Repo Man (Special Edition)

Rating:
Summary: greatest movie ever made
Review: I'm a 49-year-old attorney who appreciates the classics, and I don't say this lightly: The greatest movie ever made. I have watched this thing 25 times. The script and casting are absolutely perfect, there is not a dull moment in the entire two hours (or whatever it is), and every scene is profound in its own bizarre way. How something like this remains a cult classic while something like "Titanic" makes $300 million is beyond me.

Rating:
Summary: What the f*ck do I know?
Review: One thing I do know is this film is a modern day masterpiece.Unlike anything made before it.A true work of art and absolutely essential to any great DVD collection.Better than Gone With The Wind.It will make you wanna go to L.A. but stay home and watch Repo Man instead.I really wish they'd release the made for TV version of it as well.Along with the high art of Richard Elfman's brilliant Forbidden Zone, Repo Man is in a class all by itself.SUPERB!

Rating:
Summary: "The more you drive, the less intelligent you are."--Miller
Review: Wow, ummm....interesting. Finally something different. No, I mean this is REALLY different. About time to, cuz lately I've seen a string of bvad movies, so it's nice to see something cool and original every now and then. Otto (Emilio Estevez) is a Los Angeles punk, a loser with no direction and no role models. But he discovers a code of honor and higher purpose when he joins a select group of latter-day knights: the repo men. As a fledging apprentice, Otto slowly learns the ways of these high-caliber, overmedicated auto repossessors. And when a $20,000 bounty is placed on a mysterious missing car, Otto eludes the police, feds, religious cultists, and other repo men in a frantic search for this holy grail. Could one man's destiny lie in the back of a 1964 Chevy Malibu? For some, actually for many, this film will come of as stupid and random, but for those of us who "get" it, this is a breathe of fresh air. Using clever, if somewhat odd, story telling, this film should keep you entertained and amused throughout the entire duration of the film. I say rent first, then but.

Rating:
Summary: A "guy" flick
Review: Women seem to hate this movie, or at least claim not to understand its appeal. I rank Repo Man in my top-10 all-time films; yep, right up there with Casablanca, Citizen Kane and Apocalypse Now.

Rating:
Summary: A quirky, fun, cult classic from a monkey
Review: This cult classic of a film is just as good today as it was when it came out. It has all the ingredients of an unforgettable film: Action, adventure, aliens, Chevy Malibu's, Punk Rockers, generic products, stoned-out, Christian parents, a quirky plot, and all the Punk Music you can handle. It was produced by none other than one of the Monkees, Michael Nesmith. Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez are on there best and the entire cast puts in a performance that will keep this movie on the top of all-time great lists for years to come.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhere between John Waters and "Pulp Fiction"
Review: Repo Man is one of those hard-to-categorize movies that people either love or hate ... or it makes them scratch their heads and go "Huh???" Other reviews have described the plot and characters fairly thoroughly, so I won't repeat them.

Instead, I'll simply observe that it's pretty impressive for a shoestring-budget film with mostly unknown actors except for Stanton and a very young Emilio Estevez. Much of the movie was shot on location in LA at night or very early in the morning. This gives it a spare, almost surreal quality; a lot of the time you feel like you're watching a bizarre play.

One thing that struck me when I watched it last night -- my third viewing -- was how much the scenes with Otto and the black guy foreshadow the scenes with John Travolta and Samuel Jackson in "Pulp Fiction." I have to believe that Tarantino was influenced by this movie!

Anyhow, it's great entertainment if you don't mind a lot of violence and virtually non-stop swearing. Someone says "f**k you" about once per minute on the average.

Rating:
Summary: A curiosity indeed
Review: This movie is funny as hell. It also has real merit as film and works on many different levels. Emilio Estevez plays a young white punk from the suburbs whose existence is almost comical in it's nihilism and aimlessness. Here we see punk in it's truest form, Estevez raising his middle finger at every opportunity his bizarre life offers him. Until, that is, Harry Dean Stanton comes along (Estevez's initial is "F**k you, queer") and offers him a job as a repo man, the perfect job for Estevez's angry young character. Estevez yucks it up, snorting crank and driving all night, repossessing cars from the naive
and sometimes simply stealing them.

Meanwhile something cosmic is happening. A 64 Chevy Malibu that glows in a really hoky neon way is being driven by a strange little man with one eye, constantly spouting metaphysical visions and sweating like a fat pig. There is a hallmark scene in which Estevez's best friend opens the trunk and is vaporized. The plot is really indescribable and you have to see it to understand it. But this really is a hilariously bleak film laced with absurdity and meaning, in the tradition of the Coen brothers. One of the best cult flicks I've ever seen.

Rating:
Summary: Way Ahead of Its Time
Review: This film came out twenty years ago and even if it came out today it would still stand out from all the other doo-doo that people are raving about. It somehow foreshadowed the nihilistic, sarcastic characteristics of the Nineties, kind of in the same way "A Clockwork Orange" did. That's not to say this is some sort of significant social statement--on the contrary, it's nothing more than a very surreal satire of cut-throat urban paranoia that's actually probably more relevant today than when it came out back in 1984. Fans of old-school punk, William S. Burroughs, conspiracy theories, and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" will surely fall in love with this one.
Plot-wise, a heartlessly fascist Harry Dean Stanton recruits young suburban punk Emilio Estevez into repossessing cars for a living. They prowl the concrete jungle for a spell, philosophizing and overcoming various sticky situations, when they are assigned to recover a mysterious Chevy Malibu. The car just so happens to be driven by an insane scientist from Los Alamos Laboratories who's dying from radiation poisoning...and Estevez's 'love interest', Layla, just so happens to be a UFO fanatic determined to expose a government cover-up...and rival repo men, the Rodriguez Bros. are after the same car but Estevez's crusty friends just so happen to steal it and complicate matters...and so on and so forth...hilarity ensues.
Yeah, in the end it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but oddly it doesn't really take away any of the enjoyment. In fact, by the time the credits start rolling, you realize that the bizarre, 'transcendental' ending is the only possible way to conclude such a hysterical mess. All in all, it's easily one of the sharpest, most unique comedies of the past couple of decades. Cool soundtrack, too.

Rating:
Summary: not what i had expected
Review: I was thouroughly pleased upon seeing repo man. Though i Admit it was defintitletely not what I had expected. A friend recomended the movie to me saying it was apunk rock thing, and it was actually an acurate portrayal of the punk rock lifestyle of the 80's. WHOA no way, thats the last time i trust that guy. What I did discover was a magical glowing, flying spacecar, which everyone and their mother wanted. It's brilliant, just half way through the movie it takes a twist for the strange. I'd recomend this movie to anyone. This is probably Emelio's only good performance ever so that makes the movie that much more special.

Rating:
Summary: Watch it twice
Review: Like most of my reviews, I will try to keep this brief. I say watch it twice because as much as i love low budget movies...I couldn't decide if i loved the movie or thought that it was a waste of my day. After the first viewing, i didnt get a chance to see the movie again until 3 years later when i got a chance to purchase the special edition(before it became an excrutiatingly high price) i picked it up used from the store that i worked at. My first point is the awesome soundtrack. I actually purchased the special edition because of the soundtrack and the packaging. To pay $25 dollars for a soundtrack and a cool case is extreme, but that shows how awesome the sntrk is (as long as you love old-school punk). But after the second viewing I realized how incredible the movie really was, whether it was a for the simple great humor or the incredible satire that it is. You may want to rent it before you buy it, but when you realize that you love it...you wont feel that it was wasted money renting it first.