Rating: 
Summary: Save your money for something better
Review: I liked Emilio Estevez when he first started making movies, but this one is a real boner. This is an AWFUL movie. The directing is some of the worst that I have ever seen. The acting is so cardboard you just have to either laugh or cry. The story of an alien body being hidden in the trunk of stolen car is rediculous enough, but when you see Harry Dean Stanton "fly" the car off into space at the end of the movie, you'll be groaning in pain at this ludicrous film.
Rating: 
Summary: Cult classic
Review: It's hard to imagine a more kitschier, cultier film than repo man. If you liked films with an edge like "Harold and Maude" or "Eating Raoul", buy this movie!Ignore the plot, but concentrate on the little details, like the labels on the consumer products ("beer") and the fine, deadpan acting of Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez. By the time that you're done seeing this movie, you'll feel that being a repo man is a truly noble calling.
Rating: 
Summary: THE classic cult film
Review: Finally! It's out on DVD - the cult film to end all cult films. Certainly the greatest film ever to star Emilio Estevez. It's a real tour de force, the story being a complex tale - part alien conspiracy (x-files eat your heart out), part road movie, part pure science fiction, and part screwball comedy. Basically a car containing an alien entity has been stolen, and all and sundry are after it, including some repo men, who are after the car as there's a $25000 bounty on it. Harry Dean Stanton is his usual brilliant self, but in truth, the whole supporting cast are brilliant. Special mention must go to director Alex Cox - he has never been able to match this modern masterpiece, and never will. He can be thanked for the little touches - the punk, dying in the store, blaming society, the store itself containing all manner of items marked food, drink etc..pure genius. Buy this film - it is the greatest B film of all time.
Rating:
Summary: A Modern Classic
Review: This is the classic punk science fiction film of the eighties for which punk auteur Alex Cox will be remembered. Fantastic performances from Emilio Estevez & Harry Dean Stanton, a driving punk soundtrack, wild dialogue and some incredible characters make this a unique and memorable film. I sought out Cox's other works after becoming a fan of this film, and nothing else he's done has come close. It's funny, it's clever and it's original. It's the story of a young punks (Estevez) initiation into the world of car repossession, by the world weary and cynical repo man (Stanton), taking in armed robbery, rival repo men, UFO's and government conspiracy along the way. And somewhere out there is a car with something weird in the boot, and everyone's looking to collect the bounty on it. I'm looking forward to seeing what extras are on the limited collectors version of the DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Simply a Breathtaking Film, BUY THIS MOVIE!
Review: This is one of those Rare movies that comes along that is just breathtaking and spectacular to watch as we see the main characther The Repo Man try to take some one's car away since they did not pay the money but the guy ends up shooting at the Repo man played wondefully by Emileo Estievz. I suggest getting this movie and you will not be disapointed.
Rating:
Summary: "The more you drive, the less intelligent you are"
Review: You don't have to be a California punk to enjoy this surreal film. Heck, you don't even have to follow the storyline; you can just concentrate on picking out all the sarcastic cultural allusions. The dying scientist driving the car with the aliens in it is a send-up of Isaac Asimov. The blond guys in mirror shades are the original Men In Black. The cult of Scientology gets mocked by the recurring appearance of the book "Diuretics" The banality of suburban life is depicted by having all the merchandise visible on shelves be generic brands. And Harry Dean Stanton is given some great, great cult movie lines to speak. Even punk rock itself is sent up, by having The Circle Jerks appear as a schmaltzy lounge act, and Emilio Estevez moaning about how much they suck, now. A fun romp that's almost too hip for its own good.
Rating:
Summary: Very odd, and very rebellious
Review: This is a movie that makes me long for the talents of Alex Cox. He was the great revoloutionary director of the 80's who very clearly influenced the works of Quentin Tarantino, and every other independent director with that odd taste for urban violence and political statement. I wish he would come back and make another winner like this one. This movie, which is far more intelligent and contains far more message than I had anticipated, stars Emilio Estevez (who also hasn't come out with anything truly great in a long time) as a punk with no agenda. He evntually meets a group of repo men who all seem to have lost their grip on reality. He breaks into cars, does drugs with a fellow repo man, hooks up with a young girl researching alien encounters, and riots with other punks. With all of this and more, the movie has much to offer in the way of social satire and commentary. It also has alot to keep the mass audiences happy by having plenty of wacky humor. A definite rental if not a purchase. PLEASE COME BACK, ALEX COX!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: enjoy the great lattice-work of coincidence
Review: One of the most amazing things about "Repo Man" is how well it holds up to repeated viewing. Not only are their dozens of background elements, which only become apparent somewhere between the second and fiftieth viewing, there is also a very well written story. By combining elements from genres ranging from "juvenile delinquent pictures" to "science fiction conspiracy" Alex Cox created one of the best American movies of the 1980s. There really is nothing quite like it. It teases you, based on your expectations for a certain genre, then turns your expectations on their head. Certainly, subverting audience expectations is not all that rare, but Cox makes it seem so natural and right in this film. The film also benefits from a wonderful cast. Emilio Estevez was never again so convincing in a role, while Harry Dean Stanton contributes a portryal of an honorable "repo man" that is as critical to the impact of this film as Alec Guinness was to the original "Star Wars." Special note is deserved for character actor Tracey Walter (perhaps best-known as the Joker's side-kick in the first Tim Burton Batman film). His role as a burnt-out mechanic who turns out to be the only one who really understands what's going on is among the funniest in cinema history. After this film, Alex Cox won acclaim (and more than a little controversy) for his film about Sid Vicious, "Sid & Nancy," and has made a number of films since then. All of them have had varying degrees of critical and commercial success, but "Repo Man" seems certain to be the one for which he'll be remembered.
Rating:
Summary: I ate sushi, and didn't pay.
Review: It finally happened... I was out eating sushi last week, and someone else picked up the tab. It finally became clear to me that the movie "Repo Man" could qualify as the foundation for a new religion. My high school buddies used to quote this movie. So finally I saw it in college. There are so many little treasures in this movie--space doesn't permit them all, but the "plot/subplot"--young nihilist Estevez becomes a repo man and ends up repossesing a vehicle w/ dead aliens that then turn the car into a UFO and whisks the 'pure' ones off into space--is not the point of the movie. The point? It's about the interconnectedness of everything and the re-creation of that fantasy movie world that we miss so often in today's films. Maybe there really were people like this in the 80's, but I never met them. I'd like to think that this film uses the medium as a way to indulge all of our darker fantasies about human nature, morality, and how we'd all act if we could. Perhaps that's why this movie is so popular. To give it five stars would be an insult. It's a terrible movie, with terrible subject matter and terrible, mostly unlikeable characters. But that's just the point. You can sit back and enter this terrible world, which equals pure movie enjoyment. I get lost every time. So I give it one star, because Otto wouldn't want more.
Rating:
Summary: It's all part of the cosmic unconsciousness
Review: There is simply no finer postmodern work on urban blight, moral disintegration, or UFO-influenced car thieves on film. Alex Cox crafts every bit of dialogue to sensitize his audience to the "desensitzing" of our society to profanity, violence, drugs, punk rock, and government conspiracies; if you can't find hilarity and purpose in every slice of dialouge and plot, it's because you're either too linear or too feeble of a thinker, and not because the film itself lacks either quality. "Repo Man" is also the single funniest film of the 1980's, and Emilio Estevez NEVER did better work. Hey, even Siskel and Ebert rated it one of their all-time favorites! Two interesting points: the censored TV version with extra footage is interesting only once;the constant substitution of "Motherf---er" with "Mellonfarmer" is hard to deal with. Second, every video store I walk into categorizes the film differently; I've seen it placed in Comedy, Action, Adventure, even Crime Drama!
|
