REPO MEN may be worthy of a bit of interest in the novel form 'The Repossession Mambo' by Eric Garcia (who co-wrote the script with Garrett Lerner), but as a film it is simply silly. After about fifteen minutes into the movie the greatest temptation is to turn it off, but since it is paid for you sit through it, hoping that it will have some redeeming graces. Mistake.
Directed by neophyte Miguel Sapochnik whose credits are in art direction, the film for some reason has a number of outstanding actors attached to it: the payroll must have been big! Jude Law and Forest Whitaker, two fine actors, play the men who repossess internal organs (kidneys, hearts, livers, joints, etc) sold to them by a company run by Liev Schreiber - a company more interested in time payments with very high interest rates (sound familiar?) than with cash up front payments. If a recipient of one of these mechanical organs fails to pay the full amount in the given time, the Repo Men seek them out and take the organs back - leaving the buyer to simply die. The entire film is just that - killing and gory surgeries to take back or repossess organs. A bit of a glitch pops up when we discover that Jude law has one of these hearts whose payments are past due and he and a singer - Alice Braga, niece of actress Sonia Braga - both house expired organs and are on the run from the company in the leadership of yes, Forest Whitaker. It just gets worse as the chase moves into endless killings and raids and ridiculous situations. And the ending is a must miss.
One wonders what attracted Jude Law and Forest Whitaker to this loser: more odd is why brilliant actress Carice van Houten agreed to the tiny minor and meaningless role of Jude Law's wife, or John Leguizamo singing on for an equally unimportant minor role. Maybe there is an audience for this film, an audience who doesn't mind the concept of making fun of organ transplantation as a fraudulent business, and who can tolerate the gore that is on screen throughout the film. It all seems a waste of talent trying hard to prevent this film from becoming a terrible bore - and failing.
Grady Harp
Directed by neophyte Miguel Sapochnik whose credits are in art direction, the film for some reason has a number of outstanding actors attached to it: the payroll must have been big! Jude Law and Forest Whitaker, two fine actors, play the men who repossess internal organs (kidneys, hearts, livers, joints, etc) sold to them by a company run by Liev Schreiber - a company more interested in time payments with very high interest rates (sound familiar?) than with cash up front payments. If a recipient of one of these mechanical organs fails to pay the full amount in the given time, the Repo Men seek them out and take the organs back - leaving the buyer to simply die. The entire film is just that - killing and gory surgeries to take back or repossess organs. A bit of a glitch pops up when we discover that Jude law has one of these hearts whose payments are past due and he and a singer - Alice Braga, niece of actress Sonia Braga - both house expired organs and are on the run from the company in the leadership of yes, Forest Whitaker. It just gets worse as the chase moves into endless killings and raids and ridiculous situations. And the ending is a must miss.
One wonders what attracted Jude Law and Forest Whitaker to this loser: more odd is why brilliant actress Carice van Houten agreed to the tiny minor and meaningless role of Jude Law's wife, or John Leguizamo singing on for an equally unimportant minor role. Maybe there is an audience for this film, an audience who doesn't mind the concept of making fun of organ transplantation as a fraudulent business, and who can tolerate the gore that is on screen throughout the film. It all seems a waste of talent trying hard to prevent this film from becoming a terrible bore - and failing.
Grady Harp