REPO MAN - COLLECTOR'S EDITION

Repo Man - Collector's Edition

Starring: Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, , Tracey Walter, Olivia Barash, Sy Richardson, Susan Barnes
Director: Alex Cox

Format: Color, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
Run Time: 93 minutes

DVD Features:

Available Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
Commentary by: Writer/Director Alex Cox, Executive Producer Michael Nesmith, Casting Director Victoria Thomas, Actors Sy Richardson, Zander Schloss and Del Zamora
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Up Close with Harry Dean Stanton
Repossessed
The Missing Scenes

Movie: * * * ½
Disc: * * *

With punk making a semi-comeback nowadays with the popularity of bands like Green Day, it is perhaps fitting that Repo Man, the quintessential nihilist punk sci-fi comedy of all time be given the “collector’s edition” treatment on DVD.

Starring Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton (Alien, Paris Texas) and directed by Brit Alex Cox, this 1984 movie has dated, sure, but it has so many quotable lines and its plot is such an original blend of science fiction and black comedy that it is easy to understand the film’s minor cult status. Along with The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension it is one of 1980s cults you either belong to — or don’t.

What’s it about? Mixing several subplots and plots, the movie follows the travails of a young dead-end punk (Estevez) as he becomes involved with a group of “repo men,” basically amoral hucksters who repossess cars whose owners had gotten behind on their monthly payments. Thrown into the mix is a an old ‘Sixties car possessing terrible powers (whoever opens the trunk gets nuked!) driven by an insane scientist, a shadowy government agency searching for the car and a trio of vicious punks going around and robbing everybody. Difficult to explain as you might have gathered . . .

THE DISC: Deleted scenes, a chat with some of the stars and creative personnel as well as an audio commentary – and nowhere did I get the answer to the one question I had watching this film, namely “where did they get the idea for it all?” was it written by someone who actually were such a “repo man”? I don’t know, and the special features weren’t forthcoming.

WORTH IT? An offbeat and once-off movie, Repo Man ought to appeal to anyone with a taste for Quentin Tarantino and early (good) Coen Bros. movies.

RECOMMENDATION: There is violence and loads of cursing so women probably won’t like it, but males of a certain age and inclination will find Repo Man irresistible even when the plot do spend a lot of time going nowhere and dwelling on the eccentricities and quirks of the film’s central characters. Check it out if you suspect you fit the bill.