Blog Entry #5

Blog Entry #5
Gone in Sixty Seconds
“Gone in Sixty Seconds” is directed by Dominic Sena and produced by action thriller producer Jerry Bruckheimer. “Gone in Sixty Seconds” is a movie that originated from a 1974 movie called “Gone”. “Gone in Sixty Seconds” stars Nicolas Cage (Memphis Raines), Giovanni Ribisi (Kip Raines), Angelina Jolie (Sara Wayland), TJ Cross (Mirror Man), William Lee Scott (Toby), Scott Caan (Tumbler), James Duval (Freb), Will Patton (Atley Jackson), Delroy Lindo (Detective Roland Castlebeck), Robert Duvall (Otto Halliwell), Christopher Eccleston (Raymond Calitri), Chi McBride (Donny Astricky), Timothy Olyphant (Detective Drycoff), Grace Zabriskie (Helen Raines) and Master P (Johnny B.).
“Gone in Sixty Seconds” for the most part is shot in Long Beach, California and Memphis Raines comes out of retirement from stealing cars to save his brother Kip Raines from the ruthless Raymond Calitri. Kip pulls a job for Calitri and botches the job and Memphis Raines friend Atley Jackson, who now works for Calitri, finds Memphis and tells him Kip will be killed if the job isn’t finished. Meanwhile, Detective Castlebeck notices that Memphis is back in town and waits for Memphis to slip so he can put him in jail for good.
The job is to boost fifty cars so Calitri can sell them to a South American buyer. Memphis and his crew would get $200,000 dollars for delivery of the boosted cars. The crew scouts locations and make deals with car dealerships for car keys. While Memphis and his crew scout cars, Detective Castlebeck and his men scout Memphis’s crew. The first forty-eight cars get boosted without problems. Kip, Tumbler and Toby steal the forty-ninth car from an upscale neighborhood and get caught. Neighborhood security shoots at the car and Toby gets shot.
However, the fiftieth car is (Eleanor) a 1967 Shelby Mustang that Memphis has a long relationship with. In the past Memphis has attempted to boost the Mustang several times, but the car gave him problems every time. Detective Castlebeck knows that Memphis will steal this car. Kip has his own problem so Atley wants to get him out of town. Atley tells Calitri that Kip evated him. Time is running out for Memphis’s crew. Memphis boosts the Mustang and the chase is on with law enforcement and Memphis gets stuck in traffic on a bridge then he sees an opportunity when he jumps the car off of a flat bed of a tow truck. Memphis gets the car back to Calitri but he is twelve minutes late and the Mustang gets destroyed. Calitri says the deal is done between Kip and Calitri. The problem is now with Memphis and Calitri.
When Calitri’s men are ready to shoot Memhis, his brother Kip saves the day and life of big brother Memphis by hitting Calitris’s men with a car lift at the scrap metal yard. Memphis goes after Calitri and tells him that he made a mistake by not killing Memphis. Calitri pulls out a gun and Memphis has to find a way of not getting shot. Detective Castlebeck hears gun shots, but knows Memphis came back to town to save little brother Kip from Calitri, and pursues the sound where the shot came from. Calitri shoots at Castlebeck and the detective drops his gun and Calitri has him at gun point. Memphis sees whats going on and jumps at the chance to knock Calitri over the rail to his death. He falls into the casket that was made for one of the Raines brothers. Castlebeck lets Memphis go because he understands he was there to save Kips life.
At the end of the movie the crew gets together for a barbeque and they thank Memphis for helping out and Kip presents keys to Memphis. Kip bought Memphis a 1967 Shelby Mustang (Eleanor) that was stripped down to be refurbashed. This movie is packed with a lot of action and thrills in my opinion. If I had to compare this movie to another it would be “Gone” or “Grand Theft Auto”. This movie is a must see.

Rear Window Blog #4

Rear Window was a brilliant film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film was great for its time and is also enjoyed today. L.B. Jefferies played by (James Stewart) is a photographer with a broken leg sitting in a wheelchair board people watching out of his apartment rear window. Jefferies can’t go anywhere so his nurse Stella takes care of him during the day. Also, his fiancée Lisa Freemont played by (Grace Kelly) and his friend, detective Thomas Doyle visit Jefferies often. Out of all the windows in the courtyard Jefferies notices the window of Mr. Thorwald. Jefferies sees Thorwald and Mrs. Thorwald arguing a lot. Mrs. Thorwald has a condition and stays in bed all of the time.
Then one evening Jefferies sees Thornwald leave his apartment at 2:30 in the morning with his large salesman briefcase then comes back and leaves again. This grew Jefferies suspicions about the disappearance of Mrs. Thornwald. Jefferies told Lisa Freemont about Thornwald but she and nurse Stella did not believe him until they watched for themselves out of the rear window. All three set out to investigate what was going on and Lisa ventured to Thorwalds apartment and she found herself caught red handed by Thorwald. Lisa signals to Jefferies that she found the wedding ring of Mrs. Thornwald. Thornwald saw the hand signal and looked directly into Jefferies window. Thornwald walks over to Jefferies room opens the door and starts to attack Jefferies not before blinding Thornwald with the flash from his camera, which really makes this movie a Hitchcock by the way. Thornwald tries to throw Jefferies out the rear window, but the Doyle and his police force save the day and get a confession from Thornwald and the case is solved.
This movie is a must see in my opinion because this movie has suspense and a touch of romance and a villain that thinks he can get away with murder. I think this movie will be enjoyed in the future as it was in the past. Rear Window is classic.

Starsky & Hutch(2004) Blog #3

Starsky & Hutch (2004) Review
I just recently viewed the 2004 movie Starsky & Hutch. The movie stars Ben Stiller who plays strict and follow the rules cop David Starsky and Owen Wilson who plays the brash and smooth Ken Hutchinson. Their boss is the 1970’s star Fred Williamson whom plays Captain Doby. Also, in the movie is funny man Vince Vaughn who plays the villain Reese Feldman and his “baby on the side” Kitty play by Juliette Lewis. Rap singer Snoop Doggy Dog plays informant Huggy Bear. I also want to say that I consider the 1974 Gran Torino a character because it makes the character of David Starsky.

Starsky is probably one of those detectives who don't deserve the by-the-book speeches from their commanders, in this case Captain Doby. Starsky is paired with another loner -- cool, shaggy Hutch -- who's a step away from being bounced from the force for dancing around sticky procedural guidelines involving payoffs and consorting with criminals. I don’t know about about everyone else, but I like these two actors (Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson) together in movies, they have a great chemistry that flows well together. Other movies they have played together in are Shanghi Knights, Meet the Parents and The Royal Tenanbombs.


The movie takes place in Bay City, California. This movie is based off of the 1970’s T.V. show of the same name and also drives a 1974 Gran Torino. Starsky & Hutch is a comedy that has some sappy moments in it, but has a crafty can-you-dig-it flare to it. The movie is about two bell bottom, fly away collar under cover policeman looking to bust two bit drug dealer Reese Feldman and his band of accomplices only to out that Starsky & Hutch’s assumptions are wrong when they find nothing a couple of times and get thrown off of the investigation. The cops finally get their man at a fake charity car giveaway and Starsky & Hutch find the drugs stashed in the trunk of a Volkswagon.

The chase begins and Starsky & Hutch pursues the villain and his “baby on the side” to a boat and the heroes try to jump the car onto the boat, they miss and the car sinks. Feldman and Kitty thought they got away but Huggy Bear was there to save the day and also not to mention a case with five million dollars stashed in it.

I think this movie is pretty funny because of the 1970’s drug thing and the costumes set the mood of the era, but I already stated that I like Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson together and throw in Vince Vaughn and it is a pretty comical situation.