Pitting car repossession agents, cholo car salesmen, punk rockers on speed, CIA agents in Popsicle suits, a mod gang, crazy televangelists, and a lobotomized scientist against each other, Repo Man may be the best movie ever made. Writer and director Alex Cox combines a witty and clever screenplay with artistic shots and a kick-ass soundtrack to make a film that skewers suburbia, subcultures, cults, and generic commodification, and touts the importance of living by a code in the face of lawlessness. The 1984 film--which features the perfectly cast Emilio Estevez, Harry Dean Stanton, and Tracey Walters among others--has aged very well indeed, and it's finally out on DVD in a deluxe package with some extras.

To be honest, the extras are underwhelming. The tin box lid looks like a bland white eighties-era California license plate, replete with a Mazola-style yellow sunrise and pseudo-Art Deco red lettering. There's even a tacky fake glare on it! The 24-page booklet is pretty raw as well. With just a little bit of text, the highlights have to be Alex Cox's comic strip that was used to gain funding from Universal and the scattered photos on the set. But no matter how interesting the contents are, it's just way too short. If it were a zine, I wouldn't pay more than a buck for it.

Luckily, you get the movie. The DVD has a beautiful 1.85:1 ratio and the sound is THX-approved. My TV set isn't 16x9 and I don't have a huge speaker set-up, but it still looks and sounds great. It's much, much better than the worn-out, pan-and-scan copy you ripped off from Blockbuster: the nice, wide-angle shots of car chases, puking, and philosophizing are gorgeous, and the muttered-asides-that-you'll-miss-the-first-time-because-you're-cracking-up are clear. As for bonus material, there are two trailers (one from the movies, one for the home video) and a few biographies (including Cox, Estevez, and Stanton). The optional commentary from writer/director Alex Cox, executive producer/ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith, and a few supporting actors is maddeningly spontaneous (almost chatty) but fascinating. Even the hardest core Repo Fan probably doesn't know the movie's tentative endings (One entailed Otto becoming a Central American revolutionary and another entailed the Malibu exploding like an Atomic Bomb!) or that the monologues by Lite and Miller were originally parts of the auditions, and were never intended to be part of the movie. Imagine Repo Man without Lite telling Otto how managing bands is "no job for a man" or Miller not explaining how the "the more driving you do, the less intelligent you become" or that the "Mayans invented television"! It would have been nice to have Emilio Estevez, Harry Dean Stanton, Tracey Walters, and the other main actors pitch in, but perhaps stories about them might be even better.

And then there's the soundtrack. It's appropriately (but not necessarily on purpose) on the generic MCA CD from its original release in 1984. Good thing the music totally makes up for the lack of graphics, booklet, or anything else. The songs kick off with the title track sung by Iggy Pop with the Blondie band backing him up. After that, it's a mixture of West Coast punk classics: Black Flag's "TV Party," Suicidal Tendencies' "Institutionalized," Fear's "Let's Have a War," and an acoustic version of the Circle Jerks' "When the Shit Hits the Fan." If you don't know these songs, here's a chance to go to school. There's also some real nice atmospheric stuff (three by The Plugz and one by the Juicy Bananas) and a cover of the Modern Lovers' "Pablo Picasso Was Never Called an Asshole" by the Burning Sensations. Everyone should own this movie; your only decision should be whether or not you need the deluxe version. Unlike the food that comes in a generic can labeled "food," this movie is excellent whether it served out of the tin or not. If you possess the soundtrack, the videotape or basic DVD will be fine. Everyone else should probably buy the full package, though, from the Repo novice (since the soundtrack is essential listening) to the Repo expert (who will want one of the limited-to-30,000 boxes).