Alex Cox is best known to
audiences for directing REPO MAN, SID AND NANCY, STRAIGHT TO HELL, WALKER, and
has also done acting duties in nearly thirty films. A new of his has just come to DVD and it's off-the-wall
and highly enjoyable.
Here's the lowdown from the
back of the DVD:
"Spoiled
rich girl Pixxi De La Chasse has been disinherited from her family due to her
numerous arrests for bad driving, her failure to get a job and her overall lack
of some semblance of a responsible life. When her car gets repossessed,
Pixxi ends up getting hired by the repo men Arizona Gray and Aguas, and she
soon becomes the best repo chick around with the help of her entourage - punk
girl confidante, model-looks bodyguard and flaming hair stylist. While on
the hunt for some antique railroad cars which carry a million-dollar bounty
reward (also being sought out by a secret government agency!), clueless Pixxi
ends up on a wacky train ride which is actually a plot by a terrorist
organization. If their demands for the criminalization of gold are not
met, then the train (whose caboose is carrying long-missile growler bombs from
the Soviet Communist era!) is headed straight for downtown Los Angeles."
The complaints leveled at
the film concerning how it was filmed are also what make it unique and fun to
watch: the sets and background are all superimposed since all of the actors
were photographed in front of a green screen.
Locomotives are represented by Lionel train sets, and everything in the
film is artificial yielding a cartoonish feel to the film. Whether this was a conscious effort and an
artistic choice from the get-go or the only way to go due to a low-budget, I
don't know, but it works marvelously. Xander
Berkeley and Karen Black appear in the film's opening, hamming it up as Pixxi's
(Janet Jonet) parents who try their hardest to put her on the right path. Sporting blonde locks, Pixxi resembles Playboy's
Miss May 1996, Shauna Sand. The
characters that follow are exaggerated, caricatured, and over-the-top in their
dialogue and demeanor.
It's not the sort of film
that one would expect from Mr. Cox, and it is poised to divide fans into the
love it or hate it camps. The disc
possesses a trailer and a nearly half-hour making-of featurette, though I would
have liked to have had a commentary by the director to discuss the film's
genesis.
Overall, a fun flick!