The Muse (1999)

Not Fred Sanford - a different Junkman
The Junkman is the follow-up to H.B. Halicki's Gone In 60 Seconds (1974). It is an independent film written, produced by, and starring the self-made amateur. Thus, I'm inclined to judge it with a kinder and gentler tone. The plot is centered around a salvage yard mechanic that grew into a successful filmmaker and business mogul. The viewer isn't burdened with the details of how this came to be, as this movie is all about action and not a biography. What's important to the viewer is that some unknown party wants him to die in a spectacular and highly publicized death. So while on the road minding his own business our mechanic/mogul finds himself ambushed by 4 armed assassins. Two are in cars, two are in biplanes. Our unarmed hero has only his wits and driving skills versus their semi-automatic weapons and grenades.

You are not going to watch this for the plot, which is quite thin. You will not be dazzled by the acting, the cast is quite unskilled. For heaven's sake, don't expect intriguing dialogue! This movie is the filming of a cat and mouse game with cars and airplanes. The rest of the movie is an afterthought, it would seem. The idea here was to raise the bar set by the excellent chase scene in the original Gone In 60 Seconds, but The Junkman falls a bit short.

Almost all of the car crashes and stunts - including the car jumping over the low flying airplane - are superfluous and add nothing to the great escape attempt. Careless onlookers rear ending each other over and over gets boring pretty quickly. Of course reports of a grenade lobbing airplane is going to get the attention of the police. Scores of police units are dispatched to... contribute to the gratuitous crashing. An army of police converging on the assassination attempt would have made for a much more thrilling event, but not a single unit made it that far. After Gone in 60 Seconds, it's incredulous that Halicki didn't recognize this!

Furthermore, whereas Gone In 60 Seconds wisely put the great escape at the end of the movie, The Junkman places this event early in the film. After it's over, there is little reason to watch the rest of the film, due to the amateurish state of everything else about the film. The hero does eventually confront the person that had him marked for death and we are led to believe that they will settle their differences with a man-to-man, bare-knuckle rooftop brawl. But suffice it to say, the movie ends with a whimper.

Gone In 60 Seconds is the better film. Watch it before considering The Junkman (or Deadline Auto Theft). The Junkman isn't terrible if you consider how it came to be, but it will certainly not appeal to everyone and should certainly be avoided by more critical viewers.

The Suck. Yup.
If your taste in movies revolves around watching a man (with an enormous ego) who can't act playing a man who can't act who loves the sight of ground metal, then you need to have your head examined.

I want those two hours of my life back.

DVD
If you like car crash and car chase scenes then this is the movie. If you have seen the original "Gone in 60 seconds". Then you may not be impressed because a lot of the same footage is used in all three movies. It was still worth seeing.