"Repo Men" -- now here's a film with guts.
Folks expecting to see a remake or a sequel of 1984's "Repo Man" will be in for a shock when they feast their eyes on this grisly sci-fi movie. Just pray nobody tries to pluck out those precious pupils. You see, these repo men don't repossess your car for nonpayment. They repossess your body parts.
In the film, a company called the Union sells artificial organs at exorbitant prices and lofty interest rates, but its customers clearly never heard of buyer beware. Are they desperate, greedy, gullible or a combination of all three? Regardless of the reasons, they fall prey to the Union's sales pitch without weighing the dire consequences of debt.
These consequences involve a surprise visit from a repo man if you fall behind in your payments. Armed with a stun gun and a scalpel, the repo man renders you unconscious, slices you open, reaches into your body, pulls out the artificial organ, puts it in a plastic bag and leaves. Take that, Obamacare.
Need I say that this film is not for the squeamish? It is also graphically violent. In fact, the violence reaches such an excessive level that it becomes comical. That is, if you find the butchering of nasty executives with a hacksaw funny. Anyone who wants to compare director Miguel Sapochnik, making his feature film debut here, to Quentin Tarantino, be my guest. Sapochnik does display a similar sick sense of humor as he films a young girl performing surgery and a young boy shooting his mother with a stun gun. Good, clean family entertainment.
Sapochnik also peppers this futuristic film with jarring music interludes. If his goal is to assault the senses with bad taste, he succeeds.
There actually is a story here. Jude Law and Forest Whitaker play two repo men, Remy and Jake, respectively, who grew up together, fought in a war together and now work together removing body parts without blinking a blood-stained eye. Best friends, they are very good at what they do.
Unfortunately, Remy's wife, Carol (Carice van Houten), wants Remy to quit cutting people up and enter the sales force. You may wonder why she married him in the first place, but don't let reality get in the way here. You may also wonder where the authorities are. Or maybe society has just had its moral bearings replaced by the bottom line.
