Sadly Over-hyped

Admirable film.

Blistering performances.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Irascible LAPD captain Gibbs (a amiable and dynamic portrayal by country singer Hoyt Axton) goes after master thief Maindrian Pace (writer/director H.B. Halicki) after Pace steals a car belonging to his obnoxious son-in-law Carl (a lively and amusing performance by Dan Grimaldi). Moreover, a South African drug lord pays Price and his crew to boost 48 cars for him. Halicki keeps the flimsy, but still enjoyable story zipping along at a constant brisk pace, maintains an engaging lighthearted tone throughout, and stages the copious rousing car chases and fender-bending vehicular carnage with rip-roaring aplomb. The last thirty minute extended car chase in particular is simply spectacular, with more than enough burnt rubber and mangled metal on hand to satisfy aficionados of this sort of stuff. Sure, the bulk of this flick is recycled footage from "Gone in 60 Seconds," but it's still a total blast just the same.

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. 2/10Rated PG for metal crunching mayhem

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.

Or so touts the original trailer for the film. In director H.B. Halicki's previous movie, "The Junkman", Christopher Stone says he was "not excited" by the first three minutes of "Gone in 60 Seconds", and is thus doing reshoots. Here we have the result. "Gone in 60 Seconds" has been ripped apart, a lot of old stuff thrown away and new scenes inserted, including an entire new opening, parts of which can be seen in "The Junkman".The new opening and additional scenes are actually really good. However, they pretty-much have nothing to do with the rest of the film. Well, they do, but not in a way that if you got rid of them and just kept the old "Gone in 60 Seconds", it would make a difference. Hoyt Axton steals the show, but unfortunately disappears towards the end. His daughter's fiancé's car is stolen at the start, and we get numerous "hell-bent" speeches on how he is determined to catch master thief Maindrian Pace, but come the big pursuit at the end, he is nowhere to be found, apart from a couple of quick scenes in a helicopter, and when he saves the day for the hapless car wash manager who is wrongly accused.I guess the only thing to really discuss are the new scenes. For those who have seen the original "Gone in 60 Seconds", everything is still there, apart from a lot of shaved footage. The new Queen Mary chase at the start is very entertaining, but unfortunately the detectives in the pursuit are portrayed as goofy and stupid, much to the cliché. In "Gone in 60 Seconds" and "The Junkman", the police certainly crashed during chases, but the crashes were believable and real. In "Deadline Auto Theft", they seem to crash just for the sake of action, and most of the crashes are stupid and corny. Three cars in a row flying over an embankment and into boats to avoid a stationary Kombi? Not to mention the ridiculous "shortcut" taken by two cops in the LA riverbed, where they end up stalled over the drainage channel and have another unmarked car hit them and overturn. It was wonderful to see Sgt. Hawkins from "Gone in 60 Seconds" back and involved in the new scenes. However, where he was a hard-ass cop in that film, his new scenes here portray him as just as goofy and stupid as the rest. I was unhappy to see him uncredited yet again, and would love to know who played him. A great actor!"Deadline Auto Theft" is certainly worth a look. Hell, I really enjoyed it. There is one glaring problem, though, and that is that the new scenes were filmed in 1982, while "Gone in 60 Seconds" came out in 1974. So fashions and vehicles are completely different, and one would wonder why the hell Maindrian and pals dress like fools and the Long Beach PD drive 1968 Plymouth Belvederes, when at the start everything is post 1976. Try to ignore that and you'll be fine!