The theme song to this movie, by Iggie Pop, kicks ass. Anyway, onward and upward:
Young punk rocker, Emilio Estevez (who is super, super young in this movie and not quite what you’d call a “good” actor), gets fired, gets dumped, etc etc that whole usual life-falling-apart thing. Anyway, he becomes a repo man with Harry Dean Stanton, a job which apparently involves a lot of drugs, drinking, and getting shot at. Then everything gets really weird and there’s this car whose trunk glows like the box from Kiss Me Deadly (or, to reference a more popular movie and not show off my film nerd credentials, the suitcase in Pulp Fiction) and melts people (also like the box in Kiss Me Deadly (by the by, Kiss Me Deadly is a pretty sweet movie) but unlike the briefcase in Pulp Fiction) and may have an alien in it (which is in neither Kiss Me Deadly nor Pulp Fiction). The whole movie has that nihilistic punk rock vibe that runs through a strand of low budget, pre-Resevoir Dogs, indies. I’m not a big fan. It often leads to some crappy comedy bits predicated on people saying the f-word and then giggling. Now, I’m a big fan of the word “fuck” but I don’t really think it’s particularly funny. The Emilio trying to get some with the alien-obsessed girl scenes are particularly lame. Also, the punk rock thieves characters suck, it’s much better after they get melted/run away. I guess punk rock stereotypes don’t really hold up in the year 2008. Despite this, the movie has a sort of endearing weirdness and sense of humor, that manages to keep hold of you for the relatively brief running time. It’s pretty much the exact definition of a cult movie: low budget, crappy acting, weirdness, still somehow decent. Anyway, it’s pretty hard to review a cult classic. If you’re into fare like Buckaroo Banzai then you’ll like it, if you aren’t a fan of cult movies you won’t. I, being a fan of cult cinema (although not as much as in the salad days of my youth) enjoyed it.
Side note: I apologize for any incoherence in my review, it’s hard to write a review while also trying to translate Latin.
Also, someone may have just been shot in hearing range, I’m not sure.
