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IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1053424/ Repo Men takes place in a near-future America where an organization called The Union has developed artificial organs to take the place of donated ones. In some cases these organs may also improve a human's natural senses, but that's only barely touched upon in the movie. The catch is that these organs are tremendously expensive. Should you fail to make your payments the organ is repossessed by brutish thugs who see you as nothing more than a job. If the plot sounds at all familiar then don't feel surprised. Just a couple years ago we were tormented by the same plot in Repo: The Genetic Opera. The difference between the movies is that Repo Men neither has singing, or any actor quite as bad as Paris Hilton. What Repo Men does have is violence, and a lot of it. It also involves a serious twist, but not any one you'd expect. This is the sort of movie that's neither terrible or good... It just is. You watch it with your buddies because there's violence and gore. You have it on your DvD shelf. Does that make it worth while to pay big bucks to see it in theaters? Probably not. All in all 2.5 out of 5
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Mar 19, 2010 21:29
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 16:55 |
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Jude Law is Remy, a top repo man for The Union, a multi-national biomedical corporation, who reclaims artificial organs - "artiforgs" in the movie - from people who default on their payments. With no hesitation, Remy slices and gashes his way to the implanted organs with professionalism and calm brutality. After a mishap with his final repossession, Remy finds himself with his own heart replaced with an artiforg. With his old heart replaced, Remy begins to sympathize with The Union's clients and lacks his old ruthlessness and drive to do his job and, consequently, leaves him unable to pay his bill. I can't help but love the premise. The story is timely with America's broken healthcare system the topic of the day and it has a satirical edge that's satisfying. And little touches like the bionic torch singer than becomes the love interest later and The Union's mascot, a guy in an mechanical lung costume, make the film endearing. The plot becomes disappointing as it progresses. A lot of what happens is predictable and the movie becomes more of a weary grind to watch the longer you stay with it. Some scenes are unnecessarily long or ultimately pointless. You could argue that lingering shots of clients being gutted for their artificial organs are intentional and meant to have an impact on the audience. It also serves to highlight the special effects for the Fangoria nerds who get a hard on seeing dyed corn syrup spray all over the place rather than, you know, appreciating a story you could find only in a genre picture. And that scene with the nine year old black market surgeon, while admittedly a fun idea, served no purpose to the movie's story and, again, only served to showcase a special effect(the bionic knee joint removal). And while I'm using spoiler tags, the ridiculous fight scene at the pink door near the end is as stupid as it is gratuitous. Instead of a labored knife fight in slow-motion, why didn't Remy pick up the guns from the security guards he just killed and make it easier to wipe out everyone blocking him? The entire fight scene had no other point but to put mindless action, a vain attempt to make things more interesting, in an already dragging movie. The acting was fine even if the characterizations were simple and, to use a pun, barely fleshed out. Not a fault of the actors as much as it was a movie stretched too thin to cover the bases of what's crammed into a science fiction film these days. Three stars out of five. Not a Duck fucked around with this message at 17:12 on Mar 22, 2010 |
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Mar 22, 2010 17:07
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The trailer gave me high expectations but this turned out to be another mediocre near-future scifi film with a great but under-explored premise, much like Surrogates. The big plot device of Remy's reversal is given away in the trailer but the accompanying twist is unfortunately fairly easy to see and even more distressing is that it is given no real background or weight - no visual or dialogue explanation is made to display how pathetically needy Forest Whittaker's character must be that he takes the risk of killing his best friend and forces him into indentured slavery so they can keep working together.. In all, the movie takes very easy and predictable routes and while none are especially bad, they don't provide much viewer satisfaction. Up to this point, I'd give it 3 out of 5 for being a solid action movie with a good driving idea. However the ending, while set up well, feels like a lame attempt to hand-wave away the problems of predictability and lack of innovation. It feels like a slap in the face for even daring to (rightfully) think negatively of the movie. 2.5 out of 5 Der Luftwaffle fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Apr 11, 2010 |
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Apr 11, 2010 05:57
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