REPO MEN Review

How do you screw up a movie with an interesting concept? Have nothing else new or interesting in the movie. Seeing a trailer for this movie, and I thought "you know, that's pretty cool." While it was at first, the coolness slowly vanished into thin air. Other than the concept (which I later found out was already done with REPO: THE GENETIC OPERA) there's nothing new or original in the movie. Now, I'm fine with some generic, by the numbers story as long as it's got interesting characters or using that base story to have some fun. But this movie I actually feel like it's just blatantly ripping everything off.

It's a shame really, everything about this movie other than the script is solid. Jude Law and Forrest Whitaker are extraordinarily fun to watch. They're an odd friendship, but the way they go back on forth with each other you really believe that they've been friends for as long as they have been. Liev Schreiber, who I always picture as Cotton Weary in the SCREAM movies, is really good too.

While the acting was great, I didn't really feel for the characters at all. Jude Law's a repo man cutting people open and taking back the organs they can't afford, and when he himself gets an artificial heart, he suddenly can't do what he's been doing for all these years? I get the change of emotion, but I'm sorry, I don't feel sorry for him. I actually just like the whole irony of the bit.

But from there, the plot continues on, then turns into LOGAN'S RUN. It goes off in very a predictable path, and goes from one stolen set piece to the next. Most painful for me to watch was so obvious to me before it even started that I was unable to enjoy the fairly well choreographed fight scene that ensued. But I know most people have never seen OLDBOY and will not know the amazing single take corridor fight, so this scene may be good for other people. No, REPO MEN doesn't do this fight in one take. Then there's something that made me somewhat angry. Maybe not angry, just upset. They throw you back to a little part in the first act of the film and it made me feel cheated. Almost as if an entire act of the movie was completely meaningless. And the worst part was, I saw it coming too. I thought "oh no, please don't do this. Please don't." I even tried to convince myself they weren't going to do that, but they did.

There was one scene that was pretty damn funny. All I'll say is that it involves a little girl and it catches you off guard. Too bad the moment's too short to really be of much worth to the movie as a whole. The director did a good job making the movie. The cinematography is great, he got all the actors to really put effort into their work. Even the action on the ripped off set pieces were well done. I would really like to see what this guy can do in the future with a decent script. The narrative was solid, it's just that the story told was crap.

But another huge problem is that the movie doesn't make any sense. It's trying to be a serious movie, but in this world, the company is allowed to hire people to go and cut out the artificial organs out of a person's body if they ask if they'd like an ambulance or to be taken to a hospital (even though they're usually unconscious at that point). Seems like a bit of a stretch, but you'd think there would be a lot of protesting or outcry against that. But the one thing that bothered me the most was the whole thing the movie's main plot gets going. The best "repo" needs a new heart due to an accident from faulty equipment, then he has to pay for it out of his pocket. If you're seriously injured on the job due to a bad piece of equipment, I do believe the company's liable. But maybe if the rest of the movie doesn't make any sense, then I guess they want you to let this pass as well.

I feel like quoting someone for this review. I could try to say it in my own words, but I think he said it best. "You can tell a familiar story to us, even a paint-by-numbers one, if the ideas you are playing around with are fresh enough. The more patently alien the ideas being presented are, the more mundane we’ll accept a story to be – and vice versa." There were some fun moments in the film. Some really good shots. But the movie as a whole is just disappointing. I do know some people that really liked it, and most of the audience I saw it with had a good time. I just couldn't get into it.