Movie Review: "Repo Men"

Did anyone ever see Repo: The Genetic Opera? Me neither. But it came out a year or two ago and had the exact same plot as this movie. People who can't pay for their new organs have them ripped out by a repo man. That one, however is a musical with Paris Hilton and Alexa Vega. Whatever you think about this movie, you'd probably have to admit it's the lesser of two evils. But, I really want to know how they got away with making this one, stealing the plot from such a recent movie. I know! I know! They repo'ed that movie's plot because it didn't make enough money in theaters or on video to pay for itself! That must be it.

Anyway, this incarnation at least stars some decent actors. Jude Law. Forrest Whitaker. Liev Schreiber. These guys rock. Why'd they sign onto this? Well I just have to guess that the recession is hitting Hollywood too. This movie also stars Alice Braga who never read a bleak, post apocalyptic script she didn't like. I Am Legend. Blindness. This. Next she's going to be in the new Robert Rodriguez directed Predators. She's the Jamie Lee Curtis of end of the world movies.

In spite of all that it is, I really think this movie had an interesting idea. With people dying from organ failure every day, it's not too far fetched to believe that we would try to find a way to create artificial organs to assist us in living. Have they already done this? What do I look like to you? Someone who reads science magazines?! No, I'm perfectly fine with my Entertainment Weekly, thank you. Anyway despite the slightly intriguing concept, this movie goes wrong fairly quickly. I really hate it when characters act out of character just to drive the plot. This happens in the form of Jude Laws wife, who is almost too much of a chicken faggot to be believed for most of her screen time. She is given no motivation or reason really. She just is. Why? Because we need her to be to get Jude Law to where he needs to be for the rest of this 'story'.

It goes from predictable to much worse with Jude Law- who now has a fake heart he can't pay for pumping blood through his veins- and Alice Braga running away from once friend Forest Whitaker. Of course eventually they decide they must pull a matrix and break into the huge corporation to cancel their overdue organs out of the system so they can escape forever. They meet only enough guards to do a couple of slow-mo segments of people getting shot up before they get to where they need to be. Then it gets more ridiculous.

In the end it tries to turn into a much less compelling and thought out, Vanilla Sky, which I actually totally saw coming. If you've seen Vanilla sky, you can probably guess the ending as well. If you haven't I won't ruin that great movie for you by telling you the ending of this one. Part of me really does want to ruin this one for everyone though, just to punish it for repo-ing two hours out of my life.

D

Soupy Twist.