:
Harry Dean Stanton,
Harry Dean Stanton,
Emilio Estevez,
more...
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Alex Cox,
Alex Cox
see all cast/crew...
: 
: Universal Studios
: Action, Comedies, Cult, Independent, Science Fiction , Camp, Aliens, Adventure
: 93 min.
: English
: English, Spanish, French
see additional details...
Recently Rented By shadowhound
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Alex Cox's directorial debut was a wickedly funny and willfully bizarre story that became a major cult item once it began making the art-house rounds a year after its release (an initial run in a string of Southern grind houses and drive-ins, where it was billed as an action film, was a resounding failure). Having lost his job and his girlfriend, punk rocker Otto (Emilio Estevez) meets a guy named Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) who offers him $25 to drive his wife's car out of a "bad area." When a handful of angry people start chasing Otto, he realizes that something is up, and he discovers that Bud repossesses cars for a living. With few immediate prospects, Otto joins Bud at the repo yard and is soon "ripping" cars with the best of them. When an anonymous source posts a $20,000 reward for a missing 1964 Chevy Malibu, it turns out that what's valuable isn't the car itself, but what's in the trunk, which is very hot, glows brightly, and kills anyone who comes in contact with it. A vaguely surreal modern-noir science-fiction comedy with echoes of Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Repo Man is packed with more incongruous sight gags than anyone can absorb in one viewing; keep your eyes peeled for the air fresheners, the generic newspaper box, and the watches without hands. Harry Dean Stanton gives a superb comic performance as the intense but laid-back Bud, Emilio Estevez delivers perhaps the best work of his career as the petulant but goofy Otto, and Tracey Walter is hilarious as the spaced out repo-yard man Miller. Iggy Pop wrote and performed the theme song and The Circle Jerks appear as a lounge band. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Special Features: - Director's Commentary
- Theatrical Trailer
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Sid & Nancy
Alex Cox next made this compelling if difficult punk rock biopic that brought Gary Oldman to stardom
 A Harryhausen fan as a kid, Alex Cox made his directorial debut at 30 and Repo Man has been a cult favorite ever since. From Sid & Nancy through recent critical favorite Revengers Tragedy, music has been a driving, thumping force in his work. Little wonder, then, that Cory Vielma, who's written our Rock on Film primer, has a few questions for him. Full article >>
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| Otto, What About Our Relationship?
by BorisDarling
December 15, 2004 - 8:01 PM PST
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5 out of 9 members found this review helpful
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According the the Repo Code, Alex Cox's best film is not 'Sid and Nancy' (since junkies are best left unromanticized), but 'Repo Man'.
They say it's New Mexico, because only that way would the coincidences of all the people bumping into each other make sense. But it's LA and about The LA Experience. In particular, East LA where Carlos Guitarlos was the bouncer at Al's Bar and you could see his band, 'Top Jimmy & the Rhythm Pigs' (Van Halen wrote a song about Top Jimmy, if anyone cares) when he was off duty.
Another Al's Bar musician, Tito Lariva and his band, 'The Plugz' did more of the music than anyone else, including 'Hombre Secreto' (Secret Agent Man in Spanish.)
Yes, Iggy Pop sings the title song, and who backs him up? Well, they were briefly a band and released an album under the name 'Chequered Past'. The bass player and drummer from Blondie and Steve Jones from The Sex Pistols on guitar. Wish they made more songs with Iggy.
In another in-joke, The Circle Jerks (I swear, one of my punk rock comrades had to explain to me what that is) appear as themselves only sold out, and every home and store is filled with the only thing that consumer culture excretes out at us: Ralph's (supermarket) Plain Wrap generic 'beer', 'drink' and 'food'.
Watch bemused, as the plain wrap culture slowly engulfs the violence, the people, the secret American agents - everything and everyone, except of course, the 1964 Chevy Malibu and the mysterious contents of it's trunk. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 7.23)
824 Votes
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