REPO MEN post release

Huh. Shame that this sounds so flawed; I was actually kinda mildly intrigued by what little I saw/knew of it. I was thinking about possibly catching this in theatres, since the last bunch of times I've gone to see something theatrically within the last few months it's always been some shitty family film or another that I'd get roped into seeing along with a group who were all much more interested in the movie than I was (last one being Alice in Wonderland; bleh).

I've desperately needed to go see something R rated that's purely for me rather than a deference to the group, and this seemed like a pretty good contender. But sadly, this review makes it sound like it’s more of a fairly good rental rather than something worth setting aside to catch at the movies. I always try not to let reviews sway me too much no matter who its from, but this does temper my interest/enthusiasm at least a teensy bit.

That aforementioned "Cronenbergian" scene does however greatly tempt me into heading out to see it right away anyhow, even though logically speaking one incredibly standout scene amidst an otherwise mixed bag probably doesn't warrant it. I just love me some body-horror in general.

Good review though, thanks Devin.

I agree with literally every word in the review, save that it took me 20 minutes instead of 10 to figure out the ending in advance.

Ha, I caught the Fast & Furious X ad as well. It was the bit with Whitaker and Law discussing the Neural Net later that really made the ending obvious to me.

There is no reason Marion Coutillard is grabbing decent parts while Van Houten is stuck playing these crappy roles. I guess her Valkyrie part was decent, but can't you do better than that CAA?

I'd rate this lower than a 7. I DID keep checking out of the movie. It's true, the action was very well done but the script's badness was so bad that it was more than enough to ruin anything that was happening visually. And I can't stand Braga. Maybe they couldn't get away with the Cronenbegian elements without that ending. At the very least I guess it shows Remy had a pretty sick mind. It was getting fun spotting all the weirdness in the second half (Where did that car come from? The Pink door sign? A clean room with multiple direct exits? The girl in the blue bikini that disappears?) And it was nice to see Liza Lapira make an appearance. But the ending forces a disposal of any and all goodwill. There's a reason I didn't like The Thirteenth Floor, too. Or Impostor. Deus ex machina sucks.

On a side note, wouldn't other lending/financing/debt consolidations firms pop up to make deals on these overdue organs? And there seemed to be zero outside regulation. What would things have looked like with a government option?

Saw the movie tonight and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Much of the same complaints, everything was projected. I knew he would grab the 'jammers', try to scan himself out using scratched serial's and end up getting an M5. All in all it was still enjoyable, considering.

I do like the dynamic between the Law and the Taker. Forrest's weight loss really helped buy into the buddy dynamic. Not sure if he lost it specifically for the role or what, but it worked. I loved the violence and gore... and I really liked the action sequences, especially the boat scene.

Favorite part of the whole damn movie? the knife to the throat in the pink room! That was totally cool - whole theater got a big 'WHOooooooA' out of that one. A close second was the knife sequence in the hallway to the pink room.

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I really enjoyed it. The action scenes, particularly the stuff to get to the pink room, looked great, and Law managed not to annoy me for once.

The ending sort of gets a pass from me just for essentially being an homage to 'Brazil.'

Exactly. Also, it's so telegraphed that by the time you get there you've kind of made peace with the oddness. That said, I was surprised by WHEN the shift occurs. I thought it would be as soon as he got shocked into that coma. The movie won me over by making me wrong about this, that he legitimately lost the fight with the obviously more physically powerful Jake worked better and Jake's odd tenderness in the aftermath is an awesome note to end their arc on given that Jake is a sociopath with a huge complex over Remy.

The world-building was very impressive, I did not think they'd put as much attention into it as they did. Giving Remy and Jake a past together in the way they did, flashbacks and all, also worked really well and overturned any problems I might have had believing these two guys grew up together/are friends.

Jude Law really sells it, too. Didn't think he had this in him. Even Braga wasn't as annoying as usual (I can't think of an actress I like less who is cast more). Also of note is the soundtrack, which is great. Especially in the last 20 minutes or so from the hallway fight on. Whatever that song they play there was, it's awesome. If not for that section and the Cronenberg scene I probably would have thought the movie was good, not great. With the climax it does have (anticlimax notwithstanding), I have to call it a great little splatterpunk movie.

I thought that it was pretty fantastic. I could go either way on the ending but I do agree with Devin's reasoning regarding what was going on behind the "Pink Door".

The only problem I had with Braga was her accent. Maybe the audio was too low when I saw it but there were a few times when I didn't understand what she was saying.

This was surprisingly solid. Devin's review is spot on - lose 15 - 20 minutes in the middle and maybe toss in another fight or at least extend that 30 second airport fight, and Repo Men is very close to greatness. I kinda dug all the shameless riffing going on throughout (Blade Runner, Oldboy, Verhoeven) and the ridiculous barcode-scanning sequence at the end was all kinds of brilliant. Impressive world building too, and the movie looks great for what I assume was a relatively tiny budget. And the presence of Liev Schreiber always helps.

Yeah, the middle sections drags considerably. But the first and third acts are really really good. The ending was terrible, but everything else except the script was good. Great world building and action scenes.

Yeah, that ending is fairly terrible. Aside from the telegraphed Neural Net stuff, I thought the Jude Law concussion countdown was pretty hilarious in a "remember this when we get to the end of the 3rd act" kind of way.

I must not have been playing very close attention because the ending did surprise me. Even though I did find stuff out of place like a big sign pointing to the pink room. Or Whitaker mentioning the scorched earth discussion Law had with his son or that he doesn't mention getting knocked out for a 4th time. I did catch that Whitaker screwed with the defib unit though.

and yeah, 15 minutes too heavy.

This must have been one of the worst movies I watched this decade.
The editing is atrocious, the plot points and story only move along when Jude starts monologuing and the whole premise is a cruel joke.

So in the future (after the war of course! we don't want to extrapolate from reality) they sell high tech organs that send out a signal that you apparently can scan with a barcode scanner but they don't include any option for a shutdown? Why not include Wireless power down feature? Owner dies, get's buried, organ gets retrieved, PROFIT!

Instead they have these hitmen running around with knifes and stabbing weapons and slice and dice open everyone that can't pay. Which seems to be an aweful lot of people and btw also an aweful lot of (young) people seem to have these friggin organs in the first place.
I also love how they sometimes slice open a patient to get the kidney back and in the process destroy all other harvestable organs in the host that would make them a profit.

Also the method how they extorted Jude Law was fucking dumb. Why not give him the heart, pay it off for him (he is a corporate goon after all) and just threaten him with shutting it off? Would've been a much more frightening plot mechanic.

Then we have the ridiculous way the accounts are handled. So the accounts room in the headquarters of the Union has a door where you can only enter when you have an organ with you?! And then scanning an organ deletes every data that ever went through the system about it? Did the authors ever get in contact with the Internet, any IT program or database? haha what a piece of shit.

This must have been the most flawed sci-fi premise I ever saw. God I hated this movie so much.

One of my co-workers, who considers himself a very well-versed film-geek (inasmuch as he thinks Rob Zombie's Halloween films are brilliant), told me today that he has boycotted this film because it doesn't properly credit Repo: The Genetic Opera for its ideas. Seriously.

Blueharvester... are you joking?

I wish I was joking.

My mind basically revolted during this movie. It was so full of dumb I barely made it to the end.

If I had known that this was going to be a glorified slasher, gore, fighting film with tacked on ridiculous Sci-Fi elements maybe I could've swallowed it a bit easier but the whole movie felt like my love for Sci-Fi was used to rape my mind.

Yea this movie was downright bad, but as has been pointed out, the action was surprisingly awesome. Also Liev Shreiber was just flat out awesome. And I really didn't like Jude Law in this at all, theres something off about his American accent, its not too bad, it just doesn't feel natural. I mean when I see him in Sherlock Holmes or Closer, he just appears so much more natural and believable. I can't help thinking I would've liked this movie so much more if it had someone else in the lead.

I watched Repo Men this afternoon and thought it was pretty good. I guess I should have seen the ending coming, but I was too caught up in the action.

 

It reminds me a lot of Daybreakers in that it does a fantastic job of world building and injecting some life into clichéd ideas. It’s also well served by Jude Law and Forest Whitaker who elevate a lot of the material. Let down by a bit of a clichéd, and cheap, denouement and a very flabby second act, but some of the set pieces in the film are just mental. In particular a weird homage to Oldboy involving hacksaws, knives and hammers is probably one of the most brutal fight sequences I’ve seen since Tom Yum Goong. Also loved the use of music, some fantastic audio choices and it’s always nice to see UNKLE get a little love. But the Director directed the shit out of the film, just looks and feels fantastic even if it’s ultimately hollow. 

Yeah, in anyone else's hands this would've been completely unsalvageable, but this is a fine example of a beautiful disaster, elevated by Law, Whitaker, and the director. It's still full of obnoxious, predictable character/plot choices, but its still very much watchable. By the by, not to compare the two any more than need be, but Liev Schreiber and Giovanni Ribisi in Avatar need to swap movies.

Kind of have to agree. This movie is very interesting. I actually overall liked it but feel that ending and Law (who does a fine job considering his normal range) end up really hurting it. Speaking of hurting Hollywood Alice Braga doesn't need much acting work she sucks.

 

Violence was surprisingly good and Liev when will you get that breakout starring role? Whitaker was fun to watch and I have to say a very strong first film from Miguel.

 

Too bad it didn't hit right.

Very cool near future world building, great characters, but a horrible script.

 

I didn't for one second buy Law and Braga falling in love. It was too much of a coincidence that they even ran into each other! Still, great visceral action (although too much cgi blood splatter). Horrible ending trying too hard to ape the ambiguity of the endings of Total Recall and Minority Report (if you subscribe to that theory).

 

This wanted to be a Philip K. Dick story so badly.