Repossessed (The Lost Collection) – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Apr 14, 2009, 14:20 GMT

The Devil\'s back. But he\'s never dealt with an exorcist like this! This spoof on THE EXORCIST is not to be missed! ...more

Leslie Nielsen trades his naked gun for the good book as he seeks to drive the devil out of Linda Blair.  The devil’s been good to Linda and her role has paid a few bills, so he’s apt to stick around.  Lionsgate brings this “Airplane”ish comedy to DVD in a new edition that is part of “The Lost Collection.”  

In 1973, Father Jedediah Mayii (Leslie Nielsen) cast Satan out of a little girl named Nancy.  He nearly died in the process and that was to be his last exorcism.  It’s seventeen years later and Nancy Aglet (Linda Blair) is all grown up with a family of her own.  She’s watching television and becomes possessed by Satan again… they say that television is an instrument of the devil. 

She’s troubled by her occasional head spinning and pea soup spewing so she goes to Father Luke Brophy (Anthony Starke) for guidance.  He determines that Old Scratch has taken up residence in Nancy’s body again and seeks out Father Mayii to help him drive out the devil since young Brophy is having a crisis of faith. 

Mayii’s ticker is still faulty and he wants to young priest to go it alone.  Crooked TV preacher Ernest Weller (Ned Beatty) and his wife Fanny Ray (Lana Schwab) get wind of Nancy’s repossession and pitch the idea of having the exorcism on live TV.

This falls right in line with El Diablo’s plans for world domination, now Father Mayii (yes, you may) has to gird up his loins and keep the devil from getting his due.  

Repossessed’s claim to fame is having Linda Blair do the pea soup spewing once again.  I assume that the paycheck and not the power of Christ compelled her to appear in this comedy.  It’s a comedy of the kitchen sink variety that throws numerous jokes at the silver screen and hopes that a few stick.

Sure, there are some laughs to be found, but most of the jokes slide down the screen and plop on the ground.  Leslie Nielsen is no stranger to comedy, though oddly he started out in dramas and has only become a comedy staple in his golden years.  He began his comedic leanings with Airplane!

He continued by reviving his Frank Drebin character from the hilarious Police Squad television series into an equally hilarious movie called the Naked Gun.  I still giggle about “assault with a concrete dildo” from that one.

Sadly, Repossessed is no Naked Gun.  The film comes from Lionsgate in a new series called “The Lost Collection.”  Some of the films you might wish would’ve stayed that way [insert rimshot here].  The line is “Movies you may have forgotten” (or wish you could – bada bing). 

It features new cover art with a slacker dude on the cover wearing a themed t-shirt (changing pithy sayings from each release to the other).  
Repossessed is presented in fullscreen.  Special features include a trivia track and theatrical trailer.  The trivia track is a bit painful.  Some of the bits are multiple choice and it seems to take too long for the right answer to pop up.

I guess you and your slacker pals are supposed to play along, but I was bored silly waiting.  I was glad to see that the track did have to deal with the film and wasn’t just a general one that might’ve been found on all of the “Lost” releases.  

Repossessed does have some funny moments, but it has a lot more unfunny ones.  The devil just doesn’t do comedy well perhaps.  Nielsen’s presence helps as well as the novelty of having Linda Blair in the cast, but it’s mostly regurgitated pea soup. 

This new release doesn’t add much and doesn’t even bother to provide a new transfer so it’s really a denizen of the Devil.  

Repossessed (The Lost Collection) is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.