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Customer Reviews of The Junkman

This movie has some great stunts and it is a bit more believable than the original Gone in 60 Seconds. It's a better quality production too. I would have liked this film way better if the Junkman hadn't driven the same car all the way thru the film---it wasn't even a sports car. I think it could've been way better than it was. Numerous stunts don't make a fast car film. The stunts are real and awesome, but I would've opted for less explosions and collisions, and more high speed chases. All in all, it was enjoyable and didn't have as cheesy acting as the first film. My only other complaint: The music was butchered in the film and replaced with cheesy porno-style music. I wish they could've kept the original soundtrack. But I digress, it's a nice addition to the fast car movie DVD collection.

While Metal is Crumpling, Five Stars. But They Talk, Too.
All in all, a better film than Halicki's first, the original "Gone in 60 Seconds".

No-one is ever going to accuse the late H.B.Halicki of being a great writer, director or actor. But he sure could wreck cars. And airplanes. And buildings.

The story in this film is more coherent and comprehensible than "60 Seconds", and the overall production values (sound especially) are higher.

Plotwise, it's a sort of thriller -- junkman H.B.Hollis (Halicki) has made a car-crash film called "Gone in 60 Seconds" and someone wants to kill him before the film opens. So they sic assassins in cars and airplanes on him as he drives cross-country to a James Dean tribute festival.

And we're off to the races.

Despite the violence implicit in the plot, this is, overall, a pretty light-hearted comedy serving mostly as an excuse to xrash even more cars than in the previous film in even more inventive ways. Nicely absurd touches include the row of sunglasses on Hollis's dashboard that never move no matter how violent the maneuver, and the RFD mailboxes he hits partway through the chase.

The level of seriousness with which Halicki and crew approached this film can be seen from the fact that the sign on "Hollis's" junkyard is not changed and still reads "H.B.Halicki Mercantile Emporium and Junk Yard"; the collections of classic cars and of toys contained therein, by the way, are wonderful.

The late Hoyt Axton plays himself, and has a wonderful time doing so, by all indications.

Particularly noteworthy are the stunts involving aerobatic planes, including one in which a car jumps over an airplane -- but there are some purely automotive eye-poppers, too. (Nothing to match "The Jump" from "60 Seconds" for pure "How did anyone have the guts to do THAT?" bravura, but the jump over the stage and the parking-lot escape, for instances, are pretty good.)

Given the degree of improvements Halicki exhibits in technique and story between "60 Seconds" and this film, it's particularly disappointing that Halicki was killed in a freak accident on the set of his third production, "Gone in 60 Seconds II", and we never got to see if he would have been even better on it.

(This review refers to the VHS version -- i understand that there is/was a DVD version on which themusic has largely been replaced with generic music cues due to licensing problems. That would rate half a star less.)

Clarification
To clarify the apparent confusion over this film:

The Junkman is NOT Deadline Auto Theft. Both films have been referred to as Gone in 60 Seconds II, which is the source of some confusion.

Gone in 60 Seconds (the original) is perhaps the best car chase movie ever made. Deadline Auto Theft is nothing more than Gone in 60 Seconds with some of the scenes replaced by an inferior new subplot about a Sheriff out to catch the auto thieves, but his plot goes absolutely nowhere (He is never involved in any of the chases, nor do they resove his storyline. He simply disappears). Many of the original scenes which were replaced have to do with the mechanics of autotheft and character development, thus ruining a great film.

The Junkman is nothing more than a vanity piece. In The Junkman, Halicki (the director of Gone in 60 Seconds, owner of a junkyard, and collector of toys) plays a junkyard owner who collects toys and just finished directing a film coincidentally called "Gone in 60 Seconds". Most of the film consists of him showing off his toy and car collections. What little plot there is consists of one of his investors trying to create publicity for the film by destroying a lot of cars participating in a road race by, e.g., dropping bombs on them from a plane, and by attempting to kill Halicki before he can make it to the film's premiere. Unlike Gone in 60 Seconds, the chases are totally unexciting, build no suspense, and do not showcase any skillfull driving (I mean on part of the fictional characters, not the stunt drivers).