Repo Man follows a down on his luck punk named Otto Maddox (a very young Emilio Estevez) who just happens to be having a horrible day. Not only does he quite his menial job as a stock boy at a grocery store after smacking one of his co-workers, but his girlfriend runs off with his best friend. On the way home, he runs into a man named Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), a pill popping oddball who makes his living as a repo man, taking back cars from private citizens who have fallen behind on their car payments.

Otto and Bud soon hit it off, and it doesn't take long before Bud has taken Otto under his wing, and seeing as his parents have given what was supposed to be his college fund to a strange TV evangelist Otto is okay with that. Bud shows him the 'repo code' and all that it entails and more or less serves as his door into the violent and harsh underground of the Los Angeles based repo man. Otto takes to his new job pretty quickly and he falls pretty fast into the strange world of clandestine federal agents, gun nut car owners, and fellow repo men.

Things start off strange as Otto immerses himself in his work, dodging bullets from those who are none too keen on seeing their car taken away and trying to get the job done before the complementation catches up with him. As odd as his career is, however, it gets a whole lot stranger when Otto catches word of an APB put out on the car of an insane scientist named Dr. Frank Parnell (Fox Harris). What Otto doesn't realize is that the trunk of the car contains something so deadly that anyone who opens it is pretty much immediately disintegrated by its contents. With a two hundred thousand dollar payday hanging over the vehicle, everyone and their brother is after it but Otto could care less about everyone else or about what's in the trunk – he just wants the money.

With a soundtrack featuring contributions by Iggy Pop, Black Flag, The Circle Jerks (who also appear in the film), Suicidal Tendencies and even the mighty beer guzzling FEAR, Repo Man, despite lackluster performance at the box office, easily found itself a solid cult audience, and with good reason. It's an eclectic and bizarre little movie that is seemingly tailor made for the punk rock crowd – no surprise, really, consider director Alex Cox's upbringing and roots and his later work with The Pogues and The Clash in the psuedo spaghetti western Straight To Hell or his adaptation of the life and death of a certain Sex Pistols bass player in Sid And Nancy. The result is a soundtrack that was very much ahead of its time despite using music from the era in which it was made. Cox knew before a lot of his contemporaries how well certain music could work in a movie, and the soundtrack here is a fantastic example of how he makes it happen.

Repo Man is one of those films that speaks to a certain generation, specifically the disenfranchised youth of the eighties and nineties. That's not to say that it can't be enjoyed by anyone with an appreciation for quirky comedy-sci fi-action hybrid movies because it can, but those who grew up listening to the music and understanding the fashion sense that Cox peppers his film with will likely be more apt to embrace the movie in that respect despite the fact that the movie doesn't specifically place itself in any one time period other than 'the future.'

More than just a collection of hip music and quirky dialogue and set pieces, Repo Man also benefits from some excellent characters and a pretty decent storyline as well. Otto and Bud do evolve through the film as do some of the supporting characters. It doesn't take long for Otto to become cognizant of the ills that society has cast upon his generation, which makes him a character that a lot of us can relate to and because of that the film makes some interesting observations on the state of America at the time and on the consumerism inherent in it (and still inherent in it today – on that level the movie will probably be timeless). In this, and most of his other movies, Cox wears his politics plainly on his sleeve.

Despite the fact that the movie is violent to a point and contains as much profanity as you'd expect from a film that focuses on a semi-fictional sub-culture made up of rough and tumble cretins, Repo Man the movie isn't completely pessimistic. Some of the characters are definitely 'good' and there are some genuinely touching moments contained in and among the dirty jokes and gunplay. The repo men even make up a family of sorts, as there are certain times where despite the competition that exists between them they will band together to stand up for certain beliefs.

Cox's film gels together very nicely when the end credits hit the screen. The story is wrapped up nicely, his points are made in a way that is simultaneously fun, original, and interesting, and the movie proves to be endlessly entertaining despite its obvious low budget roots and unlikely premise. Now an integral part of eighties counter culture the film holds up very well more than two decades later and while its flaws are obvious they also add to its considerable charm.

Video:

The 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer on this release is nice and sharp despite some moderate grain in some scenes. Color reproduction is strong, the reds look very good without any bleeding problems, and the black levels are rich and deep and don't pixelate or break up at all. There aren't any issues in terms of serious print damage to report aside from some specs here and there. There is some aliasing and mild edge enhancement present on the disc but you really do have to be looking for it in order for it to be a problem though it's not as hard to spot when looking at the grill of a car or the rooftops of the buildings seen in the movie. Flesh tones look lifelike and natural, fine detail looks good in both the foreground and the background of the image, and there's really not a whole lot worth complaining about here as the movie looks just fine, even if it isn't quite perfect.