Story: The plot of this movie is somewhat difficult to describe and it's even more difficult to make sense out of it. What I can say confidently is that this is a dark, absurdist comedy about a punk kid who gets roped into being a repo man and his bizarre adventures along the way. This movie has a small cult following, so I'm preparing to get ripped apart when I say this, but some of the writing is brilliant, like Fox Harris as a mad scientist bragging about getting a lobotomy or Tracey Walter's bit ranting about how humans must have paradoxical origins in the future, but the rest is just plain terrible. This movie tries way too hard to be smart and hip and edgy. The end result is somewhere between self parody and pretentious bullshit. I know that I'm supposed to laugh at the ridiculousness of lines like, "Let's go do some crimes! Yeah, let's get sushi and not pay!" but instead I just groaned in embarrassment for the movie. So, yeah, the story gets a D, as in doggy.
Acting: There are some really good performances here, the best being Harry Dean Stanton as a very dry, crazed repo man who thinks he's the wisest man alive but doesn't really know anything. Emilio Estevez... I'm not sure what to say. He plays the worst kind of scum on the planet, and he does it well. So, if I was supposed to hate my main protagonist, then I guess he did a good job. If not, if he was supposed to a likable anti-hero, then he failed. Everything he did, everything he said, and just the look on his face made me want to hit him or hope someone in the movie (which, fortunately they do hit him, so wish granted). As already mentioned, Tracey Walter does a good job and Fox Harris makes a great mad scientist. C
Direction: Again, this is a hard one to call, and it's hard to decide whether I'm complaining about the story or the direction. The timeline just doesn't work in this movie. The big offender comes when Emilio gets ticked when Emilio gets ticked with Harry and gets out of his car in a rage. A completely unrelated scene follows. I'm not sure if said scene was supposed to take place five minutes later, a day later, a week later, or what. Emilio runs into Harry later, and they're fine with each other, as if they never had a fight. Later in the movie, I guess they remembered their little spat, and then they're fighting again. Now, maybe the script was written chronologically and then was pieced together in a different order in post, in which case this is the directors fault. Or maybe it was bad writing. I don't know. I didn't see the script. In any case, both categories suffered. D
Visuals: These were actually pretty good and some of the best laughs in the movie came from the sheer ridiculousness of the visuals. I liked the thing in Fox Harris' trunk and I liked the ending sequence. So, I guess I'll give this a B.
Overall: I ended this movie feeling very conflicted. The things that were good were great, the things that were bad were awful. It is a cult classic, so perhaps you should see it to see what all the fuss is about, but I can only really recommend this movie to those who like arty, surrealist style movies. It's kinda funny at times, but not a gut busting comedy, so I can't recommend it on those grounds. Basically, if you're not an art student and are able to watch it for less that five dollars, it might be worth your time, but only if you've seen all the other movies first. D
Acting: There are some really good performances here, the best being Harry Dean Stanton as a very dry, crazed repo man who thinks he's the wisest man alive but doesn't really know anything. Emilio Estevez... I'm not sure what to say. He plays the worst kind of scum on the planet, and he does it well. So, if I was supposed to hate my main protagonist, then I guess he did a good job. If not, if he was supposed to a likable anti-hero, then he failed. Everything he did, everything he said, and just the look on his face made me want to hit him or hope someone in the movie (which, fortunately they do hit him, so wish granted). As already mentioned, Tracey Walter does a good job and Fox Harris makes a great mad scientist. C
Direction: Again, this is a hard one to call, and it's hard to decide whether I'm complaining about the story or the direction. The timeline just doesn't work in this movie. The big offender comes when Emilio gets ticked when Emilio gets ticked with Harry and gets out of his car in a rage. A completely unrelated scene follows. I'm not sure if said scene was supposed to take place five minutes later, a day later, a week later, or what. Emilio runs into Harry later, and they're fine with each other, as if they never had a fight. Later in the movie, I guess they remembered their little spat, and then they're fighting again. Now, maybe the script was written chronologically and then was pieced together in a different order in post, in which case this is the directors fault. Or maybe it was bad writing. I don't know. I didn't see the script. In any case, both categories suffered. D
Visuals: These were actually pretty good and some of the best laughs in the movie came from the sheer ridiculousness of the visuals. I liked the thing in Fox Harris' trunk and I liked the ending sequence. So, I guess I'll give this a B.
Overall: I ended this movie feeling very conflicted. The things that were good were great, the things that were bad were awful. It is a cult classic, so perhaps you should see it to see what all the fuss is about, but I can only really recommend this movie to those who like arty, surrealist style movies. It's kinda funny at times, but not a gut busting comedy, so I can't recommend it on those grounds. Basically, if you're not an art student and are able to watch it for less that five dollars, it might be worth your time, but only if you've seen all the other movies first. D