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Review by Steve Friedel

When a film like Repo Men starts off, quite unexpectedly, with an allusion to the famous feline hypothetical posed by physicist Erwin Schroedinger, my interest is instantly piqued (we studied that bloody cat for what seemed to be months during my college sophomore year). Even better, when Remy (Jude Law, Sherlock Holmes) waxes this philosophical query — done in Mike Hammer-meets-Rick Dekard voice-over — without actually mentioning Schroedinger (not to mention prepping to slice someone open), I was totally on the hook, for better or worse (some references are placed for the specific purpose of testing the audience… aaaaah bliss!). And as odd as my tastes in film sometimes tend to be, they were only matched by the twisted, high satirical sheen of this murderer-for-hire tale of removal, repossession, retractors, and redemption.

WARNING: While I had no problem with the brutal “operations” (the first one made me laugh more than squirm because of the song playing in the background), this is NOT for the easily queasy. Lotsa walk-outs at the screening, believe me — including some critics (shame on you!).

In the not-too-distant, bleak future (a cross between Blade Runner and Children of Men), our “murderer” in question (Law), along with his elementary school bully-turned-buddy Jake (Forest Whitaker, Vantage Point), are dispatched by boss Frank (Liev Schreiber, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) to retrieve “artiforgs” (artificial organs) — hearts, lungs, kidneys, livers, joints, eyes… you get the point — from implant patients behind on their payments; at 19.9% APR on parts totaling in the mid-six figures, can ya blame them? Of course, when you’re extracting major organs — and in the rather direct, barbaric way these guys do it — the chance of post-op survival isn’t even a consideration (but hey… at least the unfortunate souls are verbally given the option for a standby ambulance à la Miranda rights). You can imagine some choose to run (which leads to a decisive gun-stun or butt-whooping), hide (though their parts have homing devices precisely for that purpose), or just go slumming and wait for the inevitable (purring and licking themselves until their demise), such as the case with nightclub singer / drug addict Beth (Alice Braga, I Am Legend). It’s predictable where this is headed, though — especially if you’ve seen Minority Report or Logan’s Run (which, surprisingly, no one’s attempted a re-make yet); Law himself becomes a “customer” (he gets a new heart and gains a conscience), is unable to fulfill the duties of his job (and no one seems more upset than Jake), is in arrears on his payments, and well… like I said, you can see the end coming a mile away (or can you?). But the gettin’ there is the fun part!

Law is every bit the bad-arse action hero Matt Damon, Gerard Butler, James McAvoy, or Hugh Jackman is; it’s a clear sign of the depths he can go. He seems to’ve been trained by at least one of the best close-quarter combat choreographers in the business (Hiro Koda, who also’s done his most recent work on Avatar and The Book of Eli) because Law really looks like he knows how to move (film-speed-ups and CGI aside) — with each fight being well-enough lit with the camera pulled far enough back so that we can actually SEE the action full-on (kudos to director Miguel Sapochnik). We could talk about the acting part of Law’s performance — which, as you’d expect, is perfectly passable — but this is, by far, the most physical role of his career yet, and that’s what we came to see. This ain’t The Talented Mr. Ripley! Whitaker is the other stand-out casting choice (and looks just as adept at the action sequences as his counterpart). His wild-eyed moments are a reminder of the madman inside (surely, you remember his Oscar-winning performance as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland). I kept asking myself, “How in the hell were they able to get these two guys in this film? That could not have been cheap!” Hey, I celebrate the fact that they’re both in it regardless, making an otherwise fair-to-middling movie one to take (final) notice of.

With what I counted to be three short segments of foot-dragging — including one love scene reminiscent of yet another “futuristic cousin” in Terminator and another where our hero and his new love interest visit a colony of repo dodgers — there’s a good 10 minutes worth of cutting still to do on this 1 hour, 45 minute flick. Fortunately, the high pulse-rate is fairly well-maintained throughout. The final battle scene — well woth the wait — is a visceral, slow-mo, Matrix-style turkey shoot tossed with a healthy degree of stabbing and blood-splurting (one carotid artery spew is especially effective), making the hotel elevator landing scene in Smokin’ Aces look tame by comparison. As I warned earlier, you need to fully prepare for the onslaught, but… my oh my does it work!

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Review by Gary Murray

Science fiction movies have always been painted with a very wide brush. Ever since Georges Melies gave us A Trip to the Moon, makers of these movies have been trying to capture aspects of modern man by setting it in a far flung context. Along with those ray gun and rocket ship melodramas, there have been very human elements ladled into the brew. The latest to make the attempt is Repo Men.

In a world not to far from today, Jude Law stars as Remy – a repossession man for The Union, a company that provides artificial organs for those willing to pay the price. Or at least if they accept the very high interest rates. Remy basically tracks down ‘dead beats’ for non-payment and repossesses the property. That property being hearts, livers and kidneys. The aftermath of each repossession isn’t very pretty but has a nice crimson hue

Remy is very good at his job but never realizes the consequences of his actions, where taking lives becomes second nature. He issues his rote speech with the air or a bored carnival barker. The world of Repo Men is a world where repossession is more important than sales and enforcement is tantamount to destruction. Remy’s life is ruled by pink sheets of paperwork–each representing life and nests of those who haven’t lived up to their obligations

His wife Carol (Carice van Houten) doesn’t want him to be a repo man but go into sales, something she deems more respectable. She hates the very human toll that the job takes. His partner Jake (Forest Whitaker) wants everything to stay the way it always is. The two have a very long and storied past referred to again and again. The other element is Remy’s boss Frank (Liev Schreiber) who is our usual smarmy higher-up.

The repossession of a music producer goes awry and Remy is now in debt to The Union. On his first job back, he realizes that he has lost his nerve and cannot take out organs from the living. Very soon he becomes 90 days past due for his payments and in jeopardy of being a victim himself. Seeing life from the other side is the final thrust of Repo Men. Along the way to becoming a liability to The Union, he meets a singer Beth (Alice Braga) who carries a sway that few realize.

The feel of Repo Men is more along the lines of Blade Runner than Star Wars, with a very dark underbelly in the cinematic tone. All that is missing from being a parallel world to Blade Runner is the constant rain. The production is full of mechanized life, with sliding trams and moving organs. This is a cruel and bloody existence full of harsh individuals. There is this morbid gallows humor that bubbles just below the surface. At times, dismemberment is played for laughs.

Simply put, the screenplay feels much like The Union victims, as if parts are missing. The film never finds an even flow, it just plods and juts along, without any semblance of narrative balance. It is either a fault of the script or a fault in the editing suite. Either way, the final product is much less than the sum of the components. Without giving anything away, the ending has a very 1970’s style to it, going for the jugular with the final twist. One of the biggest battles seems to be lifted whole cloth from Old Boy as the ending becomes an orgy of mayhem.

Jude Law brings his A game to Repo Men. In a role that almost mirrors his turn in AI, Jude becomes the most human element when he is less than human. He finds a unique reading with Remy, but one that delivers emotionally. On the other side, Forest Whitaker just never finds the right beat with his character. At times he is over the top menacing and in other scenes he just looks like another lost soul. One has to question some of his motivations during this film.

Repo Men looks like an action film but turns out more as social commentary. While not a bad film, it just never delivers the adventure promised by the trailers.

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