Cage didn't deserve the pissy swipe that Sean Penn took at him last year when he said that Cage was no longer an actor. Nobody who ever decided to go for the paycheck of being a big action-movie star ever did it as idiosyncratically as Cage. Watch him in "The Rock." Not a single choice he makes is predictable or ordinary. And it takes a very smart actor to overplay the upright hero the way he did in "Con Air," as if he were both a parodist and his own straight man. He's coasting on presence here and it's not really his fault. He doesn't condescend to Rosenberg's "sincere" moments, but maybe he should have.

Even in as nothing a role as the hero's ex, Jolie doesn't have enough to do. She looks great, though (stop the presses), with her blond dreadlocks and that dirty, full-lipped grin. She gets to make good use of her blissful pucker in the moment when she outwits Lindo and blows him a sarcastic kiss. And big Chi McBride acquits himself in the role of Black Comic Relief, getting off the movie's best jokes.

The only person who manages to give a performance is Ribisi. Already this year, Ribisi has been terrific as the kid trying to make it selling crooked investments in the entertaining "Boiler Room," and though he isn't seen in "The Virgin Suicides," his narration is as much an emotional presence as anything in that lovely movie. The beaten-out melancholy of his line readings is the perfect accompaniment to Sofia Coppola's tone of languid lyricism. Here, with a scraggly beard and hair that looks as if it has been combed with bacon, Ribisi manages to combine the sort of cocky resentment that lets you know his character is in over his head with the inexperience that makes you feel protective of him. He has become one of the actors to be excited about in American movies.

"Gone in 60 Seconds" is a time-waster with some enjoyably empty zip. But watching it in a swanky new theater with stadium seating and a huge screen feels out of place. It needs to be seen at a drive-in, where you can sit turning the steering wheel and going "vroom! vroom!" out of the hearing of the people around you. There you can appreciate it for what it is: a toddler seat for people old enough to know better.

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