get Frances Fisher who worked with Cameron on Titanic and we even get Arye Gross who played the husband character Howard Marks in 2002 Steven Spielberg epic ( which ended up being the cause for Michael Bay to quit Bruckheimer and join Spielberg ) called Minority Report.
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The plot of the movie is simple: our protagonist needs to GTA 50 rare cars in one night, for a mafia boss, unless he wants his brother to die. It feels a little bit like Ocean's Eleven heist, but not because of some big game money ambitions. The reason is personal, in an attempt to paint the characters as morally right. Maybe that was what the critics thought was kind of weak. The entire cast of thieves are either inexperienced teenagers who didn't start doing anything illegal yet. Therefor they are innocent. Or old car thieves who decided long time ago that this sort of thing isn't for them. And now are forced to do it, to save a live of somebody near and dear to them. Perhaps the movie could work emotionally a lot better if the protagonists just wanted to steal those cars, because they just wanted to steal those cars.
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The director Dominic Sena is actually quite good. The opening sequence moves with pretty compositions. And the action in this film is a bit less rough than the stuff Bay and West were putting out in those days. I do think, though, there is one major flaw to Dominic Sena. He tries to take the characters seriously and then goes for a Bruckheimer action scene with them, with a cool techno track playing as the characters chase each other or something. This doesn't quite work. Bay uses a more traditional score which works a lot better. At least at that time. If you look at something like 6 Underground ( a fairly recent Michael Bay film with a very mature action direction from Bay ), you can hear him use a mixture of no-music, a score or a known pop-song, for the most interesting moments. Dominic Sena in Gone in 60 Seconds just uses a bad techno-beat bullshit which is just cringe to listen to.
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There are good music action scenes in the film. The ending with the Ford Mustang is scored properly. And the main moment of that sequence ( the jump ) has some proper tension building score which explodes into a crescendo of orchestral magic. Good stuff. But sometimes you just roll your eyes from the tonal whiplash the music gives you in this movie.
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The movie is far from being a bad film. It doesn't have this bad movie vibe, that something like Ultraviolet, or The Room might have. It looks and feels like a proper summer blockbuster ( from that time ). And yet there is this feeling of slight weirdness to it. I cannot put it into words. Some shots and sometimes entire sequences feel a bit strange. I have this gut feeling that something about it doesn't quite work. But I can't see what exactly.
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Perhaps it is the lack of tension building, for most of the action scenes. We just go-go-go, but why be excited about it? Good film-makers will always build toward something like this, even a little bit. Here oftentimes we have nothing at all. The action just starts out of nowhere. It doesn't mean that the movie isn't ever building to anything. It surely does. But not as well as other Bruckheimer films. Not as well as Simon West did in Con Air. And surely not as well as Michael Bay does.
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Happy Hacking!!!
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Gone in 60 Seconds ( 2000 ) is better than it's rating suggests
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2a/Gone_in_sixty_seconds.jpg/250px-Gone_in_sixty_seconds.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
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What is it with Jerry Bruckheimer of the late 90s and early 2000s and with Nicolas Cage? First in 96 we get Michael Bay's The Rock. A year later in 97 Jerry puts Cage in Simon West's Con Air. And then in 2000 Dominic Sena under the supervision of Bruckheimer puts Nicolas out of his Cage and into a driver's seat of 1967 Ford Shelby GT500, in the subject of this review, the loose remake of H. B. Halicki 1974 film Gone in 60 Seconds.
#goneinsixtyseconds #nicolascage #angelinajolie #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Godzilla (1954) is a choir of destruction and loss
![[thumbnail]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/HHIY42R9INXOV48T.jpg)
Troler
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What can be said about Godzilla? It is an icon to name icons. Looking at IMDb, it is unfortunate, although expected, to find 2014 release of Godzilla has 10 times as much ratings as the original 1954 version. Even though some scenes do look pretty goofy, a lot of love was undoubtedly put into it. That love is not always felt when viewing with modern sensibilities. I attempt to remedy the poignant feeling by calculated and logical reasoning and arguments... or more so my own acuity of the work.
#Godzilla #Gojira #IshiroHonda #EmikoYamane #SachioSakai #film #movies #review #cinemastodon
Death Wish 2018 has a low rating due to politics
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/59/Death_wish_2017_poster.jpg/250px-Death_wish_2017_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
π 15 π¬ 1
17% Rotten Tomatoes score. The movie got to be shit, right? Well when it comes to the Eli Roth's 2018 Death Wish ( the remake of the 1974 film with the same name ) you are not quite correct. In my estimate the film should be no less than 60%, based on its execution. Eli Roth is a good enough director to pull something like this off. And you can see that he is trying. The actors are also good. And the music by Ludwig GΓΆransson is really fucking good. I mean this is the same guy who did the music for Tenet and Oppenheimer. He is really fucking good. Watching the movie, I saw that the movie is arguably a lot more watchable and a lot more satisfying than the 1974 original. What is different, is that the 1974 original was made in 1974. And since then the politics have changed.
#DeathWish #guns #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Domino 2005 is Tony-Scott-hem!
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/10/Dominoposter.jpg/250px-Dominoposter.jpg)
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Tony Scott appeared to be trying to outgrow Michael Bay in the 2000s. In 2001 he does Spy Game which is a kind of slightly bayhem-ish movie. Where Tony Scott is no longer trying to make pretty pictures, but is trying to go for ultimate intensity. His Enemy of the State before that, is still more of a classic Tony Scott. While making Spy Game his brother Ridley Scott was making Black Hawk Down while Michael Bay was making Pearl Harbor. While Pearl Harbor has the Bay's explosions and stuff, the colors of the film still look relatively normal. Only his next film ( 2003 Bay Boys II ) go crazy with colors. Spy Game, while being more energetic in directing and editing department, than even Enemy of the State still looks like a normal movie, albeit it is a little desaturated. But Black Hawk Down ( probably in attempt of messing with Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan ) is super moody, with extreme contrast and intense colors. A thing that Michael Bay tries to replicate right away for Bad Boys II and then Tony Scott also replicated for Man on Fire in 2004. And then on Domino in 2005, Tony Scott goes even harder with the style. While Bay is doing roughly the same thing in his own way in The Island.
#Domino #TonyScott #MichaelBay #movies #film #review #cinemastodon
Machete Kills 2013 is trying to beat Spaceballs
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/04/Machete_Kills.jpg/250px-Machete_Kills.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
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As I observed 2 hours ago in my review of Machete, the first film is about US politics of 2025. The second movie Machete Kills is something else entirely. If the first film is a semi-parody of exploitation films. This one is a full on spoof comedy, parodying not just exploitation films, but other things too. By the end of the film, the bullshit is so absurd, that you cannot stop laughing. And then Elon Musk appears out of nowhere to send Machete into space.
#MacheteKills #RobertRodriguez #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
After The Hunt 2025 is an exploitation film about the #MeToo
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7e/After_the_Hunt_poster.jpg/250px-After_the_Hunt_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
π 26 β€ 1 π 1 π¬ 2
In my article about Corruption of the audience I observed the talent of Luca Guadagnino in this regard. I was mostly talking about his film Bones and All where he managed to humanize cannibalism. But I think with his 2025 picture After the Hunt he is finally attempting the hardest challenge yet.
#afterthehunt #lucaGuadagnino #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Summer of '42 ( 1971 ) is about Empathy
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/18/Summer_of_%2742_POSTER.jpg/250px-Summer_of_%2742_POSTER.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
π 25 β€ 2 π 1 π¬ 8
First time I heard of the movie Summer of '42 when reading Tarantino's review of American Graffiti. In his review a large chunk is dedicated to this picture, because he is trying to illustrate the aesthetic similarities between the two pictures and the broader genre shifts of the 60s and 70s cinema landscape, that gave way to something like American Graffiti. Shortly after that, there was the review by Troler. And then finally, which made me grab my lazy ass and put it into the chair to watch this film, was a conversation I had with @Troler , where he so kindly spoiled the ending of this movie for me, while breaking down the cinematic techniques used in the film.
#summerof42 #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Eden 2024 is very interesting in context
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ab/Eden_%282024_film%29.jpg/250px-Eden_%282024_film%29.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
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In the summer of 2025 Sydney Sweeney made a controversial, seemingly Nazi-propaganda advertisement for a Jeans brand that claims that she "has great Jeans" ( which is a pun for "genes" ). Being a blue-eyed sexy blond woman, made the "genes" pun quickly interpreted as a endorsement of eugenics. And a lot of people on the conservative side equated her "huge tits" to the "death of wokeness". While people on the left decided to attribute her success with her sex appeal, almost accusing Sweeney with sleeping with executives, to become famous. And yet despite all this, Ron Howard's 2024 thriller Eden ( which is starring Sweeney ) has Ana de Armas at a role of this super-hot lady that sleeps with men to get what she wants.
#eden #ronhoward #anadearmas #SydneySweeney #JudeLaw #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Backdraft 1991 is a HOT film
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a1/Backdraft_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
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Ron Howard is a hell of a director. He knows how to get the image that he wants. And he knows how to do it so that it will hold up practically forever. His 1991 fire-fighters movie Backdraft is not an exception. The fire sequences are so real and so visceral in this film, despite being done 3 decades ago, that perhaps this film is even better when it comes to planning shots that hold up than his Apollo 13 movie ( where he used real weightlessness to shoot the space scenes ).
#backdraft #firemen #firefighters #fire #movies #cinema #ronhoward #film #review #cinemastodon
Blue Steel 1990 is the seed that grew into the reason Avatar didn't win best picture
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/37/Blue_Steel_%281990_film%29.jpg/250px-Blue_Steel_%281990_film%29.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
π 12 β€ 3 π 1 π¬ 3
So it's 1990 and Kathryn Bigelow writes and directs an action thriller about a police officer. The police officer is female and the movie almost refuses to sexualize her. Bigelow casts a nice half-Jewish girl Jamie Lee Curtis. And pretty much the whole movie, not a single shot of her emphasizes or admires her body ( apart from one sex scene where we see a very erotic closeup of her stomach ). Making that movie technically feminist. Few years later, in 1994, as James Cameron ( who was married to Bigelow between 1989 and 1991 ) is trying to find the actor to play the wife in his film True Lies. He is reminded of Blue Steel by Bigelow. And decides to cast Jamie Lee Curtis in his film. Giving us that very strange, almost pornographic scene where she does a very erotic strip-tease scene with Arnold Schwarzenegger. More than a decade later, in 2009, both Bigelow and Cameron make a movie. And both of those movies are nominated for the best picture. Yet Bigelow takes home the price. Did Cameron lose due to his pussy curse?
#bluesteel #KathrynBigelow #JamieLeeCurtis #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #michaelbay
Mickey 17 Is Painfully Obvious with the References
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2d/Mickey_17_film_poster.png)
Blender Dumbass
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In my opinion the gimmick on which the film was sold is not the main point. It's not even why the film was made in the first place.
#mickey17 #bongJoonHo #RobertPattinson #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood 2019 is Tarantino respecting the audience
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a6/Once_Upon_a_Time_in_Hollywood_poster.png/250px-Once_Upon_a_Time_in_Hollywood_poster.png)
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People often complain about dumb movies with too much unnecessary spoon-feeding. We get so much explaining and over-explaining that the brain hurts sometimes. You already know what is going on. You are following the story. You don't need no god damned reminder of what you are watching. And yet the studio heads still think that you are too dumb to understand what's going on in front of you on the screen. Respecting the audience on the other hand is a leap of faith on a part of a film-maker and only the greatest do that well. Quentin Tarantino with his 2019 film Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood takes the hardest such leap of his career.
#OnceUponaTimeinHollywood #QuentinTarantino #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Max Fleischer's Superman flew to the Sun and didn't fall
![[thumbnail]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/HZP91B02YOJ1O5W3.jpg)
Troler
π 27 β€ 1 π¬ 1
Oh Superman, who hasn't heard the story of the classic American superhero? Even in this coming-to-close year Superman still stories are being told. Knowing that 2038 the superhero is going to be a century old, it would be good to reflect on history, where it really started. It was born in the head of then 24 Jerry Siegel, child to American immigrant Lithuanian Jews, who fled oppression. Growing up in a Jewish neighborhood, made up of immigrants who fled oppression, meant he heard a lot of stories about their suffering. The competitive character common amongst Judaic culture, is not always well regarded. In a negative environment, they had to adapt and blend in the crowd. This sort of environment together with his love for Science Fiction meant the young Siegel had a particular worldview, a Jewish one. To what extent it was present can be seen in his first major breakthrough β Superman.
#Superman #MaxFleisher #Fleisher #1941 #ClarkKent #film #JerrySiegel #MyronWaldman #BudCollyer #review #movies #cinemastodon
Footnote 2011 is a suprisingly good Israeli film
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/he/thumb/5/58/Footnote.jpg/250px-Footnote.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
π 15 β€ 1 π¬ 99
Footnote originally ΧΧ’Χ¨Χͺ Χ©ΧΧΧΧΧ is an Israeli film written and directed by Joseph Cedar. The film is about a very strange dramatic bureaucratic situation, where two professors, a father and a son, are in the same field, and one of them gets a honorary award for his achievements. But the bureaucrats made a mistake and told about the award to the wrong one of them.
#footnote #ΧΧ’Χ¨ΧͺΧ©ΧΧΧΧΧ #JosephCedar #LiorAshkenazi #Israel #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #jews
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