The Junkman is set in California where stuntman, actor, director & businessman Harlan B. Hollis (H.B. Halicki) has just finished a re-shoot for his new film titled Gone in 60 Seconds which premieres in days. On his way to a James Dean festival Hollis comes under attack from a couple of bi-planes & a couple of cars driven by assassins who have orders to kill Hollis in a very public & spectacular way. Using grenades & machine guns Hollis has to use his driving skills to outrun the planes & cars, as the local police join the chase things get messy as Hollid drives for his life. The chase ends with the car Hollis was driving crashing into his ranch & blowing up, but not before he managed to jump out to safety. Now the police, local news reporters, his family & friends & the assassins think Hollis is dead so he sets out finding out the truth behind who wants him dead in secret as everyone thinks he is...
Written, produced & directed by stuntman H.B. Halicki who stars in it & did much of the stunt work The Junkman is a strange sort of follow up to his earlier car chase action thriller Gone in 60 Seconds (1974), I say sort of follow up because while Gone in 60 Seconds is referenced & mentioned many times The Junkman takes place in a world where it is just a film & Halicki plays the guy who starred & directed it which he did back in 1974. So Halicki is playing himself, in a strange sort of fictional way as the script was apparently based on his life. I'm not sure the assassination attempt was based on actual events but the guy's massive toy & car collection, his memorabilia, the fact he started out running a junkyard the ranch location used for filmed was actually owned by him & was where he lived. Now, I only watched Gone in 60 Seconds yesterday so it's still fresh in my mind & all the little references, props, cinema posters & gags didn't pass me by but it does make The Junkman feel a little bit like a self obsessed vanity project at times. Overall I didn't think much of Gone in 60 Seconds despite it's good reputation & I found The Junkman to be more of the same, sure it has a few great individual moments, some cool stunt work & a much better story but I was still left feeling empty when it had finished. The humour missed the mark for me, the action while plentiful didn't excite me & the basic story about Halicki's publicist hiring assassins to kill him & proclaiming at the end that he 'wants it all!' is pure Scooby-Doo silliness. The script is a lot more light hearted this time around with some very dated humour. At 100 odd minutes the pacing is better this time around & it's certainly not boring but I can't say I was particularly amazed by it, look it's slightly better than Gone in 60 Seconds but only slightly.
Like Gone in 60 Seconds the only reason to watch The Junkman is because of the vehicular action & carnage, this time around we get some planes & a Goodyear blimp join the action to spice things up a bit. Apparently The Junkman is in the Guinness Book of Records as the film that has the most number of vehicles wrecked in it, I am not sure that's true today but it probably was back when it was made. The stunt-work is great & the editing is a lot tighter this time around without the film cutting to needless secondary character's every couple of minutes, the chase through Los Angeles at the end is probably the best sequence. It seems that all the recent DVD releases have had the entire soundtrack replaced with an awful, generic & dull score that really is dreary.
According to the IMDb this took two years to make, filmed in California by Halicki probably with his own cars & friends & family helping out. It was probably a real labour of love & the guy obviously had a passion for cars & stunt-work. The acting is slightly better than the original but not by much although the production values are miles better & The Junkman actually looks like a film with decent colourful photography & good location work.
The Junkman is an odd film, it's a film born out of Halicki's love for destruction, stunts & cars & he chooses himself to star in it as himself. Halicki is the director & star of The Junkman playing the director & star of Gone in 60 Seconds which he was in reality, does anyone else find that slightly strange? Was to be followed by a sequel but star & director Halicki was killed in a crash with a water tower during filming.
Written, produced & directed by stuntman H.B. Halicki who stars in it & did much of the stunt work The Junkman is a strange sort of follow up to his earlier car chase action thriller Gone in 60 Seconds (1974), I say sort of follow up because while Gone in 60 Seconds is referenced & mentioned many times The Junkman takes place in a world where it is just a film & Halicki plays the guy who starred & directed it which he did back in 1974. So Halicki is playing himself, in a strange sort of fictional way as the script was apparently based on his life. I'm not sure the assassination attempt was based on actual events but the guy's massive toy & car collection, his memorabilia, the fact he started out running a junkyard the ranch location used for filmed was actually owned by him & was where he lived. Now, I only watched Gone in 60 Seconds yesterday so it's still fresh in my mind & all the little references, props, cinema posters & gags didn't pass me by but it does make The Junkman feel a little bit like a self obsessed vanity project at times. Overall I didn't think much of Gone in 60 Seconds despite it's good reputation & I found The Junkman to be more of the same, sure it has a few great individual moments, some cool stunt work & a much better story but I was still left feeling empty when it had finished. The humour missed the mark for me, the action while plentiful didn't excite me & the basic story about Halicki's publicist hiring assassins to kill him & proclaiming at the end that he 'wants it all!' is pure Scooby-Doo silliness. The script is a lot more light hearted this time around with some very dated humour. At 100 odd minutes the pacing is better this time around & it's certainly not boring but I can't say I was particularly amazed by it, look it's slightly better than Gone in 60 Seconds but only slightly.
Like Gone in 60 Seconds the only reason to watch The Junkman is because of the vehicular action & carnage, this time around we get some planes & a Goodyear blimp join the action to spice things up a bit. Apparently The Junkman is in the Guinness Book of Records as the film that has the most number of vehicles wrecked in it, I am not sure that's true today but it probably was back when it was made. The stunt-work is great & the editing is a lot tighter this time around without the film cutting to needless secondary character's every couple of minutes, the chase through Los Angeles at the end is probably the best sequence. It seems that all the recent DVD releases have had the entire soundtrack replaced with an awful, generic & dull score that really is dreary.
According to the IMDb this took two years to make, filmed in California by Halicki probably with his own cars & friends & family helping out. It was probably a real labour of love & the guy obviously had a passion for cars & stunt-work. The acting is slightly better than the original but not by much although the production values are miles better & The Junkman actually looks like a film with decent colourful photography & good location work.
The Junkman is an odd film, it's a film born out of Halicki's love for destruction, stunts & cars & he chooses himself to star in it as himself. Halicki is the director & star of The Junkman playing the director & star of Gone in 60 Seconds which he was in reality, does anyone else find that slightly strange? Was to be followed by a sequel but star & director Halicki was killed in a crash with a water tower during filming.