I must admit that I was not the least bit taken with this movie when I saw it originally way back when, but I have been hearing for so long as to what a cult item it has become, that I gave in and watched it again. An early feature from writer/director/actor Brit Alex Cox, who after "Sid and Nancy" more or less squandered his talent on unwatchable films, it certainly takes a skewed look at 80's America. Emilio Estevez is a foul-mouthed young punk and out of work when he meets up with Harry Dean Stanton -- for whom I have a great deal of time, especially after his magic moment in "The Straight Story". Stanton is part of a group of misfits who make their living by repossessing cars and he takes the initially reluctant Estevez under his wing, filling his head with the importance of the 'Repo Man's Rules of Behaviour'.
This is just the framework for a screwy sci-fi scenario where a disgruntled scientist has stolen an alien corpse from Roswell and it is burning up radiation in the trunk of his car; with a 20,000 dollar bounty, everyone is in pursuit from the FBI to a pair of brotherly car thieves to the repo men. There is a lovely scene right at the beginning when a highway patrol guy pulls the car over, opens the boot, and nothing is left of him but a pair of smoking boots. There are lots of nice touches, like cans bearing labels reading 'food' or 'beer' and there is some smart dialogue as well, kind of a 1980's Kevin Smith approach. But a little of this movie goes a long way and it really ends up just being silly. I guess the net result is that I'm pleased to have watched it again, but I think I can easily wait another twenty years before repeating the exercise.
1 comment:
Not a patch on Sid and Nancy.
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