Customer Reviews

Deadline Auto Theft / Gone in 60 Seconds: 2 [Double Feature]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I need to start by saying that this is a "2 Film" DVD. The first film is called "Deadline:Auto Theft", which is marketed as the final film in the Trilogy of Halicki movies. The packaging and cover art depict a Gullwinged sportscar being chased by the cops, led by chief Hoyt Axton. Being an avid fan of the Halicki films, Gone in 60 seconds and Junkman, I was very excited to see the big finale.
What a major letdown. The first 10 minutes of the film have a great car chase and some shots of Hoyt Axton doing police work. Then, the film transitions into "the original Gone in 60 seconds"? The last 80 minutes of this movie are the original film? How can this be the third in the Trilogy, if it is the same as the first movie. I felt completely ripped off!!!!!!!
What is up with this deception by Halicki Studios?
The second film is the unfinished Gone in 60 second 2, which is where Halicki ultimately met his death. It's nothing compared to the original, but I was just pleased at that point, that it wasn't a redub of the Junkman.
For completionists like myself, Buy the DVD, but just don't expect anything out of the first movie.
I still would have bought this DVD, if it was packaged The original Gone w/added footage and Gone 2. I just can't figure out why all the deceit?
Oh well!

I bought this at a local video store because I thought it was going to be something different than the original Gone in 60 Seconds. I mean, why wouldn't I with a different title, right? Wrong. Deadline Auto Theft is basically Gone in 60 Seconds with the footage it should've contained. I kept feeling dejavu when I watched it and I realized why when it started looking real familiar. If that wasn't enough of a let-down, the "Gone in 60 Seconds 2" is basically a semi crashing through a bunch of cars and the "slicer", a triangular shaped vehicle that goes under cars. 38 minutes of the "slicer" and cuts to the same police department dispatch footage from the first film (many of which the lips didn't match what was being said). The film quality is excellent, but there just isn't enough content here unless you're a die-hard Halicki fan. The only saving grace of this DVD is that it has a documentary and the picture quality is just better than the "Original Gone in 60 Seconds" DVD. Deadline Auto Theft is a more polished version and makes this the better DVD to own. As for me, I purchased the other version first and was duped into buying this one with the different name. I feel cheated. Two stars for deceiving the consumer.

Although the cult classic Gone In Sixty Second's was filmed around 1974, the film was re-edited in the early 1980's. It is the same film, written, produced and directed by its star, H.B. Halicki.
Extra scenes were added with the late county & western singer/songwriter Hoyt Axton (who also played the inventor father in Gremlin's) playing Captain Gibbs, head of the Auto Theft division of the L.A. County Sheriff's Office. Real-life Playboy playmate Judy Gibbs appeared as his daughter.
Instead of detracting from the original film, the added scenes blended seamlessly and padded out the story to make a better film. The film was then reissued in 1989 as Deadline Auto Theft. As another huge fan of the Gone In Sixty Seconds movie, I found this film to be even more enjoyable since it had the added scenes to give it a subtle subplot.

To your "correct me if I am wrong" query about H.B. ("Toby") Halicki's death during the shooting of "Gone In Sixty Seconds 2", no...it wasn't a boat stunt that killed him. I was a camera operator on this ill-fated movie and I was running a camera on a hi-hat at the base of the water tower when the tower went down prematurely. Toby Halicki was standing right next to me when we heard the creaking of the tower as it began its unscheduled fall, and he began running away, 90 degrees away from the angle of fall, and presumably to safety. The steel cables that were holding up the tower snapped, whipped through the air (just missing me!) and then one of them cut down a telephone pole which tracked perfectly with Toby's path, killing him. It was like a very twisted version of the game "Mouse Trap" you played as a kid, but this was no game. We cheated death every single day of shooting, and the footage that was cut together for inclusion on this DVD was all that was in the can before he died. I bought this DVD just to have for my personal collection of things I've shot. It's very surreal for me to watch now, based on my experiences on that film... It's not really a great DVD on its own though, and is likely to disappoint.

Now that I've finally seen all three of Halicki's films I have concluded that the only ones worth purchasing to the average Halicki fan (as opposed to a hardcore fan) are Gone in 60 Seconds and Deadline Auto Theft and I'll tell you why. We all have to agree that pacing a chase film wasn't Halicki's top talent as all of his films can drag and move slowly even during the car chases, especially to new young fans like myself who have been raised under a higher standard for action films. This problem is only horribly bad in The Junkman which I view as just an overall boring movie (with the tiny exception of the Vette hitting the old woman) so skip that one. With the other two, Deadline is like a Gone remix with a lot of boring parts taken out and new scenes for some extra story added in. I guess you could say it was bored out. Hehehee. So in conclusion, Deadline is the one you watch and Gone is the one you keep as a collectors item.

i was so excited when i found this movie on amazon. my boyfriend had no idea there were more movies to the original gone in sixty seconds and when i told him about them he wanted them. i love that i can find almost anything i need on amazon. i recieved my movie very fast and in great unopened condition.

Pretty amazing that one man had the ability to write, film, act, direct, market his own film. This was fun to watch knowing he brought his dream to life , and had the courage to overcome many obstacles to achieve it. It was a shame he was killed , his talents could have really teamed nicely with Spielberg, Bay, Bruckheimer, etc.

Stick with the original Gone in 60 seconds, all the ones that came after it suck. VERY very badly. Complete waste of money. I now regret doing the legal thing and buying the movie before downloading a copy to see if it was any good.

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 get this, or the original Gone in 60 Seconds, not both.

I started watching this movie, Deadline Auto Theft, and about 10 minutes into the movie I realized, that it seemed rather familiar. Then it hit me, it was the same as the first movie, just with a different introduction. The only difference between the Third and First movies is the opening car chase and then minor scenes within the movie to tie in that opening scene with the rest of the movie. At first I though that I just got a faulty DVD or something and that there was a mistake, but then I noticed that in the extra part of the the DVD there was the trailers to all three movies. I watched the first and third trailers, and those were basically the exact same thing. Again, they put in the one different car chase, and changed the name, but other than that, it was the same trailer too. All in all, it was still a good movie, because so is the first one, but I wish there was actually a different story line, or something different about it.