Even with abating Charlie Sheen obsessions, it seems that no one ever went and talked to good le Emilio Estevez about what was going on. Granted, the guy’s career ended roughly fifteen years ago (that might even be a generous estimate). But as the most sane member of the Estevez clan – Martin Sheen can’t claim that title, have you seen the opening scene in Apocalypse Now? That wasn’t acting, he was just loaded. Anyway, Emilio staying out of these recent sordid media events probably means he’s resigned himself to watching what goes on in Hollywood as opposed to intervening. Whatever the reason for that, though, now would be a good time to start working on the thirtieth anniversary edition of Repo Man.

Now, it’s not that the film’s a classic. Emilio does look pretty wide eyed and ready to go. And with Harry Dean Stanton, the perennial everyman, as a co-star, the film should appeal to a wide swath of public viewership. Hell, if anyone convinced Charlie to show up at a public showing of Repo Man, it might make a dollar. Anyway, the film, which is frequently relegated to conversation’s about its soundtrack, sports a few engaging moments even when punks aren’t being portrayed as bad guys. When that happens, though, Repo Man takes on a Troma feel, so at least that’s funny.

Emilio’s character, a dumb punk himself, stumbles into a gig repossessing cars. He gets shot at, has to wear a suit (which actually makes him look like a 2-Tone gangster), but makes decent loot and doesn’t have to answer to a boss in any traditional sense of the word. Along the way, though, Emilio lands himself some mystical car with a trunk full of something viewers don’t get a look at and aren’t ever told about – except it can make a person disitigrate.

Folks have noted the similarity between the trunk of the car to Kiss Me Deadly and its nuclear suitcase. That’s surely an apt comparison. But perhaps more importantly, in a pop culture sense, that glowing trunk functions as go between for the older noir flick and 1994’s Pulp Fiction. There’s a suitcase functioning in roughly the same role. And seeing as Tarantino has watched every movie on the face of the earth, in addition to being California-centric, Emilio’s trunk could be as important in Pulp Fiction’s construction as Robert Aldrich’s fifties’ classic. Just a thought, but a good one, huh?