Watched on dudes night this week, it was my pick...

This is a favorite of mine that I hadn't watched in a really long time. After watching again it keeps it spot as a favorite, I thought it held up really well. The other guys... Did not like it at all. This was mostly due to there being nearly no plot: the movie is essentially a ride following a bunch of characters around as they get into trouble and weird crap happens to them. I don't think the other guys were prepared for this.

Love the style of the movie. It's this absurd snapshot of the mid to early eighties told through a kind of punk-style lense that rewards multiple watches. So many little screwed up details to be missed. You'll catch some little detail that seems weird at the time only to have a character call it out later. Some are never explained (or maybe I just don't get it) but are hilarious to spot. Tons are recurring. Also: title track by Iggy Pop, with songs from Black Flag, Fear, and Suicidal Tendencies making appearances. Hell yeah. There's even a cameo by the Circle Jerks playing as a lounge band, funny get-ups and all. If you don't like this style, you're probably not going to like this movie.

This was written and directed by Alex Cox who would go on to write the screenplays for Sid & Nancy and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (just now seeing that one). I need to see more of his stuff. Esteves does great bouncing around through all this mess with a shit-eating grin on his face: he's not a super likable character, but he (usually) looks like he's enjoying the chaos going on around him. Harry Dean Stanton was also great as Molly Ringwald's dad, and we all got a kick out of Jack Nicholson's henchman sidekick from Batman getting what amounts to a leading role here...

I think the big key to everything working together is that the movie doesn't take itself seriously. AT ALL. They know the plot is meaningless and doesn't matter. They call this out over and over again either making fun of how ridiculous some plot point is ("You eat a lot of acid Miller? In the hippy days?") or insulting the viewer for thinking that some element should even be cared about ("What about our relationship?!?", "What? Fuck that!"). But really, who cares about plot when the ride is this fun.

It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes.

Repo Man has become one of those films where even though it was savaged by many critics of the time (not Ebert, he loved it), was met with very poor box office as well, but now everyone seems to shout that they loved it back then, always have! It is the very definition of a "cult movie", a pic that went underground and found its audience, so much so it burst back above ground and today is still being discovered by an ever intrigued movie loving audience.

Repo Man was one of a kind, a film that refused to be pigeon holed, a true original. Story for what it's worth has Emilio Estevez as L.A. punk Otto Maddox who gets bluffed into a repo man job. Taken under the wing of Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), Otto gets to become a fully fledged repo man, taking on all the perks and dangers that come with the territory. But when a mysterious 1964 Chevy Malibu arrives on the patch, all bets seem to be off because everyone is either after it or being disintegrated by it!

The life of a repo man is always intense.

OK! Where to start? Offbeat, eccentric, punk, funky, funny, smart? Repo Man is all those things, it dares to be bold and challenging, its satirical edges slicing away at film genres and American societies. Director Alex Cox (how wonderful that such an American film is directed by a British guy) fills out this scuzzy part of L.A. with hippies, freaks, punks, aliens, scientist nutters, UFO nutters, effeminate coppers and the repo men themselves, a bunch of grizzled souls hardened by life's travails, but always with a quip, a smile and a gunshot at the ready.

The dialogue fizzes with cheeky derring-do, some lines even today still quotable and used in pubs and clubs across the continents. Robby Muller's cinematography has snap crackle and pop, as does the rocking soundtrack as Cox invites the likes of Iggy Pop, The Circle Jerks, Black Flag and The Plugz into his weird and wonderful world. Performances are bang on the dollar, Stanton the class act, Estevez superb, Tracey Walter proving what his fans already knew, that he's a legendary character actor.

From an opening involving a pair of smoking boots, to the glowing sci-fi nirvana finale, Repo Man kicks ass. One viewing is never enough, and for sure there are those who have seen it once and hate it to the point of refusing to ever watch it again. That's a shame, because repeat viewings are essential, because the more you watch the more Cox's deliriously cheeky movie makes sense. 9/10