Justin's Rating: Two and a half Eberts
Justin's Review: I think shows like ER and The Practice are highly overrated in the "reality job drama" field. Okay, so you get dozens of traumas wheeled in to your hospital every night, many with interesting kitchen appliances sticking out of them. But do the interesting perks of your job compete with dead aliens stashed in a trunk that turn all who behold their sight into fine ash? No, it does not. Repo Man opens the eyes of the Yuppie era to careers beyond Administrative Advertising Consultant.

Otto (Emilio Estevez) is a new wave punk who employs at your nasty neighborhood Repo service for a job. Under the tutilage of Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), Otto learns the tricks of the trade and generally how to jack cars from people weilding guns. Weird and wacky hijinks ensue, ranging from car chases, a double-crossing girlfriend, generic food, and some aliens in a Chevy Malibu.

Repo Man is ruthlessly crazy, and Otto moves through his series of adventures taking everything in stride, but looking pretty pissed off. The relationship between Bud and Otto is iron sharpening iron. Otto doesn't want to be treated like a lackie, and Bud has some serious issues to work out. And, hey, if you don't like them, you can compare them with their co-workers. These guys are one Prozac pill away from the asylum.

Way before Men in Black and the X-Files, we are treated to a taste of government conspiracy (such as a MIB lady who has a metal hand) and tabloid aliens. Nobody seems to mind much when the white suited agents go around torching the dead bodies left in the wake of the Malibu. But in the end, the only one who gets this $20,000 car is...

It's called a cliffhanger, people. Watch the movie.

Guest Correspondant Q: You need to understand the context in which the film was originally released, and the ways in which Repo Man spoke to the rest of us who weren't yuppies at the time.

From the opening credits, with Iggy Pop blaring from the screen, Repo Man sets itself apart from all of the other would-be music video films of the time. As the map zooms in on the middle of nowhere, Iggy wailing that he "Was a teenage dinosaur/stoned and absolete/I couldn't get f**ked and I couldn't get kissed/I got so f**king pissed" you immediately know whether or not you are going to identify with this film. This movie is not about alternate careers for yuppies; it's about careers for the rest of us. It's about balancing the need to put a roof over your head and food in your gut with the need to remain an individual. It's about punk reaching its maturity, and being forced into the mainstream; it's about the mainstream subsuming all that it touches. It's about taking responsibility for your actions, and answering to a higher call than merely money in the end.

In 1984 the United States was going to hell in a handbasket, and quickly. Reagan had just won a second term, yuppies were taking over, and bland, synthesizer-new wave music was dominating the airwaves. "No-one lives by a code anymore," complains Bud, and he's right. In the greed-ridden 80's, the only code anyone seemed to be living by was "get while the getting's good." Otto's parents symbolize the hippies of the 60's struggling to maintain their own identies after their counter-culture was subsumed by the mainstream. They've turned to televised religion. When Otto tells them that he does want to go back to school, and asks for the money they had once promised him as a reward for that, they inform him: "We don't have it anymore. We gave it all to the reverend's telethon. We're sending bibles to El Salvador." Desperate to contribute to the greater good of society, they continue to smoke weed as their hard-earned cash goes to waste.

Otto is the only member his crew who accepts responsibility for his own actions. When Duke, dying in the quick-e mart, tries to blame society for what he's become, Otto calls him on it: "That's bulls**t and you know it, you're a white suburban punk, just like me."

"Yeah, but it still hurts" is the reply, and ain't he right? No matter how hard you try to rebel, the mainstream will always find a way to subsume you. Look at skateboarding today.

The soundtrack itself was a major breakthrough. Teenagers across the country got their first true taste of punk from Repo Man. In truly ironic fashion, Repo Man paved the way into suburbia for bands like Suicidal Tendancies and Fear. Either way, me and my would-be subversive friends were drinking beer and shouting "Intense!" while you were 8.

Didja Notice?
The Repo Code
Every car has a tree air freshner
Heavy use of foreshadowing
What food substance the aliens look like
Everything Miller (the dirty guy) says pretty much comes true during the movie
Most of the main characters are named after beer
Otto's real age
All the food and drink products have generic names

The Movie Store!
Repo Man: Movie [VHS]
Repo Man: Soundtrack [CD]

Intermission!
Parrothead alert! Jimmy Buffett has a small role as a government agent.

Groovy Quotes:

Debbi: Duke, let's go do some crimes.
Duke: Yeah! Let's go get sushi and not pay.

Leila: I'm glad I tortured you!

Miller: Say you're thinking about a plate of shrimp. Suddenly someone says plate, or shrimp, or plate of shrimp. Out of the blue. No use looking for one either. It's part of the lattice of coincidence that lays on top of everything.

[Regarding tree-shaped air fresheners.]
Miller: Find one in every car. You'll see.

Bud: A repo man spends his life getting into tense situations.

Miller: The life of a repo man is always intense.

Miller: The more you drive, the less intelligent you are.

Agent Rogersz: It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes.

If you liked this movie, try these:
Hudson Hawk
The Adventures of Ford Fairlane
The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai

Soundtrack Review: Pretty decent rock album, particularly with the opening theme song. The whole score reminds me a lot like Pulp Fiction's.