Deadline Auto Theft

This film is nothing more than a re-cut version of Halicki's 1974 classic Gone in 60 Seconds, but the end result is actually pretty good, if not sadly misleading. Those who are expecting this to be a new film will be disappointed. The film, at least, offers a lengthy opening car chase scene, which I suspect that some of it was actually cut from Halicki's previous movie The Junkman, with pretty good crashes. The film also offers new footage featuring Hoyt Axton as the blustery Captain Gibbs, who promises to nail Halicki to put an end to the car thefts in the city, and Dan Grimaldi as Gibb's whiny future son-in-law whose priceless Bricklin is stolen in the film's opening scene. Axton and Grimaldi add a lot of comedy to the new scenes, particularly where Axton reprimands and berates a bumbling group of detectives at the impound yard.

Though it doesn't necessarily count as a new film, you might get some joy out of this one.

One scene in the film shows an auto dealer billboard at his Buick Dealership saying "'73 model clearance, save $$$" I would say the person that commented it was a 1974 film that had scenes added would be correct. If you look at the cars in the film none are newer than 1974. Don't know how they came up with a 1983 release date unless it was released that year and was 10 years later than it was made. A great chase movie with real mayors and city folks in the movie. Don't think you could film that chase scene today with insurance and all. I used to live down in Torrance, CA and recognized the area and streets they used during the filming.

What a rip-off! Deadline Auto Theft is actually the original Gone in 60 Seconds with some very minor editing. It is well established that Gone in 60 Seconds 2 is unfinished and this shows the stunt sequences that would have been in that film. That amounts to about 33 minutes of car chases with no storyline to speak of. If you've seen the original Gone in 60 Seconds, acquiring this film will be an extraordinary waste of time unless for some reason you insist on seeing the complete Halicki body of work, in which case, the special features are quite nice. Everyone else should rent this, or the original Gone in 60 Seconds, not both.

This is basically the cult classic 'Gone in 60 Seconds' with some added plot and few a few extra heaps of twisted metal.

H.B. Halicki wanted to improve upon his initial successful film, so in conjunction while shooting the sequel 'The Junkman' he squeezed in some time to shoot the few extra scenes seen here. The result is pretty worthless. Like many camp classics, it is not plot or aesthetic quality that makes them good. It is the tongue-in-cheek nature that makes them fun romps. Can you imagine 'The Evil Dead' being "improved" upon? Sounds stupid to even consider, though Sam Raimi is trying to get a remake off the ground. However, he is pretty much starting from scratch with that, while here you have the same film with scenes added years later. The differences between these scenes are so apparent that it becomes ridiculous. Styles of clothes and even the condition of the old and new shots is so inconsistent that you'll be thinking an ape edited the film.

What is even more disappointing that the "additions" don't add anything. They merely stretch out a film which goes against the whole point of good editing where you trim for good pacing. Also, the new chase scene in the beginning is highly mediocre and the climatic chase from the original is here untouched so by the time you get past the middle of the film you've seen it all before. The funny thing is H.B. Halicki's widow introduces the film as if it were a totally new movie on the DVD introduction.

So only watch this if you want to see the famous 40 minute chase scene and cannot get the original in your hands. Or if you want to see an overblown array of car crashing that is the only thing that H.B Halicki managed to shoot for yet another chase film , but was killed in a stunt accident. That comes as a special feature on the DVD. But it is really nothing special and gets well beyond the line of ridiculousness with its slow motion, ever mounting metallic carnage. That essentially amounts to this film being waste of time. 2/10

Rated PG for metal crunching mayhem

This one is like a movie within the original. Only with new scenes. Remember the Godzilla movie with Raymond Burr added within. "Deadline Auto Theft" is not a real sequel to "Gone in 60 seconds". There are some scenes that are not in the original film. With Hoyt Axton as police captain, in scenes he was not originally in from the 1974 film. It's like watching the original movie all over again. Still high octane. And the credits with the additional other stars in the film. Although the added scenes, it is still a good movie to watch. And no one should bad mouth about it. It's just the same movie, different title.

4 out of 5 stars.