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    Ok, I'm a girl and you can imagine that the cars in the previews and flaunting Angelina Jolie like some sex kitten weren't going to be a real lure for me to go and see this movie.  However, it's not bad.  It ranks right up there with the good Jerry Bruckheimer movies like The Rock.  It is suspenseful, keeps you on your toes and doesn't go into great detail with the background story.   Normally this is something I would bash, but it's an action flick.  Depth into the history of the characters isn't really needed.  The short little glimpses that we get in the movie are sufficient.

    Nicholas Cage plays Memphis, an ex car thief, who got out of the business in order not to corrupt his younger brother played by Giovanni Ribisi.  He leaves town in order to further lessen his influence on his brother.  While away, he cleans up his act and learns that stealing cars is bad.  NAW, REALLY?  Anyway, Giovanni inevitably STILL follows in his older brother's footsteps and becomes a car thief.  He decides to pick up a job where he and his crew have to steal 50 cars on a specific list by a certain date.  He fails the mission and the cars are impounded by police.  In order to save his brother's life from the hand's of the man who demanded the cars, Nicholas Cage has 3 days to get the 50 cars.  Which is when the movie really starts.

    Like I already mentioned, cars didn't really appeal to me when I saw the trailer.  But DAMN!  There were some nice ass cars in here!  Of course they're all shiny and clean and in mint condition, so we're spoiled.  But still, DAMN!  They are definately the key part to the film.  They are the star of the show, not Nicholas Cage.  It just goes to show that an inanimate object can show up Nicholas Cage's acting.  Actually, he wasn't terrible.  But he wasn't good, don't get me wrong.

    And guys, don't be fooled by the previews.  Angelina Jolie is not in the movie as much as you are lead to believe.  She is actually a pretty tiny role considering the fact that she's on the cover of the movie.  But I guess that happens a lot.  The people who make the previews have to convince the male portion of the audience that the possibility of sex with a hot girl is very likely.  Not gonna' happen though.  So don't get your hopes up.  You get one little cheesey make-out scene.

    Ok, so acting in general.  Giovanni Ribisi was as annoying as ever.  He still sounds like he's just downed half a bottle of Jack Daniel's.   It's hard to take someone seriously when they act like that.  I think he is perfect for the role of Pheobe's brother on "Friends".  Angelina Jolie was captivating, but as I mentioned before, she's not around much.  Delroy Lindo seems destined to always play the same kind of character.  I.E. Ransom, A Life Less Ordinary and even this, where he plays a cop-like role in all. What I did like were the new faces that have such a future such as Scott Caan, James Caan's son and Timothy Olyphant from "Go".  Both have small roles but are easy to remember.

    Yeah, as in any Jerry Bruckheimer film there are some definate cheesey parts but nothing really more than is to be expected.  There are also a lot of side stories that get brought in and thrown away.  Such as the car with the drugs in it and the other team of car thieves.  Eh, but they're easily forgotten in such an intense movie. 

    Yeah, the bad guy is not to intimidating but that's ok.  As the audience, we don't really have to worry about him to make the conflict believable.  What is important isn't why Nicholas Cage has to steal the cars but can he actually do it.  Not bad, entertaining.  You should enjoy it if you know what to expect when going into it.