Repo Chick (2009) Reviews

• No salvation from the boiling blistering fires of eternal damnation

  bobc-52011-12-13

  In the not too distant future of an alternate reality, a Paris Hilton-like celebrity cut off from her fortune discovers she has a knack for the repossession business after joining a firm which not only has cars in its holding yard but also factories, cruise ships and what might be a nuclear power plant. Enticed by a million dollar bounty on a vintage train, she ends up in the middle of a terrorist plot to force the President of the United States to outlaw golf and become a vegan. This movie isn't so much a "Repo Man" sequel as it is a remake taken to ridiculous extremes at the expense of things like plot, character development and cinematography. It's loaded with references and parallels to "Repo Man" and at least 8 actors from the original (not including Cox) appear here as well. I got a big kick out of this, but it will obviously be lost on anyone who isn't a "Repo Man" fan and won't appeal to many of those who are, so we have a movie that by design has been made primarily for the benefit of a small subset of the small cult following of the original. The movie is unique, however, in the way it creates the fantasy world in which the action takes place. A surreal environment is produced by being filmed entirely in green screen with the floors and backgrounds added later. Although the opening scenes are made to look almost realistic, the movie increasingly uses obvious toy models and cartoon animations as it progresses. Most of the film's entertainment value comes from accepting this alternate reality as a place which is at least possible in our imaginations even if completely implausible in the real world. The point of the movie, of course, isn't the thin, absurd plot but the satire which gets leveled at many aspects of modern society. I would assume that the shallow and fictitious nature of the environment created in the film is supposed to represent those same qualities in the targets being satirized. Topics such as celebrity culture, heartless corporations, liberal activists and homeland security all get the Cox treatment. Unfortunately, it's done without the depth, coherence and brilliantly insightful dialog found throughout "Repo Man". Although I very much appreciate all the things Cox was trying to do, I would still find it hard to recommend this movie without attaching numerous qualifications to such a recommendation.

• I feel both ashamed and embarrassed to have ever watched this "film."

  surfer3122011-03-07

  After hearing for years about the rumors of a sequel to "Repo Man," one of the most out-there plot-driven insanely fabulous film from the 80's, and that it would be directed by Alex Cox, the godfather of punk films, I waited as delay after delay after delay came and went, and then finally - the promotional artwork for it arrived. Then I saw the poster. Oh my god. Was this a joke? Was I being punk'd by a lame over-hyped actor/model type on a now dead and useless music television show? Sadly, I was not. This disaster - this is the only way I can be honest and describe it - is somehow only tied in to the original film by name and just only a microhair of it's plot included. I sad down and tried - TRIED - to understand the idea behind the scenes of this "creation," but was so overwhelmingly bad, so mind-numbingly awful, that as soon as it was over I wanted to buy a gun, wait the 30 days alone in my room to own it, and then go to the store, buy it, bring it home, open the box, load the gun with a specially made hollow-point mercury-tipped bullet, and then aim it at my head and pull the trigger. I will NOT give you any details of the plot (oh yeah, right, there's a PLOT...) whatsoever, because anything I'd tell you would be too stupid to be believed or just too sad to describe here and make you enjoy the original Repo less, as it has done for me. All I can say is that if you ever - EVER - actually find yourself in a position to see this "film," please PLEASE be ready to be disappointed. I sat through this with all the hope and faith in Alex, but by the end credits I felt more like Alex in "A Clockwork Orange" in full torture mode, and I lost my eyedropper of saline solution some time back. This isn't even worthy of fan submission sequels on any level. There were almost no original scenes "filmed" as it was 95% green-screen, the kiss of death for even the newest rookie of directors, and the acting? Positively awful. It was if Katy Perry was given a chance to drip her pink bubblegum paintbrush of awfulness over some simplistic and sad video directing 101 class at some suburban community college, complete with student actors, veteran actors' talents who are completely wasted, and then there's Karen Black - ecch oh my god WHAT IS GOING ON HERE????????? I want to give it 1 out of ten, but that would almost insult anyone at the bottom who earnestly tried to make a cohesive film and failed miserably. This video "film" looks cheap, amateurish, and thought out with all the brain power it took to push this out of their anus before flushing it down onto Netflix, or whatever fools bought into this horrible horrible excuse for "entertainment." I've seen fake Russian roulette snuff videos with more thought out ideas. Sorry, I do feel really bad if you had anything to do with it, especially as an actor, because this has fail fail fail written all over it, and when you make up your resume for your next tryout for a film, leave this off of it. This creatively bankrupt "film" will make you never want to try to do anything positive in your life ever again, and finally - please sue Alex Cox for your almost two hours back of your life, please?

• Repo days

  Prismark102014-11-27

  I am a big fan of Alex Cox the movie connoisseur, the long time presenter of the Moviedrome series on British television dedicated to cult and obscure films. Each film he would introduce cult classic and give us an interesting insight on the night's film. Cox showed passion, intelligence and a respect for some of the actors and directors of cultish cinema. Alex Cox the film director has always fallen short. He showed promise with his first feature with Repo Man, a flawed cult film itself. However films such as Walker or Straight to Hell showed us an uneven even an overindulgent filmmaker playing by his own rules. By the early 1990s it was clear Cox was no longer welcome by the big film studios as he was heading south making Spanish language cinema in Mexico whereas director's such as Robert Rodriguez were heading the other direction. In Repo Chick, Cox revisits the themes from Repo Man but turns it into satire on celebrity culture, banking crisis and corrupt politics. A dispossessed heiress joins the Repo business. She ends up on a trip on a train which gets hijacked by terrorists who want to outlaw golf. The movie is filmed entirely on Green Screen with some use of animation. The CGI can look off putting and also shows its low budget origins. It certainly is not a mainstream film even though Cox got the BBC to be a co-producer of the movie. Its uneven, unfocused but it has a charm and some well known actors, although it does confirm that Cox's best days as a director are well behind him.

• Pretty dismal

  Woodyanders2011-04-07

  Spoiled rich bad girl heiress Pixxi De La Chasse (the adorable, but hopelessly charmless and obnoxious Jaclyn Jonet) gets disinherited by her snooty family and is forced to get a job as a repo chick. She proves to be a natural at the gig and sets her sights on nabbing a train with a hefty one million dollar bounty on it. However, a group of bumbling terrorists hijack the train and threaten to destroy Los Angeles unless their demands that golf is outlawed are met. Sound good? Well, it just ain't. Writer/director Alex Cox fails to bring even a smidgen of wit, style, or verve to the dopey premise. Moreover, the meandering narrative plods along at an excruciatingly sluggish pace and the soundtrack is loaded with forgettable crummy songs. Worse yet, a cool supporting cast is shamefully wasted on the lackluster material: Robert Beltran, Chloe Webb, Rosanna Arquette, Karen Black, Frances Bay, Del Zamora, and even original "Repo Man" holdover Olivia Barash. The fact that the lead female character is an insufferably shallow and snippy unappealing wealthy bitch who's way too similar to Paris Hilton for comfort doesn't help matters any. Shot largely in front of green screens, this film looks terribly cheap and cheesy. Only Miguel Sandoval as laid-back and likable cowboy repo man supreme Arizona Gray manages to rise above the general tedium and mediocrity. Sorely bereft of the fierce punky vigor and gleeful nihilistic humor of the terrific 1984 cult classic, this dreary dud is well worth avoiding.

• Glad I gave it another chance.

  punishmentpark2015-07-26

  I'm glad I tried this one again, so I can up my rating from 4 to a good 7 out of 10. The first time around, I was really unhappy about the poor and cheap visuals of 'Repo chick', but this time they even grew on me a little. They're still not great, but they got much less in the way of the fine acting, the wild and funny story with its many social, cultural and political references, and the sheer fun that it all radiates - as do all the films by Alex Cox that I've seen. He makes the kind of films that have real heart and intelligence, which is a relatively rare quality. There's a string of familiar and unfamiliar actors here doing their jobs more than aptly, of which Miguel Sandoval stands out the most, but the energy and beauty of Jaclyn Jonet really makes me wonder why she isn't a bigger name in the movies...? But then I should also ask why Alex Cox (doing a hilarious supporting role here as a mad professor of some kind) never made it bigger as well...? He would deserve it, but I'll assume his work too off-beat for that...? Anyhoo-ee, 'Repo chick' is a low low budget, crazy, yet intelligent comedy that you might want to try (again).