Viewed – 08 July 2020 Blu-ray

For some reason I have always wanted to see this early eighties oddity. Directed by British cult filmmaker Alex Cox (Sid & Nancy) this is pure low budget gorilla film-making with an almost throw-away plot revolving around street punk Otto (Emilio Estevez) who gets involved with a group of ‘repo men’ who steel / reclaim cars when debts fail to get paid. However one such car doing the rounds has a very unusual package in its trunk that may just be extra terrestrial.

This was a bit nuts. It’s clear Cox was going for a rather surreal vibe with sprinklings of social commentary and not so subtle send ups of shady FBI, street culture and sci-fi b-movies. It doesn’t really make much sense, it’s never explained why the car with the alien in its trunk is just driving around constantly – where is it going? Or how one girl seems to be connected. Acting from Estevez as well as the late Harry Dean Stanton varies from passable to bad all the time too. There’s also some pretty dodgy edits along the way that add some confusion.

Yet somehow it’s still kinda fun, and every now and then I can appreciate something stripped down, experimental and different. A soundtrack featuring Iggy Pop is a bonus and some of the film-making, as awkwardly cheap looking as it is, has a certain charm to it. I’m glad I’ve seen it now and I had a good time, but it remains far from essential viewing.

The Blu-ray, part of Eureka’s Masters of Cinema series is rather packed however. It boasts a clean and fairly detailed restored image as well as a DTS HD mono soundtrack (although dialogue can get a bit echoey). We get an archive commentary from the director, producer etc and an 11 minute intro from Alex Cox, shot in 2011. Add to this a wealth of deleted footage, a TV version, trailers, a retrospective making-of and a detailed booklet. For collectors, this makes up for many shortcomings with the actual movie.

Verdict:

(the movie) Poor

(the Blu-ray) Recommended