Riposseduta

Repossessed (1990)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Seventeen years after having the Devil removed from her soul, adult Nancy Aglet (Linda Blair) finds herself possessed yet again so she brings back Father Mayii (Leslie Nelson) but this time a fake preacher (Ned Beatty) wants to put it on live television to make some money. A spoof of THE EXORCIST with Linda Blair returning and Nelson coming off THE NAKED GUN should have meant a sure-fire hit but sadly this is a rather boring, unfunny and at times painfully bad movie that probably had more cash in its eye than anything else. There's so much that could have been done with the material but this is a perfect example of why certain films work and why others don't. Stuff like AIRPLANE, HOT SHOTS and THE NAKED GUN work because of the talented screenwriters who make the jokes work. Writer-director Bob Logan simply doesn't get the material to work for a number of reasons but the biggest is that the jokes are all rather lame and just seem forced. One such example of Blair fixing her kids pea soup. Another has a priest saying something about "head" and it of course being taken the wrong way. The stuff with the preacher and his wife is so forced and annoying that it just never gets any laughs. Even worse is how the story structure is because for the most part we see Nelson teaching in front of a class and then we see the "other" story dealing with Blair. We go back and forth between the two and usually we get Nelson making a few comments but those two are unfunny. Nelson seems bored in his part and Beatty simply overplays his. Blair doesn't give a very good performance but I'm not going to blame her since the material just wasn't right and she appears to really be forcing herself to try and get laughs. REPOSSESSED should have worked and probably could have worked in better hands but as it is the movie is just cheap and weak.

I saw REPOSSESSED on Comedy Central one night and while many may disagree with me on this one, I think that it is Linda Blair's best work. Both Linda Blair and Leslie Nielson are at their comedic best. The premise could have used a little work, but the movie seems to serve one purpose and one purpose only: to spoof THE EXCORCIST. I like that idea since I didn't like THE EXCORCIST that much and the movie spoofs it very well yet there needs to be more to the movie. It would have worked better if the movie spoofed several movies and not just a few. Though as I said before, it is a very funny movie with the two leads giving their best performances. The music and special effects are also top-rate along with the writing. I hope that there is a REPOSSESSED 2 sometime soon.

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+

Linda Blair, Leslie Nielsen, Ned Beatty, and Anthony Starke star in this funny spoof of "The Exorcist" (which also starred Linda Blair). Linda Blair is Nancy Aglet who has been possessed by the devil. Leslie Nielsen is Father Mayii who has driven the devil out of Nancy before and is called upon once again to fight the devil. Ned Beatty is Ernest Weller, the evangelist who is trying to exploit the devil by making a television show out of her. If you like spoof movies then you should definitely see this one.

Repossessed is funny, and some scenes are very funny, but there are a lot of silly gags instead of funny ones. But the funny gags out shine the silly ones. I give this movie **1/2 out of ****