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MisterSatan

MisterSatan

Portland, OR
August 2002

MAR 21, 2008 10:55 PM

This morning, I awoke early due to rampant diarrhea caused by an overabundance of meatloaf from last night's dinner. Unable to sleep, I did what any unemployed person would do - I turned on the TV. At five in the morning there really aren't many options as to what's on.

And then, the unemployment gods smiled upon me. No, it wasn't a winning scratch ticket, or free beer, or even a phone call from my landlord telling me not to worry about the rent this month. It wasn't any of those things, but it was still great - Repo Man was on.

For those of you who've lived under a rock for the past 24 years (or shop at Hot Topic), Repo Man (starring a pre-Bobby Emilio Estevez) is the story of a young suburban punk named Otto who gets roped into repossessing cars. The plot involves aliens, government agents, and a shitload of generic food and car air fresheners. None of that is really important, though. What is important is the fact that the movie even got made in the first place. Alex Cox, the director of Repo Man, had this to say from his website:


So I went off and wrote another screenplay instead: REPO MAN. This was based on my own personal Los Angeles horrors and the tutelage of Mark Lewis, a Los Angeles car repossessor and my neighbour in Venice, CA...

To make the package more interesting to investors, I drew four pages of a comic book based on the script and we included them with the screenplay. I had planned at one stage to do an entire comic book, but it is too much work: a page a day at the very most, and hard on the eyes. Michael Nesmith, the former Monkee, saw the script/comic package, became interested, and took it to Bob Rehme at Universal.


How it got made isn't nearly as important as the fact that it exists in the first place, though. Why? One simple reason: because it's so goddamned weird. Even a quarter-century later, Repo Man still holds up as one of the strangest films I've ever seen. It's also wickedly funny, simultaneously capturing a moment in time- the mid-1980s- and skewering it so badly you can practically hear Ronald Reagan's corpse say, "Not tonight, Bonzo". With all the references to a self-help book named "Diuretix", to the killer punk/hardcore soundtrack (look for the Circle Jerks posing as a lounge act about an hour into the film), to Otto's parents giving away his entire college fund to a televangelist (do people still do that?), the movie's jokes somehow still hold up today. Of course, it helps that the script contains so many catchphrase-worthy lines.


Miller: 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 unconsciousness.

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


If you're still reading this, and you've never seen Repo Man, stop reading and go watch it. If you have seen it, let me ask you this: what movie is the Repo Man of today? Do they make films this fucking strange anymore without being from Japan or David Lynch? Suggest some more weird movies to me and I'll keep writing these things. Assuming, of course, that I have meatloaf again tonight.



MisterSatan is writing this article instead of looking for a job. He should have his knuckles slapped.

crispy

crispy

NEWSWIRE

Philadelphia, PA

MAR 21, 2008 11:12 PM

I've never seen it, but now I am intrigued.
I did a title search on the digital and it's nowhere to be found.


Blockbuster, here I come!

Tallboy66

Tallboy66

Chicago, IL
January 2005

MAR 21, 2008 11:22 PM

I have the soundtrack.


Tallboy66

Tallboy66

Chicago, IL
January 2005

MAR 21, 2008 11:26 PM

crispy said:
I've never seen it, but now I am intrigued.
I did a title search on the digital and it's nowhere to be found.


Blockbuster, here I come!



If they do have it at Blockbuster,which I highly doubt, I'd rent it, or pass out because they do have it.

It's more like the college town/independent used cd/vinyl/vhs/cd store that burns Nag Champa.

crispy

crispy

NEWSWIRE

Philadelphia, PA

MAR 21, 2008 11:29 PM

Oh, I'll find it if I set my mind to it.
Unless, of course, I get distracted by something shiny in the meantime.

PatrickY

PatrickY

Vancouver, WA
December 2003

MAR 21, 2008 11:29 PM

I keep toying with the idea of watching Repo Man again, since it's on Directv On Demand for free, but I haven't gotten around to it. Great movie, and much weirder than most of the stuff coming out these days.

Hmmm... in fact, so much weirder that I'm sort of blanking on modern films that would equal its consistent oddness.

Shal

Shal

Los Angeles, CA
October 2002

MAR 21, 2008 11:32 PM

This is one of those films I keep meaning to see and never have.

Netflix!

Tallboy66

Tallboy66

Chicago, IL
January 2005

MAR 21, 2008 11:35 PM

Shalome said:
This is one of those films I keep meaning to see and never have.

Netflix!



See it along with Less Than Zero, it will be the best 4 hours of your life.

crispy

crispy

NEWSWIRE

Philadelphia, PA

MAR 21, 2008 11:40 PM

Oooh!
It's in the free movies OnDemand menu!


Thank you, Comcast!

MrStitches

MrStitches

Brooklyn, NY
November 2003

MAR 22, 2008 12:00 AM

I like Six String Samurai on kind of the same level that I like Repo Man.

PatrickY

PatrickY

Vancouver, WA
December 2003

MAR 22, 2008 12:50 AM

crispy said:
Oooh!
It's in the free movies OnDemand menu!


Thank you, Comcast!



I see that you skipped right past my post.

blackeyed

crispy

crispy

NEWSWIRE

Philadelphia, PA

MAR 22, 2008 12:54 AM

PatrickY said:

crispy said:
Oooh!
It's in the free movies OnDemand menu!


Thank you, Comcast!



I see that you skipped right past my post.

blackeyed


Not at all. I wasn't sure whether the DirectTV and Comcast OnDemand selections were the same.

Your post was what made me look!

PatrickY

PatrickY

Vancouver, WA
December 2003

MAR 22, 2008 12:57 AM

crispy said:

PatrickY said:

crispy said:
Oooh!
It's in the free movies OnDemand menu!


Thank you, Comcast!



I see that you skipped right past my post.

blackeyed


Not at all. I wasn't sure whether the DirectTV and Comcast OnDemand selections were the same.

Your post was what made me look!



Well don't I feel silly for swallowing all those sleeping pills just now.

toothpickmoe

toothpickmoe

Los Angeles, CA
May 2004

MAR 22, 2008 01:03 AM

*slaps knuckles*

He asked for it, people.

The films that are like this and made today are shit on and hated (Wait, maybe "Slacker"? I dunno, I'm reaching now). I don't really remember "Repo" being a huge hit when it came out and it gained cult status as the years went by. Maybe, in 15-25 years, something like "Buffalo 66" will be a fucking classic (semi-shudder).

Go check out River's Edge if you haven't already. You want quote-worthy lines and semi-trippy film-making it's got that in spades ("My Own Private Idaho"? Just throwing shit out there).

DevilsReject

DevilsReject

Cleveland, OH
February 2007

MAR 22, 2008 01:12 AM

I love Repo Man. It never was a huge hit when it came out, not many people even remember it. It's kind of sad because MisterSatan is right, it's kind of a B movie classic.

toothpickmoe

toothpickmoe

Los Angeles, CA
May 2004

MAR 22, 2008 01:23 AM

DevilsReject said:
I love Repo Man. It never was a huge hit when it came out, not many people even remember it. It's kind of sad because MisterSatan is right, it's kind of a B movie classic.


It doesn't have to be sad. B movies have a certain...thing....going for them that major studio hits never will. I like where it sits in the movie pantheon. Now we should all shush before someone who shouldn't gets of whiff of how much it's enjoyed and decides to do a remake. blackeyed

DevilsReject

DevilsReject

Cleveland, OH
February 2007

MAR 22, 2008 01:31 AM

toothpickmoe said:

DevilsReject said:
I love Repo Man. It never was a huge hit when it came out, not many people even remember it. It's kind of sad because MisterSatan is right, it's kind of a B movie classic.


It doesn't have to be sad. B movies have a certain...thing....going for them that major studio hits never will. I like where it sits in the movie pantheon. Now we should all shush before someone who shouldn't gets of whiff of how much it's enjoyed and decides to do a remake. blackeyed



i didn't mean to make it sound like i was bashing B movies, i actually welcome them.

If they remake it i will stab my eyes out with a dull spoon.

toothpickmoe

toothpickmoe

Los Angeles, CA
May 2004

MAR 22, 2008 01:36 AM

DevilsReject said:

toothpickmoe said:

DevilsReject said:
I love Repo Man. It never was a huge hit when it came out, not many people even remember it. It's kind of sad because MisterSatan is right, it's kind of a B movie classic.


It doesn't have to be sad. B movies have a certain...thing....going for them that major studio hits never will. I like where it sits in the movie pantheon. Now we should all shush before someone who shouldn't gets of whiff of how much it's enjoyed and decides to do a remake. blackeyed



i didn't mean to make it sound like i was bashing B movies, i actually welcome them.

If they remake it i will stab my eyes out with a dull spoon.



"Because it would hurt more, you idiot!"

Gotcha. I'd use the handle end to gouge my eyes out while you did yours. Congrats, we just created a new genre of porn.

VivaHST

VivaHST

Milwaukee, WI
July 2005

MAR 22, 2008 05:04 AM

Wristcutters: A Love Story was pretty fucking strange. Although it was an indie, and set in an afterlife. l would recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. Plus, Tom Waits is in it.

Mark_plus_Beer

Mark_plus_Beer

United Kingdom
August 2005

MAR 22, 2008 05:16 AM

i know the film name but thats about it, i'll be trying to rent this now aswell

trocc

trocc

Chicago, IL
March 2003

MAR 22, 2008 06:54 AM

i may have seen this movie over 50 times since high school. timeless and endlessly quotable.

it was just a bit more than a month ago that i had this up in my journal:



the latest DVD release has in its extra materials a really jaw-dropping interview with Harry Dean Stanton at his home - he is waaaaay out there.

MisterSatan

MisterSatan

Portland, OR
August 2002

MAR 22, 2008 07:44 AM

God, I still can't believe people haven't seen this.

PointBlank

PointBlank

New York, NY
November 2004

MAR 22, 2008 08:15 AM

Alex Cox has one of the best filmographies of all time. In addition to Repo Man, he made Sid and Nancy and followed those up with Straight To Hell: a pretty bad western starring Courtney love, Dick Rude and Joe Strummer. Then he made Walker, which is a fanfuckingtastic bizarre film starring Ed Harris, based on William Walker. It's just been released on DVD. Check it out.

Oh, and he wrote a sequel to Repo Man that was never made, called Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday. Check it out here.

Fatality

Fatality

SUICIDEGIRL

USA

MAR 22, 2008 08:31 AM

Is there some place to, uh, stream/DL this online? I mean, if there were would someone PM me or something. I haven't really seen a movie in months, and I'd like to see this. I wouldn't really want to wait to get back to America, though I guess I could.

As for weird movies....the two most recent that I saw:

-Reggae Boys, a Nigerian film: midget, black magic twins simultaneously impregnate an older woman

-Jamaica Comedy Jam, so goddamn weird and funny

Brad_Warner

Brad_Warner

NEWSWIRE

Akron, OH

MAR 22, 2008 09:21 AM

Repo Man = Genius.

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