Bad/Awesome Flixxx Review: Repo Man (1984)

"A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch o' unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top o' everything. Give you an example; show you what I mean: suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness." - Miller

"You eat a lot of acid, Miller, back in the hippie days?" - Otto

"Goddamn-dipshit-Rodriguez-gypsy-dildo-punks. I'll get your ass." - Bud

"John Wayne was a fag. He was, too, you boys. I installed two-way mirrors in his pad in Brentwood, and he come to the door in a dress." - Miller

"Oh, yeah, you're fuckin' A we ripped your car, asshole. You want to know who told us where it was? Your god-damned brother." - Olly

You want a sell on this movie? My old man and me watched this days after I gave him that kidney. Like about a week later. We were back home recovering and I told him he had to watch this one with me, so we get situated in this room that is pretty small consider the shape we were in and what we had just been through. We get 3 quarters of the way through it and I look over at him to see if he's enjoying it and as we catch eyes, he says very slowly, "...this is the most fucked up movie I've ever seen. What the fuck is going on?" Hahaha. I love that. Completely revisitable over and over. Zander Schloss (Circle Jerks), Harry Dean Stanton, and Emilio Estevez in REPO MAN!!! 

So, our hero Otto works a shitty grocery store job, something that I can identify with having spent seven long years working for Winn-Dixie in my youth. By the time I quit that job I could have been talking into just about any scheme involving the quick deaths of at least two of my employers at the time. I remember building up a lot of hate and then just having to let it go so that I didn't spend another 7 years in a real jail instead of a jail job. So Otto gives them the fuck you and goes to hit up his folks for the bread they saved up for him for college. But too late, his burnt out parents gave all their duckets to a scummy televangelist. BUMMER. So Otto hits the streets, going to a punk rock show and moshing around with his california punker friends. He tries to bang his girl, she tells him to go get her a beer during a party, and when he comes back, his friend is making out with his girl. He splits and drinks fortys. 
 

While out walking the streets kicking cans, Otto is approached by a blue sedan. Bud is calling out to him from the window asking him if he'll drive a car thats parked across the street because his old lady is pregnant or sick or something. He says he'll give him some bread, I can't remember how much. Anyway Otto jumps in the car and begins to drive away and someone comes out and starts beating on it. He laughs and follows Bud to this building. Bud walks in and doesn't even pay any attention to Otto. Otto asks him whats up with his old lady and Bud gives him some bullshit excuse. The boss throws him a beer, and Otto pours it out on the floor. Bud almost busts his ass, and Otto figures out they're repo men and he claims he's not going to be one, but the chick hands him some cash and says "too late". Meanwhile, this whole time, there's this creepy dude driving around with half a pair of glasses in a car that's running hot. He gets pulled over. The cop asks to see what's in the trunk. He tells him he doesn't want to know. The cop takes the keys, opens the trunk and a glowing light vaporizes him. Then you keep seeing this dude and this car throughout the flick. The repo dudes hear that they're looking for the car maybe because the cop called it in before he was vaporized. 
 

So Otto becomes fully immersed into the repo man lifestyle interacting and learning the trade from the various weirdos that work at the repo joint. He encounters his old friends and they don't know what to make of him dressing up in sports coats. He trades his fortys for speed and starts keeping wild hours. He meets a conspiracy theory chick who thinks she's being chased because she knows something about some aliens. She knows the weird dude is coming and thinks that his trunk is full of ETs. 
 

There are some side plots about his dumb thief friends and their "gang" that ultimately is snarky commentary on "white suburban punks" of california in the early 80s. There ends up being a big competition to see who can land the malibu that has the trunk full of aliens because of a $20000 reward. Otto originally comes up with it by chasing it down and riding along with the weird ass scientist who actually dies while driving around. He slow crashes onto a curb and Otto just lays him on a bench. Bud quits from the gang and steals the car after Otto has locked it up. Then theres a big showdown and the cars shows up glowing bright green from radiation. Otto's been ratted out, locked up and tortured by some CIA agents by this point. The only one not scared to jump in the car while its glowing is Miller, and he's not even a repo man, he's like the clean up guy. Anyway, the car literally takes off and flies away, and at this point my old man was like, "yeah, this is just completely fucked up. I don't understand." But we were kinda doped up at that point. Should you see this? Yes. Think about purchasing the soundtrack as well. 

Thursday, February 21, 2013