This is a wacky cult film in the same vibe as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or the Big Lebowski. Emilio Estevez plays an angsty rebellious punk youth dissatisfied with society who finds himself on the inside of the seedy world of Repo Men. A lot of the movie is just kind of like an episode of Seinfeld or a more eventful version Dazed and Confused; The movie jumps back and forth switching its focus from Estevez to the other repo men, to a bunch of criminals. a mysterious government agency, and a strange man driving a Chevy malibu which all the character slowly become focused on and in search of. The Chevy malibu contains a strange energy source in its trunk which emits a bright light that vaporizes anyone who opens the trunk.The movie slowly becomes more and more about aliens and has an apropriately wacky climax sequence with a flying car. This film can either be taken at face value as just a fun wacky viewing, but it can be analyzed as something deeper than that too. This film contains a lot of social commentary about youth and teen angst, as well as political commentary on the US in the 80s, the economy, and a message of anti-conformity, in my mind justifying why this one's a part of the Criterion Collection. This is a good one and the director received a lot of acclaim and praise for this film in which he showed great potential of things to come, but though he did the acclaimed Sid and Nancy (1986) and Walker (1987), this director never achieved the level of fame he deserved. Cox would go on to write and direct a film called Straight to Hell (1987), which was a western starring The Irish rock legends The Pogues, Joe Strummer (lead singer of The Clash), Courtney Love, Elvis Costello, Dennis Hopper Grace Jones, and Jim Jarmusch, as well as writing an unused screenplay for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), and he was also originally considered to direct the original Robocop (see here). Even though I didn't love it and some of its logic was a bit too unbelievable, it fit with the weirdness of the film. It also has a great punk rock soundtrack featuring the likes of Iggy Pop and The Circle Jerks. I give it a 4.5/5. P.S. you also never find out what's in the trunk, which in my mind is what I think Pulp Fiction was referencing with its briefcase, but I've heard other theories about the briefcase so it's just a hunch. You can view the trailer below:
This is classic 80s cinema at its best. If you like the best 80s movies like Back to The Future, Top Gun etc., this is for you, great humor (always straight-faced even with ridiculous dialogue), cheap but effective effects, great 80s soundtrack and more. The main character is a martial arts studying brain surgeon, physicist, all around genius and leader of his very own rock band and star of video games comic books and more in his universe. This is the type of movie every six year old boy dreams of making.This movie helped launch the careers of Jeff Goldblum (as Buckaroo's cowboy brain surgeon sidekick lol), Peter Weller (Robocop), Jon Lithgow (3rd rock from the sun, Shrek), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future, The Pagemaster), Ellen Barkin (Diner, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), Billy Vera (of Billy Vera & the Beaters, an 80s one hit wonder band with the song "At This Moment"), and Clancey Brown (the bad guard from Shawshank Redemption and the frickin voice of Mr. Krabs from Spongebob). This movie was tailor made for tons of spinoffs merchandise and sequels, but it never got ANY and I will never understand why, My only dissappointment with the film was the characters never went to outer space, or at least never showed it for lack of a bigger budget, even though the film deals strongly with aliens and stuff. Definitely quotable and a no brainer as far as why it has a cult following. I will give it 4.5/5 and say no more, cept watch the end scene of the movie SO good:
This is classic 80s cinema at its best. If you like the best 80s movies like Back to The Future, Top Gun etc., this is for you, great humor (always straight-faced even with ridiculous dialogue), cheap but effective effects, great 80s soundtrack and more. The main character is a martial arts studying brain surgeon, physicist, all around genius and leader of his very own rock band and star of video games comic books and more in his universe. This is the type of movie every six year old boy dreams of making.This movie helped launch the careers of Jeff Goldblum (as Buckaroo's cowboy brain surgeon sidekick lol), Peter Weller (Robocop), Jon Lithgow (3rd rock from the sun, Shrek), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future, The Pagemaster), Ellen Barkin (Diner, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), Billy Vera (of Billy Vera & the Beaters, an 80s one hit wonder band with the song "At This Moment"), and Clancey Brown (the bad guard from Shawshank Redemption and the frickin voice of Mr. Krabs from Spongebob). This movie was tailor made for tons of spinoffs merchandise and sequels, but it never got ANY and I will never understand why, My only dissappointment with the film was the characters never went to outer space, or at least never showed it for lack of a bigger budget, even though the film deals strongly with aliens and stuff. Definitely quotable and a no brainer as far as why it has a cult following. I will give it 4.5/5 and say no more, cept watch the end scene of the movie SO good: