Repo Men
Repo Men needs a good twenty minutes extracted from its flabby middle and a hefty injection of satire.
Great sci-fi isn't about having to completely suspend disbelief, it's that niggling realisation that, yes, this could be reality. If you're going to go completely beyond belief, you had better back it up with a mindblowing story. I have no problem with the idea that 15 years from now, artificial organs and body parts can be bought at disgustingly high prices from slimy salesmen. However, we are to believe that if you fall behind on your loan payments, The Union will repossess the goods. Literally, and gruesomely, by ripping them out of your twitching body.
Jude Law and Forest Whitaker are the repo men, Remy and Jake, who efficiently carry out these extractions in their victims' homes, leaving the customers to die/suffer in agony. The repos will call an ambulance for you if you wish - not much use when you are minus your lungs. Remy enjoys his work, but is under pressure from his wife (Carice Van Houten in the thankless role of huffy partner) to move into sales, much to Jake's annoyance. On his final repo job, Remy's heart is severely damaged, and he is forced to accept an artificial ticker to survive. But Remy can no longer hack people up for a living, and becoming one of the late payees, is forced to go on the run from his colleagues.
Eric Garcia's story, very similar to the recent Repo! The Genetic Opera, starts averagely well, attempting Robocop/Running Man-style nods, but never quite hits that smirking spot. Director Miguel Sapochnik seems unsure how to handle the material, ruining it with Law's matey voiceovers. What worked in the likes of Fight Club is lost in the hands of a unconfident director; Sapochnik fumbles for a style of his own, chucking in cliched freezeframes here, slo-mo Oldboy rip-offs there.
Where Repo Men starts to get disappointing is when the fugitive Remy roams those dismal Hollywood slum sets. You know the ones - bonfires round tin drums, sheets blowing in the paneless windows, convenient holes in floors. He shacks up with drug-addict Beth (Alice Braga), who is artificial inside and out - stomach, knees, eyes, ears, vocal cords, you name it. Braga doesn't look or sound like someone who has state-of-the-art body parts, which is very distracting. Despite heartbreak at being booted out the family home, Remy wastes no time getting it on with Beth, eventually leading to a sexualised organ scanning scene that is excruciatingly cringeworthy.
The extraction scenes are suitably callous and visceral, Law and Whitaker make a convincing team, and the conclusion befits the story. Trouble is, you've got two hugely talented stars playing undeveloped characters who utter barely adequate dialogue; Liev Schreiber is another one-dimensional bad guy as the head of The Union. Repo Men needs a good twenty minutes extracted from its flabby middle and a hefty injection of satire to bring it round, and remove the nasty aftertaste.
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