Repo Men (C or 2/4 stars)
'Repo Men', directed by Miguel Sapochnik, takes place in the bleak future (yr. 2025), where humans have improved & lengthened our lives through state of the art, expensive artificial organs created by a company named 'The Union'. Our entire world is without universal healthcare, & there's a heavy demand for these organ transplants. Transplants are expensive tasks. However, like consumer products of today, they can be paid off in installments. Great. But for those who can't keep up with the crazy rates & fall behind; they can expect the Repo Men (Remy & Jake - played by Jude Law & Forrest Whitaker) to just pop up out of nowhere, taser you, whip out a sharp knife, draw buckets of blood/guts, take the necessary organ, repossess this corporate property, & leave you for dead ...
Good stuff. Great future to look forward to. Haha, moving on. Matters gets sticky for Remy, however, when his wife (The Black Book's Carice van Houten) pressures him into looking for a safer job in sales, working alongside snake-like co-worker, Frank (Liev Schrieber). But while doing his final repo job, Remy suffers a cardiac-involved accident; one that lands him in the hospital with one of his company's artificial hearts in his chest. So now, HE has a debt to pay off to his employer, 'The Union'! Having lost his will/desire for repossessing {ahem, killing} people, he soon finds himself on-the-run from his former colleagues - including best pal, Jake - and he's decided to take along another fugitive with him, the equally damaged Beth (Alice Braga). They, of course, fall in love. But more pressing issues are at hand. Can Remy outrun Jake & 'The Union' so that his heart can't be repossessed?
You know, I didn't like 'Repo Men' enough to recommend it. Having said that, it's quite a bit better than anticipated. Take that critique any way you want {haha}. You know, the nature of the screenplay feels very familiar; but not in a bad way. The film takes a while to get the premise, but it gets there. The direction is decent. My attention span wavered, but at least I was engaged for part of the time. There are some enjoyable spurts both early on & at the very end (didn't see what occurs coming). Jude Law makes for an okay action hero; but any faint praise ends there. I suppose I enjoyed his chemistry with F. Whitaker, as well as Alice Braga (particularly near the unique ending). All other performances are pretty one-dimensional.
If you like gross violence, then the film won't disappoint (blood & guts galore, a la TV’s Nip Tuck). And while the movie doesn't quite nail its message, there IS one: big corporations will rule the future. Everything will be a commodity; & morality will take a huge hit. That's all fine. And the film has a twisted, macabre sense of humor early on. But there isn't enough story to warrant 110 min. The middle '45' are too slow (though we understand WHY by the end of it). And any edge it had goes away once the action scenes (refugees fleeing from corporate enforcers) take hold. 'Repo Men' lacks an "oh, wow" component. You'd think the source material & title would call for a comic spin on the follies of capitalistic health care. If only the movie would have kept the twisted, but tongue-in-cheek tone/humor of the 1st act, then it may have been more successful. Fun, followed by so-so action & melodrama = uneven. Repo Men's unevenness is its undoing.
Good stuff. Great future to look forward to. Haha, moving on. Matters gets sticky for Remy, however, when his wife (The Black Book's Carice van Houten) pressures him into looking for a safer job in sales, working alongside snake-like co-worker, Frank (Liev Schrieber). But while doing his final repo job, Remy suffers a cardiac-involved accident; one that lands him in the hospital with one of his company's artificial hearts in his chest. So now, HE has a debt to pay off to his employer, 'The Union'! Having lost his will/desire for repossessing {ahem, killing} people, he soon finds himself on-the-run from his former colleagues - including best pal, Jake - and he's decided to take along another fugitive with him, the equally damaged Beth (Alice Braga). They, of course, fall in love. But more pressing issues are at hand. Can Remy outrun Jake & 'The Union' so that his heart can't be repossessed?
You know, I didn't like 'Repo Men' enough to recommend it. Having said that, it's quite a bit better than anticipated. Take that critique any way you want {haha}. You know, the nature of the screenplay feels very familiar; but not in a bad way. The film takes a while to get the premise, but it gets there. The direction is decent. My attention span wavered, but at least I was engaged for part of the time. There are some enjoyable spurts both early on & at the very end (didn't see what occurs coming). Jude Law makes for an okay action hero; but any faint praise ends there. I suppose I enjoyed his chemistry with F. Whitaker, as well as Alice Braga (particularly near the unique ending). All other performances are pretty one-dimensional.
If you like gross violence, then the film won't disappoint (blood & guts galore, a la TV’s Nip Tuck). And while the movie doesn't quite nail its message, there IS one: big corporations will rule the future. Everything will be a commodity; & morality will take a huge hit. That's all fine. And the film has a twisted, macabre sense of humor early on. But there isn't enough story to warrant 110 min. The middle '45' are too slow (though we understand WHY by the end of it). And any edge it had goes away once the action scenes (refugees fleeing from corporate enforcers) take hold. 'Repo Men' lacks an "oh, wow" component. You'd think the source material & title would call for a comic spin on the follies of capitalistic health care. If only the movie would have kept the twisted, but tongue-in-cheek tone/humor of the 1st act, then it may have been more successful. Fun, followed by so-so action & melodrama = uneven. Repo Men's unevenness is its undoing.