Like Spaceballs, Repossessed was released too long after the film it is spoofing. 17 years is a long time, especially for us in the UK, where The Exorcist has only recently (1999) been released on video for the first time since pre-video censorship (c. 1984). Aside from that, too many jokes miss their targets, and too many subjects are lampooned. Some sequences are genuinely funny, such as Ernest & Fanny's TV Show (a brilliant spoof of hypocritical TV evangelists). Most, however, are not - the hospital scene is just not funny. Nielsen, Blair and Beatty give it their best, whilst Anthony Starke spends the whole film looking like he's just trodden in something unsavoury. Watch it if you will, B for effort, C- for results.
Repossessed
1990
Action / Comedy / Fantasy / Horror
Repossessed
1990
Action / Comedy / Fantasy / Horror
Plot summary
It's been some time since Father Jebedaiah Mayii exorcised the Devil from little Nancy Aglet, who is now grown up with a husband and two children of her own. But the prince of darkness wants to go a second round and has returned to repossess her! With Father Mayii unwilling to help, Father Luke Brophy tries his best to help Nancy, even when TV's Ernest Weller plans to air the exorcism live on TV.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
March 07, 2024 at 12:01 PM
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A good idea that came out too late
Nielson spoof with Blair's return a laughable moment, but loses steam.
Leslie Nielsen stars in another spoof, this time parodying The Exorcist. Linda Blair returns and spoofs her own character, as Nancy Aglet, and is again possessed by the demon. As a result, Nielsen's character, Father Jebedaiah Mayii, is called upon to help vanquish the demon - all the while the exorcism is being broadcast on live TV by a sensationalist show.
As with any Nielson spoofs, there are lots of gags from start to finish, along with some slapstick humor and endless parodies of various movies, from The Wizard of Oz to Rambo III. It was nice seeing the return of Linda Blair and she does a good job in recreating her role as the possessed girl, inserting tastefully done humor when necessary. However, the plot did lose steam by the time the movie focused on the TV show broadcasting the exorcism, which I thought made the film become more like a game-show than a comedy spoof. Therefore, it's not the best of Nielson's spoofs, but still laughable nonetheless.
Grade C+
Painfully obvious "Exorcist"-spoof
Leslie Nielsen was always at his best when he could hook up with the "Airplane"/"Naked Gun"-team, which consisted of gifted writers like Pat Proft, Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers. "Repossessed" is written and directed by the guy who made "Meatballs 4". That should probably give you a fair idea of what this movie is like, though it does feature less Corey Feldman water-skiing than expected. Somewhat surprisingly there are some jokes in here that work (the bible vending machine ruled), but overall this just really feels like everyone's trying way, way too hard. Especially the visual gags have that bothersome "laugh, damn it!" feel to them, they're so close to "Naked Gun" but just not quite. Same goes for the obligatory breakings of the fourth wall, not bad but not really focused enough to generate big laughs. Nielsen's talents are rather wasted here, though I must say he is about the only element that made me keep watching. It's also a very nice touch that Linda Blair agreed to do this movie, even though I have absolutely no idea why she did. Not because of the solid screenplay, I'm pretty sure of that. This is in all ways a sub-par spoof, but I reckon it's still watchable for avid Nielsen fans.