Reviews

This seems to be a film that has largely disappeared since it was shown on the BBC in the early 1990s. I haven't seen it since but it contained enough violence and car chase / crash action to stay in the mind of an 18 year old. From what I remember a group of kids living in Northern Ireland, probably Belfast, get their kicks from stealing and joy-riding around in cars. Naturally the British Army, perhaps the Irish Army too, take exception to this. Especially when the kids try to ram through their roadblocks. There seemed to be a lot of violence i.e. people having kneecaps shot out, so it's not one to recommend for all the family but I do remember some pretty incredible stunt-work and car chases involving what were, at the time, probably fairly new cars. This seemed unusual for what appeared to be a budget British / Irish film - I always assumed it was a BBC produced / subsidised movie. I'd certainly be interested to watch it again and see how well it compares to more modern films.

You may find it worth noting that the soundtrack on the reissued DVD (currently only available in Region 1 format) is different from the original video issue. Presumably for copyright clearance reasons the 'Great American Dream' song at the start has been removed - which is a shame. If you really (and I mean really) like Junkman then find the DVD issue of Deadline Auto Theft / Gone in 60 Seconds II which contains Deadline Auto Theft - a movie made up of stunts filmed for the original Gone in 60 Seconds / Junkman. And the edited stunts rushes footage from the never finished sequel to 'Gone' called 'Gone in 60 Seconds II' - HB Halicki was killed on the set while filming it so only the rushes remain as he did all the stuntwork first before working the plot around it.

Okay it's not the world's greatest movie, or even the greatest movie ever made about drag racing (that would probably be 'Heart Like A Wheel') but it does have its moments and there was a lot of effort put in to ensure the technical side of things was correct. Filmed entirely in Canada around Canadian dragstrips there is a sense of what life on the road is really like. Yes the characters are rather one dimensional - good guys wear white, bad guys wear black and snarl a lot, and the stunts do look like the camera was over-cranked but any true car fan will find it holds their interest, the first time anyway. Especially if you think of it more as a documentary than a movie. Plus the cars and female leads look great. I agree the ending is lousy though.