Los Recolectores

When this movie came out, I immediately thought of the film:"Repo The Genetic Opera" by Terrance Zdunich. But NOPE! Even though its basically an exact carbon copy, minus the lower budget and singing, Repo Men is the exact same story. I was pretty shocked to learn it was not made by Zdunich, and could find nothing online regarding litigation or even any mention of the literal sameness between the two stories. This was an okay movie, but it just felt like it could have gone so much further, been more hardcore, cooler, enthralling and less obvious. But again, this story was already done and then some in Repo, The Genetic Opera. NOt everyone has the same "tastes" or sense of whats good, so be your own judge. But the musical was cooler.

It's is the near future, Jake and Remy are repossession men for body organs. After a repo' goes wrong Remy's heart is replaces and he finds himself on the run before his heart is repossessed.

It's a high concept idea with a twist at the end. The gory repo scenes are cringe worthy and action scenes backed with a pumping music score are amazing. The sets, location and effects are attention-grabbing. Miguel Sapochnik's directing admirable but its failing is the screenplay, Repo Men is a jarring mismatch of a film, it doesn't know what it wants to be, one minute a social commentary, the next minute a comedy, then an action, a serious thriller and so on. It just doesn't gel and as a result it's a let down.

Schreiber's Frank is menacing as one of "The Union" heads and there's a welcomed cameo appearance by John Leguizamo (Asbury). A lighter, healthier Forest Whitaker makes an impression in this odd toned movie, quirky lead and ever reliable Jude Law looks uncomfortable with the role Remy. Alice Braga's (Beth) performance is average and she isn't atheistically beautiful enough to convince the audience of Remy's infatuation with her.

Unfortunately, Repo Men tries to cater and appeal to a spectrum of movie goers and as a result fails to entertain or satisfy in any capacity or arena.

This is a film whose entire storyline – as slim as it is – seems to have been inspired by a sketch in Monty Python's MEANING OF LIFE, which has a sketch of a pensioner losing their liver to a couple of repossession men. Well, those men are brought to life in this futuristic thriller which fills its running time with gobbets of surgical gore and a man-on-the-run narrative that will be overly familiar to even the most intermittent of modern film viewers. Jude Law is cocky and rather irritating as a brutish, cold-hearted rent collector type who finds himself on the run when his former colleagues turn against him.

The look and feel of the film is very similar to Spielberg's MINORITY REPORT, albeit with a lower budget, and it's clear that there are some major problems here. The whole thing takes nearly an hour to get going before it starts to pick up momentum and become interesting, and then it seems to finish all too quickly. Also, for a movie advertised as an action thriller, it's rather light on the action; a stunning, OLDBOY-inspired corridor fight at the climax helps to make up for this, but it's not quite enough. And don't get me started on the absolutely stupid twist ending, which sucks out all the visceral enjoyment the viewer has just taken from the production.

Despite the flaws and general coldness of the production, it's difficult to dislike REPO MEN. It's clear that this was written and created by young, slightly immature men content to riff on previously explored topics rather than delivering genuinely innovative product, but it still delivers on a superficial level; you want to know what happens next, and the thrills satisfy. The cast are perfunctory: Alice Braga and Liev Schreiber make virtually no impact in highly predictable supporting roles, and while Forest Whitaker gets a little more of a look in, even he doesn't get a great deal to work with. Law, meanwhile, plays it off-hand and it doesn't work; he needed to be much more tortured for a role like this. It's not bad as it stands, but it could have been a whole lot more with some real maturity applied to the premise.

When the economic crisis first hit, Clive Owen came out with The International, a film about an evil bank. With the health care crisis now in full swing, Jude Law has come out with Repo Men, a film about evil health care people. Repo Men is good, but seems to have come out a bit early because this seems like a perfect summer film.

I cannot remember a time when Jude Law was this much fun. Fresh off a turn as Watson in Guy Ritchie's superb Sherlock Holmes, Law plays Remy, who work for the The Union, a company that supplies artificial body parts. If you can't pay for them, The Union sends Remy and his best mate Jake (Forrest Whitaker) after you. They cut you open and take the parts back. Its a bloody good time for all.

Law is such a badass in this film. You would think a role like this would go to Jason Statham, but a renowned actor like Law, who really isn't used to being the badass, plays the part very well. With the amount of blood and violence and quick takes, you would think this flick was made by the Neveldine/Taylor duo. First time director Miguel Sapochnik does the film well, but you'd like to see what an experienced director could do with it.

While Repo Men falls short with some of its blood for the sake of blood scenes and some acting shortcomings (Forrest is good but has too little to do), it makes up for it with Law and its twist ending. Go catch Repo Men. You'll rip your heart out if you don't.

All in all, I found this movie quite a disappointment. I have a soft spot for sci-fi, and as several others have commented, Jude Law is a good reliable actor in sci-fi roles. But this movie seems awkwardly assembled, not quite thought-out, and a bit too proud of itself to be taken seriously. Throughout the film, at what seem to be important developmental points or even plot twists, there are one-liners tossed out with great sincerity, which in most cases either sound silly, pretentious, intellectually impoverished, or simply misplaced in this film. The first scene of the film, for instance, we are given a summarization of the 'Schroedinger's Cat' experiment, complete with some of the horrible logic underlying the film--- 'if something isn't definably dead or alive, then it must be both'. The fact that this statement shows a misunderstanding of both the scientific and philosophic merit of the experiment isn't the problem, because even incorrect junk science can be a good vehicle in a movie. The problem is that there's no reason to bring this up in the first place. the movie doesn't tackle whether things are dead or alive, whether being comprised of 'rented organs' is an crisis of existential definitions or what have you. The reference is just thrown in there to sound smart, to seem thoughtful, when the film is anything but. And this sort of pseudo intellectual posturing contaminates the movie.

The whole film's pace feels quite forced, as well. Jude Law seems underutilized. One can't help but wonder if he got drunk for the majority of the shooting for this film. When his wife leaves him, there's almost no emotion in the scene. When twenty minutes later our hero has decided to dedicate his eternal love to a street girl he finds attractive, there's really no chemistry whatsoever--- but apparently the movie insists that there be a love interest, and so it's just thrown in there, pointlessly. Because even in this day and age, it's apparently impossible to propose a hero character without a token damsel in distress.

Then there's the kind of gratuitous and uncomfortable 'surgical sex' scene. It's apparent that whoever choreographed it thought they were being clever, but the whole thing just seems like an attempt to force some sort of correlation between sex and surgical procedures that really just felt misplaced, and kind of heavy-handed. Granted, it has a purpose within the plot, but it's basically a slice of experimental film amid a sci-fi action flick, and like a lot of experiments, it fails.

There are some positive points to the film. While Jude Law's acting is a disappointment, Forrest Whittaker delivers a solid role. The action scenes are quite good, and while the overbearing presence of music makes some of it feel like a weird music video, it's nonetheless well-choreographed fighting and slashing. Some of the sets are good, although a fair number of sets and sequences seem blatant rip-offs of 'Brazil' (to say nothing of the ending)...

A pretty mindless flick. It's better than watching dust settle on your screen. A prettily-packaged emptiness.