Kiss Me Deadly (1955) and Repo Man (1984) are a couple of strange ass movies. I watched them back to back because I had read on the internet that Repo Man was heavily influenced by Kiss Me Deadly.
Based on Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer novel of the same name, about the only thing that this weird surrealist flick share's with Spillane's novel is the title. Reportedly, screen writer A.I. Bezzirides thought that Spillane's novel was a piece of crap and jettisoned the whole thing and wrote a screenplay about nuclear armageddon.
Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) and his secretary Velda (Maxine Cooper) get down to business!
"It comes to represent the 1950s Cold War fear and nuclear weapon paranoia about the atomic bomb that permeated American culture. (Homage is paid to this glowing MacGuffin in the 1984 cult film Repo Man, the film Ronin, and in Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction.)
Bad things happen when the nuclear box is opened!
When the box is opened, really bad shit happens and nobody may ever get over it. The film stars Ralph Meeker as a sadistic, totally amoral Mike Hammer, Cloris Leachman as the damsel in distress, Gaby Rodgers as the two faced dike, Albert Deckker as the mad scientist, Maxine Cooper as Mike's main squeeze Velda.
Filmsite.org describes Kiss Me Deadly as "the definitive apocalyptic, nihilistic, science fiction film noir of all time - at the close of the classic noir period."
Repo Man was inspired by Kiss Me Deadly and is a much more entertaining movie. According to Wikipedia "Repo Man received near universal acclaim and is considered by many as one of the best films of 1984."
1984 is back in the Bad Catholic's heyday, but I guess I missed this because I was probably too busy graduating from High School, applying to college and getting a job for the first time. But, better late than never. This time, the MacGuffin is some shining dead aliens in the trunk of a Malibu. The shining light in the trunk which will kill you is directly inspired by Kiss Me Deadly. Unlike Kiss Me Deadly, Repo Man sort of has a happy ending.
Repo Man stars Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton. It is listed by Entertainment Weekly at number seven on their list of the best cult movies of all time. The sound track features songs by popular punk rock artists Iggy Pop, Black Flag, the Circle Jerks and others.
The Glowing Malibu from Roswell, New Mexico
Roger Ebert said "I saw "Repo Man" near the end of busy stretch on the movie beat: Three days during which I saw more relentlessly bad movies than during any comparable period in memory. Most of those bad movies were so cynically constructed out of formula ideas and "commercial" ingredients that watching them was an ordeal. "Repo Man" comes out of left field, has no big stars, didn't cost much, takes chances, dares to be unconventional, is funny, and works. There is a lesson here."
The Bad Catholic gives Kiss Me Deadly three and half glowing nuclear boxes and gives Repo Man five glowing car trunks.
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