Jake Baxter takes a job as a repoman with hopes of living the quiet life. Plans go sour when he's whipped into supersonic action, involving a vicious crime lord, a mob of angry car owners, a sadistic porno ring and lastly a brutal, illegal and very lethal car race known throughout L.A.'s underworld as the "Slam Track."
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REPO JAKE is a cheap crime thriller from the team at PM Entertainment. It's not one of their most distinguished entries, and mainly it's a star vehicle for former GRIZZLY ADAMS Dan Haggerty, the man-mountain whose beard could hide a dozen bird nests. Haggerty plays his usual ultra-tough character who joins the repossession business, only to find his new line of work throws him up against some very dodgy criminals.Along the way he fights gangsters and robbers and even has time for a little romance. Haggerty's range isn't great but he's a big and jovial presence and I liked him in much the same way I like Bud Spencer. At one point he breaks up a sleazy porn ring. The action scenes are half-hearted and the whole thing feels oddly tame given the dark subject matter, but overall it's okay.
This film turned up when I was studying film at Farnham, and quickly gained a sort of weird cult status. It was like a masterclass in how not to construct a movie.Seriously, I love that films like this exist! Not that they should be encouraged or anything, but If you can (Which is unlikely) I would recommend you give it a go for the laugh...Has to be ten lines? ================================================ ========================================== ========================================== ==========================================
It is hysterically funny, but not once during the entire film does leading man Dan 'the man' Haggerty pick up a shot gun (as illustrated on the box) or anything other than a sauce-pan to eat some soup in the most pointless scene ever! There is no super sonic action (as described on the synopsis). The film plods along as Jake steals cars in the most strangest and funniest ways, eg holding onto car bonnets and taking a drive around a car park. But within these pointless and uneventful scenes, the bad acting, filming, lighting -and well just about everything in it, it is hysterically funny. As I once heard a comment "Nothing beats Jake"!It is a cult classic, for being so rubbish its funny. Dan Haggerty should have a continued career doing such films as this and other parody types - "Bicentenial Dan" or "being Dan Haggerty". A star is born. Hail Dan and his magnificent beard. Watch this film in its unholy glory and enjoy the worst the film industry can offer and laugh at the funniest film ever made!!!AN 18 certificate for this?? The bbfc took one look at box and rated it, despite it would pass for a PG - 12 quite easily! DO ENJOY!
**Minor spoilers** but don't worry, the films not good enough to spoil.Repo Jake is a miserably low-budget TV film, starring a host of second rate TV bit part players. The voice of the bad guy in Power Rangers, Grizzly Adams from numerous Grizzly Adams films, and that old guy from Wayne's World who gets his mask removed in the Scooby Doo ending.Anyways, I stray from the point. The film is bad. I watched it with my housemate, and I think that may have doubled the total number of people who have ever watched it. In fact, I'm not sure why I'm writing this as no-one will ever read it. Never mind.It starts off as a showpiece for various stuntmen, and the stunts aren't that bad. We're not talking Bond jumping off a damn, or men hanging on the back of Stagecoaches, but their not bad in a "Fall Guy" kind of way. The stunts, however, are completely unconnected to what plot their is, which features the exciting life of repo men. I suppose someone saw "Repo Man" and thought they'd jump in on the action, but where Alex Cox wrote and directed his film as a bizarre action comedy, Joseph Merhi loses the bizarre and the comedy and virtually all the action. I think his only hope was that people would confuse one with the other.The back of the video (why it was distributed on video in this country I'll never know. It's deleted now - thank God) claims all sorts of car chases, 'sadistic porn rings', action, and romance. It's not that these things aren't there, it's just that more often than not they are simply referred to rather than being part of the plot.This film does have a few redeeming features. Well, two. The lead character, played by Dan Haggarty, is quite good. He's not a good actor by any stretch of any imagination, but he's got a great presence, and and even better beard. The other redeeming feature is the last scene - I'm not spoiling the plot by saying it's a car race. It's quite well put together. A bit of dodgy editing here and there, but quite exciting nonetheless.Repo Jake seems to have two gears. Neutral and then maybe third (not quite top gear, but moving along at about 30). It's either tediously dull, with characters you don't care about spouting bad lines in a plot that makes no sense, or it's vaguely enjoyable action that has nothing to do with the plot.I gave this film a 2, which I think is pretty generous. If you're really into low-budget straight-to-US-cable-TV films, with bad acting, awful dialogue and average action - this is the film for you! Or if you just want to keep me company as one of the few people in the world who have actually seen it, then give it a go.
