Repo Men

Repo Men

In this age of big-budget Hollywood productions, some movies struggle to  make back their investment, gradually limping towards the break-even  line like a hamstrung villain.

Others, like Repo Men, don't even come close.

It's easy to see how the Hollywood money men would have fallen for Repo Men's pitch. It mixes the Sci-Fi humor of Men In Black with the dark near-future of Bladerunner,  stirring in a little Tarantino-style blood 'n' guts along the way. Top  it with a couple of bankable stars, and it probably looked like an  indispensable treat.

Except the audiences didn't see it that way, and to date Repo Men has only managed to claw back half its $32 million budget. Clearly the recipe for success needs to be updated.

It's hard to put your finger on exactly where the film's producers went  wrong, although there are certainly plenty of problems with this sorry  mess of a movie. While Jude Law does admirable work as body part re-possessor Remy, he's hopelessly  miscast in the role, never quite convincing us that he's the kind of  kick-ass hardman who could take out an entire gang of armed assailants -  and Forest Whitaker is largely given trite cliches to spout as his sidekick-gone-bad.

Suddenly Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are looking like cinema's most natural buddies.

As for the plot, Repo Men scavenges its parts from a multitude of  sources without ever quite matching up to any of them. Remy (Law) and  Jake (Whitaker) are repo men for a firm that sells artificial human  organs - when you default on your loan for that mechanical heart, Jake  and Remy are the guys who turn up on your doorstep to rip it back out  again.

Remy has a literal change of heart of his own, however, after a  workplace accident leaves him needing a transplant. And once the new  heart is inside him, he can't bring himself to do his job. Where he used  to see targets, he now sees helpless victims of circumstance like  himself.

Neither Jake nor their gleefully vicious boss (Liev Schreiber) take kindly to this change, and when Remy crosses paths with sultry singer and transplant addict Beth (Alice Braga) the pair of them hatch a plot to bring the entire company down, with the help of rogue organ-dealer Asbury (John Leguizamo). Before they can, though, Remy has to face the men he used to work with - and a lot of blood will be spilled.

The criticism of the American Health Care system is obvious from the  start, but it's never subtle or nuanced enough to make a lasting impact.  Instead we're given plenty of blood and gore, but very little actual  meat. The screenwriters and director Miguel Sapochnik seem determined to  take the bloodiest and most over-the-top option at every turn, and what  might have been a piece of truly cutting satirical Sci-Fi instead turns  into a gore-splattered - but sadly brainless - exploitation flick.

A few of the later scenes suggest that they were aiming for Quentin Tarantino's  home territory, but neither the dialogue nor the directing are up to  the task. Instead those quirky soundtrack choices simply grate, while  the endless flow of blood and severed limbs fails to cover up the film's  lack of substance.

Jude Law and Forest Whitaker really should have known better than to  indulge in such a blunt attempt at Sci-Fi action, and despite their best  efforts neither of them can gloss over Repo Men's many crudities. Audiences clearly knew what they were doing when they stayed away.

2/5

Repo Men : A Quick Review

I really didn't want to see this movie, honestly not even a little bit. I hate gore, it grosses me out immensely and makes me incredibly squeamish. Not to mention that it recieved about a negative 25% on rottentomatoes.com. Not very high on my list of movies I'd like to view. But I was forced into it, and I have to say Repo Men wasn't what I expected it to be. Jude Law and Forest Whitaker live in a future where people are given artifical organs to replace their terrible natural ones, and it works like a bank would. If you can't make your payments on time the company sends repo men to reclaim their property. That is where Jude Law comes in. He hunts you down cuts you open and takes your liver, leaving you to bleed out. I thought I had this movie predicted, but it really threw me a couple of curveballs that pleased me immensely. I called them out at the last second but it still caught me by surprise. The movie is incredibly depressing but not a bad sci fi flick. If you hate gore definitely pass it up, but if you are a gore hound Repo Men is for you. But please be warned about the gore lovefest towards the end of the film. It is disgusting and I almost vomited all over myself.

-Christopher O'Connell

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Repo Men

Repo Men, directed by Miguel Sapochnik, screenplay by Eric Garcia and Garrett Lerner, based on Garcia’s novel, “The Repossession Mambo” is gory, fun schlock with an interesting premise.

Repo Men’s setting is the future in an unnamed city. Human organ transplants are hard to come by so mechanical organ transplants are the rage. Unfortunately folks have these transplants and “forget” they are not free. When they fall behind on payments, they are paid a visit by the repo men, to repossess the transplants and the end results are not happy ones.

Jude Law and Forest Whitaker are the said repo men (Remy and Jake respectively) and Liev Schreiber (Frank) is their boss. Friends since childhood, the two repo men go at their job with a great deal of relish, but Remy, in an effort to save his marriage, decides to leave the field and take a job in sales. It’s while on his last job as a repo man that things go awry and he finds himself the unwilling recipient of a mechanical organ. His “heart” no longer in his repo job, Remy can’t keep up with the payments and things go from bad to worse. As Remy remarks to Jake, “Making people die becomes second nature. Apparently it also works the other way around.” As a result the hunter becomes the hunted. And in trying to save himself, Remy gets a lot of innocent people killed.

While the acting of the three leads is good, the movie drags in spots and it is during these times I thought about the actors. Jude Law just finished playing "Hamlet" on Broadway, Liev Schreiber received raves for his recent role in Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge” and Forest Whitaker is an Academy Award winner. What are they doing in this cheese of a film? Entertaining, yes, but cheese nevertheless. Think Dexter without the smarts. These men deserve better.

Last updated: 2010-03-23 18:40:31 by jfuchsman

Repo Men

     The previews and hype for "Repo Men" screamed stay  away but the concept and Jude  Law gave me some hope.  Maybe there's something more to this  movie.  Maybe it's not just an over-hyped, action filled, excuse for  bloody violence.  Maybe, just maybe, it's worth seeing.  Then again,  maybe not.
 
     "Repo Men" stars Jude Law and Forest Whitaker as a pair  of repo men who come to repossess very expensive artificial organs from  people who have fallen behind on their loan payments.  It is somehow  legal for them to incapacitate and slice people open, wherever they just  happen to be, (after breaking into their homes, in public, whatever)  remove organs by hand, and leave people lying in pools of blood, dead or  dying.  It is also, somehow, permitted for these organs to be  reclaimed, cleaned, and resold, which, amazingly, is more profitable for  the company than selling organs on credit and having the entire loan  repaid.  Jude Law's  character ends up needing an artificial heart and, rather than opening  up the door for some deep, soul-searching analysis of what he does for a  living, it simply puts him on the other side of the equation, where he  and his former partner can have several over extended and unrealistic  fight scenes.  There's also a very convenient and under developed love  story between Jude Law's  character and, basically, Melina from Total Recall, played by Alice Braga.  Also, Jude Law's character is  trying to get his wife and son back, but that gets in the way of the  first love story, so that just kind of evaporates.  Oh, and I almost  forgot to mention the incredible twist ending that is heavily  foreshadowed and can be seen coming from a mile away. 
 
      What a muddled mess.  "Repo  Men" tries desperately to be a science fiction morality tale, but  has no moral and makes no statement about society.  It tries to have a  love story, but can't seem to decide if Jude Law's character  loves his wife and son or the club singer he found in a gutter, strung  out on futuristic looking, red cocaine who suddenly becomes perfectly  healthy and fights like a seasoned professional  after two days straight  of being unconscious because she was strung out and coming down.  (What??!)  It desperately tries to be an action movie, but the action is  over stylized, unbelievable, over extended, full of MTV style quick  cuts, and tries to be a substitute for a real plot or an actual ending.   In the end, (which couldn't have come soon enough,) "Repo Men" tries to blow  your mind by being a psychological thriller with a twist ending, but the  possibility of the twist is given away far too early and too often and  hinted at more than once during the ending, so, unless you were texting  during the movie and not paying attention, there is no surprise twist,  just a feeling of being thoroughly let down as the inevitable happens. 
 
      The premise had some promise, but there is absolutely no analysis or  explanation of the social situation.  We are not sure what 'The Union'  is or what role it plays in society.  The absolute first thing you hear  is a staticky news item about the U.S. government going bankrupt, but  there is absolutely no further mention of the social or political  situation.  The repossession and resale (Resale?  Really?!) of  artificial organs is rationalized by some quick exposition at the  beginning of the film and there is no other mention of why or how this  can possibly be legal or socially acceptable.  I might be able to  swallow such a illogical and flawed premise if there was some kind of  pay off, but all it leads up to is action, violence, and insulting my  intelligence.  (And shouldn't the people who work for the artificial  organ company have better health insurance??!)
 
      Don't buy into the hype.  "Repo Men" isn't worth a  matinee ticket price, much less waiting in lines and sitting in a  crowded theater full of kids texting.  If you must see for yourself, do  yourself a favor and wait for "Repo Men" to hit the  dollar theaters or Netflix.  It'll  be there faster than you think.

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Brian
Ciné Critique Américain

Review: Repo Men

* out of four stars

“Repo Men” needed a high speed chase with flying cars, a stunt where someone jumps from something onto a moving something else, more time in the stripper joint, a well-choreographed fist fight, someone blowing something up with a rocket launcher, a sex scene, more stuff blowing up, a techno-influenced musical score and a much more acceptable ending. This wouldn’t have made the story better, but it at least would’ve given us more to enjoy.
As the film progressed, I hated it more and more. Jude Law, who starred in the similar David Cronenberg film “eXistenZ,” plays Remy, a Repo Man for a large medical corporation which specializes in making artificial organs for a high price. Fail to pay and Remy and buddy Jake (Forest Whitaker, “Ghost Dog,” “The Last King of Scotland”) come to repossess the company’s product… by taking the organ out of them. “But this rarely ever happens,” lies evil corporate president Frank (Live Schreiber, “Defiance,” “Wolverine”) who takes pleasure in getting his merchandise back.
Something happens to Remy, an action so unsuspicious that when we learn the truth behind it we don’t understand why, nor do we get a satisfying explanation… but anyway, this something happens to Remy and he has to get an artificial heart. To answer your next question, yes, eventually Remy cannot pay for it and decides to run from the company.
This film is preposterous, and the fact I’m saying that means something. The film would be less preposterous if it were more preposterous. Let me explain. About halfway through the movie, it becomes very unbelievable. How, for example, could Remy survive such a huge blow to the head from a huge metal crane? How can someone cut themselves open and move an object around in their own bodies without passing out? And finally, is everyone in the corporation required to carry around a knife in their briefcase? The answer to these questions is stupid, and to top it off, it’s all the same answer.
The ending of the film couldn’t be more angering, but I won’t give it away. It attempts to be more surprising than it really is. It’s a stupid, disappointing ending that pranks the audience more than satisfies it. It’s a bad attempt to make sense of everything. It doesn’t work.
Where are my high-speed chase and rocket launchers? If we’re going to do the implausible, do it with more style. Then we’ll stop caring and enjoy the ride. In one word, to quote MAD Magazine, “Blecch!”

Repo Men: A Borrowed and Unoriginal Homage to Better Science Fiction Films

It seems as though science fiction has been the genre of choice the past couple of years with relatively successful results considering that both District 9 and Avatar were nominated for best picture this past academy award season. Along with that fact there have also been grand box office gains by many science fiction contenders with the likes of Transformers and Star Trek as well as some well conceived cerebral ones such as The Road and Moon. The latest box office contender is Repo Men, a hodgepodge science fiction film attempting to balance different genres in one complete project that has varied results. This film feels extremely borrowed in most of its elements, including plot, twist, style, and substance, but it still contains a moment or two of excitement and intrigue. Never really taking the film to a new level from what we’ve already seen before compared to such films as Total Recall or Logan’s Run, Repo Men is ultimately a one dimensional action film without the depth, persistence, and relevance that most science fiction films usually have even with all of its attempts at blending genres. Although many will be just beside themselves when the twist comes, something that Brazil did magnificently better, it really is only because audiences these days never think when watching their movies and just sit back for the ride. If you want to plug yourself into the Matrix and receive the images rather than what they might signify then this blood filled bland action film just might be for you.
            At times the plot and story seem a bit over the top and perhaps satirical but that might only be because our most recent memory of this plot is from an incredibly over the top horror musical Repo: The Genetic Opera. Repo Men aims to tell the story of a Union worker named Remy, who is paid to reclaim mechanical organ transplants if you fail to make your payments on time. The obvious subtlety in referencing the current housing crisis shows just how deep this film is willing to go. After an unfortunate incident with a defibrillator, which also has a stupid twist to it, Remy is given a replacement heart and needs proper payments or else the Repo Men will come and get him. So his eyes are opened now that he has an organ transplant realizing how horrid his work is now considering that these people have families. It wasn’t enough to be stunning people, cutting them up, and leaving them to die, it took a new heart. Even writing these sentences it seems baffling and ridiculous almost as if it’s like the Monty Python sketch from Meaning of Life when the two doctors come to get the organ from a man who possesses a donor card except this lacks the intention of the joke. To make matters more complicated, Remy’s best friend and partner Jake, is called in to track him down. All of this climaxes in a daring break in and attempted destruction of the company’s mainframe to erase all of the data pertaining to over due organs, which is bloody, fast paced, and lacking breathing room for coherent thought. But if you had a chance to think about it you probably would start wondering why you bothered to venture into the theater in the first place seeing as how the film never lifts away from your basic action film.
            Luckily for Repo Men it has a good cast to aid in all of its unfulfilled genre explorations, allowing for decent performances in its restricted environment. Jude Law as the protagonist Remy isn’t what you would normally consider an action star but he gets through the film rather well, despite the written character being quite one dimensional. Along with him is Forrest Whitaker who works for the most part as a strong one track minded man who believes that a job is a job no matter what it pertains to. It really is too bad that these two well established actors of integrity couldn’t have more dramatic or mentally challenging scenes with each other. Instead we’re given two weird scenes of exchanged laughter and extreme close ups of Whitaker’s lazy eye. Liev Schrieber is the most successful of the bunch with his character only due to sheer personality with his egotistic profit minded villain, which seems to be a Hollywood must lately since Avatar had the same one dimensional character in its narrative framework. For this action film you do need an established villain and it’s always easier to make them a strictly face value character without delving into weaknesses, flaws, or reasons why they might be the way they are. While the main trio is relatively successful within this constrained film, the rest of the cast isn’t so great, with a girl who seems to have more organ failings and bodily replacements than Joan Rivers to a cold and cliché house wife who doesn’t really have any character. It is always difficult to make a character your own when the script barely as an intelligible idea of what sort of character they are supposed to be, and perhaps story and how characters relate to it should be the primary focus of filmmaking, as if that has been said enough on this particular blog.
            The direction by Miguel Sapochnik, a newcomer to the Hollywood selection of directors, isn’t necessarily bad nor is it astounding. Most of the shots, sequences, and overall delivery are borrowed from many films that are infinitely better, such as Total Recall, The Running Man, THX 1138, Logan’s Run, Brazil, and Minority Report. This is Sapochnik’s poor attempt at paying homage to the great science fiction films of the past by mixing their visual elements and plot points rather than the plot’s depth. Even one of the action scenes in the hallway near the end will make any fan of Chan Wook-Park’s Oldboy cringe at the butchering of such a beautiful segment from a film that had much more going for it besides good action. Sure there is an excessive amount of blood among white backgrounds making it visually potent but that really isn’t enough to guide a story. Action has to have purpose and a character’s actions define who they are, and if we can do that then Repo Men can be defined as repetitive, bland, and unoriginal.
            It’s unfortunate when a script with the potential to have relevance to modern day problems, including biotechnology and the housing crisis, doesn’t even attempt to allow us to think about the issues and just replace it with nonsensical action sequences. Remy is a man embedded in the system and then fights back against the system he was part of, which is a total bastardization of everything that Brazil embodied in a much grander and eloquent fashion. Repo Men is incredibly familiar, all the way from its borrowed plot to its choreographed action, which makes the experience less than enjoyable for those who appreciate cinema and what it has the potential to do. For those who use the movies as just a general escape and to be mind numbingly entertained than Repo Men has the basics to offer you but never ventures into new territory. If you are feeling anxious to see a science fiction film then the best advice to give you is to just rent an oldie but goodie because everything here has been done before and by more skillful hands.

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Recommendations: Red Riding, Fish Tank , Mystery Team

Bad Heart? Bad Liver? Bad Credit? No Problem!!!

Repo Men, which opened today, gives new meaning to the term "dead-beat client". Back in the day, say 1984,when Emilio Estevez was making a name for himself as an up-and-coming actor, he starred with Harry Dean Stanton in the classic film, Repo Man. When Estevez and Stanton did their jobs as auto repossessors, the dead-beat client likely woke up the next morning and said something along the lines of, "Geezus, my car's gone!"

The main difference between then and now is that once the new Repo Men have done their thing, the dead-beat clients simply don't wake up.

Many of you who will want to see this movie are quite likely familiar with the CSI TV show, both the original, set in Las Vegas, and the spin-offs located in New York and Miami. Imagine then this exchange between CSI Lt. Horatio Caine and his Medical Examiner, Dr. Alexx Woods,




And there's your your basic plot line of Repo Men. Jude Law and Forest Whitaker work for the not the least bit benevolent health care firm called The Union. And yes, they are the titular "Repo Men". They don't repossess cars for an auto finance company, nor do they steal cars and bring them back to a chop shop where the parts are harvested for resale. No sir, these masters of the culinary arts style known as slice and dice, repossess body parts like artificial hearts, kidneys, colons, and stomachs. They are simply the mobile chop-shop that you never could have imagined.



When the clients signed the dotted line in a leasing arrangement with The Union, their lives may have been saved, as their flawed or breaking down body parts were replaced with brand new ones from The Union. In exchange for what was more often than not crushing debts, their families might still enjoy the presence of the newly repaired loved one.



For sure the clients are now alive and well, as in 'takes a licking and keeps on ticking'. But it would have been a hell of lot cheaper to simply die in the first place, and far less painful than dying in the second place - which was usually the case when Jude as Remy and Forest as Jake visited.



If you defaulted or failed to make your payments, these guys would find you via  a hand-held tracking machine, and with or without your consent, they'd  take back The Union's property. The debt was canceled, and the body part was reclaimed, all at no out of pocket expense to the client. One might say that after a visit from these Repo Men, the client died of natural causes - like his heart stopped beating, while it was being forcibly removed from his body.



So there it is. A Grand Guignol of the medical arts. Maybe we could best describe this film as  Blade Runner meets House MD, or Grey's Anatomy on acid. Or in other words - a reverse ER. You aren't taken to the hospital. Instead, these unlicensed surgeons in mufti come to you, and when they're done with their repossession work, you won't be in any kind of position to hit them with a malpractice suit because you will already be dead or about to die.



Directed by Miguel Sapochnik, and with Liev Schreiber as Jake and Remy's bottom-line is everything boss down at The Union's headquarters, where they ardently believe in cutting, but it won't be costs, the film plays out as a combo horror, sci-fi, and chase thriller with some black humor tossed in for seasoning.. You see, Jude Law's character Remy is like the guy on TV who is selling the hair transplants, you know the one who says, Yeah, I'm also a client.


Remy/Law has a setback, sort of an on-the-job-injury,  and awakens one day with a brand new ticker and a mountainous debt as well as a new feeling about his chosen profession.  After Frank (Schreiber) refuses to take Remy out of the system unless he gets the heart back,  Remy hits the road, Jack, and his ex-partner Jake, played by Forest Whitaker is assigned to track him down and repossess The Union's heart.


If geysers of spurting blood are something you like watching, or if you can buy into Jude Law doing his best to remind you of Jason Statham, if you like your futures to be dark and dystopian ala Blade Runner, or if you want to see Alice Braga wriggling in tight clothing or writhing beneath her lover's blade - and to hell with sensibility and sensitivity as well as logic, then Repo Men is for you.

Recommendations: Chak De! India

Last updated: 2010-03-19 16:38:12 by JustMeMike

A Thinking Man's Action Film

Repossession Mambo was a heady, interesting, unique, visceral action film. It surprised me on multiple levels -- Jude Law was unlike I had ever seen him before -- muscled, tough, an action hero -- the film was a gritty, action-packed sci-fi thriller that for me evoked films like FIGHT CLUB and CHILDREN OF MEN. The violent action was fast-paced, nail-biting and at one point near the end, uniquely sensual. The audience I saw it with seemed to heartily enjoy the film as I did, and the comments I heard likened the film to other long-admired science fiction films. The cast was amazing -- Jude Law, Liev Schrieber, Forest Whittake and Alice Braga all give excellent performances. The movie's not for the faint of heart -- it's appropriately bloody for a main character whose job is to repossess people's organs before they are done using them -- but it gets across its timely themes in a way that is fresh, edgy and unexpected.

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Vincent Snavely