Repo Men DVD
Starring: Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Alice Braga, Liev Schreiber
Director: Miguel Sapochnik
Rating: 1/5
Now when I first heard the premise for Repo Men is was one of the movies that I was looking forward to as it appeared to be different to anything that we had been privy to this year.
Sadly the movie didn't live up to expectations and it's definitely a case where all the best bits are in the trailer and the rest is well just a great big disappointment.
Humans have extended and improved our lives through highly sophisticated and expensive mechanical organs created by a company called The Union. The dark side of these medical breakthroughs is that if you don't pay your bill, The Union sends its highly skilled repo men to take back its property... with no concern for your comfort or survival.
Remy is one of the best organ repo men in the business. But when he suffers a cardiac failure on the job, he awakens to find himself fitted with the company's top-of-the-line heart-replacement... as well as a hefty debt.
But a side effect of the procedure is that his heart's no longer in the job. When he can't make the payments, The Union sends its toughest enforcer, Remy's former partner Jake, to track him down.
Ok so the first half hour is fine as we are introduced to the future and the advances in technology that have happened in that time, and while the cityscape does look a bit like Blade Runner it works well.
There's good chemistry between Law and Whitaker as longstanding friends Remy and Jake as they travel around the city taking back the organs cannot afford.
To this point the idea of treated much needed organs like a car or a house that can be seized if you are unable to keep up with payments is an interesting one.
However this feeling of promise that Sapochnik can deliver an original story soon fades away as the film descends into farce and is violent for violence sake.
For some completely unknown reason the director splits up Law and Whitaker as Remy goes on the run when it becomes apparent that he cannot pay for his new heart.
And instead of this friendship with great chemistry from the first half hour we are left with this completely unnecessary romance sub plot that you never really believe.
The movie takes a major nose dive from there as the plot become convoluted and it's violence left, right and centre only for it to culminate in a barmy ending that makes zero sense.
Repo Men has tried to a political statement about the state of health care and debt issues wrapped up in the sci-fi genre but sadly loses it's way and doesn't put across what could have been very interesting points.
Repo Men is out now.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw