94: Gone in 60 Seconds with LaToya Ferguson

Phil and Emily are joined by LaToya Ferguson to kick off a new miniseries on Angelina Jolie's action films of the 2000s, beginning with Gone in 60 Seconds (2000). LaToya is a TV writer, critic, and co-host of the Empire Diaries podcast. She has appeared on the show before, covering The Other Sister and Ladybugs on previous installments. She wanted to cover Mr. and Mrs. Smith. She did not get Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Gone in 60 Seconds follows retired master car thief Memphis Raines, forced back into the game to steal 50 high-end cars in one night to save his brother from a ruthless crime boss. It cost $100 million, grossed $237 million worldwide, outperforming both Remember the Titans and Coyote Ugly from the same Bruckheimer production year. Angelina Jolie had just won the Oscar. The film was sold entirely on her. She is barely in it. Nicolas Cage plays the lead, does not radiate car energy, and shares with Jolie what Emily describes as the opposite of chemistry. The movie goes dull at exactly the moment it should not, Frances Fisher has less screen time than the dog, and Christopher Eccleston delivers the villain line "it never rains, but it pours" with complete conviction.

Phil makes the case for where this sits in the Bruckheimer era and why it signals the end of something, Emily misses the era of movies that made audiences want to steal cars, and LaToya has thoughts about Nicolas Cage, Billy Bob Thornton, and what actual dirtbag energy looks like on screen. They also get into whether Gone in 60 Seconds quietly paved the way for Fast and Furious, and why Phil rides for Sorcerer's Apprentice to the dismay of everyone present.

This episode opens the miniseries on Angelina Jolie's 2000s action films, with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider up next.

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LaToya Ferguson — https://www.instagram.com/thelafergs

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