A pinch of Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil”, a dash of David Fincher’s “Fight Club”, and some sprinklings of David Cronenberg’s “Crash”, and you have Miguel Sapochnik’s “Repo Men”. Made for $30-plus million (though the film looks much more expensive) and dumped into theaters without a whole lot of studio confidence earlier this year, you’ll be hard-pressed to know the film even exists unless you were looking for it.
Co-written by Eric Garcia from his novel “The Repossession Mambo”, first-time feature film director Miguel Sapochnik offers up a near-future world where human organs can easily be replaced by artificial versions if you have the money. Or heck, even if you don’t, you can still get one and pay the obscene interests later. Using what can generously be described as predatorial practices, The Union Corporation has such a thriving, lucrative business that it’s able to send out repo men, essentially glorified murderers, to reclaim parts once payment on the organs become past due. The result of their “repo” usually ends with the victim dead, so yes, paying is recommended.
Two such repo men are childhood buddies Remy (Jude Law) and Jake (Forest Whitaker), both of whom work for the sleazy Frank (Live Schreiber). All is good with the world, as the two buddies spend their nights cruising for repo victims with their scanners, which can pick up a past due organ from some ridiculous distances. At home, though, Remy’s wife Carol (Carice van Houten) is nagging him to leave the bloody work behind and get a salesman job at the company. Meanwhile, things take an ironic turn for our hero when one of his repo jobs go awry, and he ends up in the hospital with a fresh new artificial heart courtesy of The Union in his chest. The problem is, he now has to pay for it. To make matters worse, Carol kicks him out of the house, and Remy discovers that he no longer has the stomach for the job. He has had, if you will, a literal change of heart. (Get it?)
Of course, just because you want out doesn’t mean you’re getting out. Soon Remy is on the run, with Frank sending his fellow repo men after him. Remy finds some comfort with fellow organ fugitive Beth (Alice Braga), who is essentially a cyborg, with nearly all of her body parts having been replaced at one point or another. Together, they try to dodge Remy’s former colleagues, including Jake, who just can’t quite understand why his old buddy is so determined to let go of his old life and, in essence, his friendship with Jake. Like a jilted girlfriend, Jake won’t have any of that bullshit, and he’s determined to set Remy straight, even if that includes beating the hell out of him to do it.
“Repo Men” may have washed out at the theaters, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore it once it lands on DVD later this month. Director Miguel Sapochnik does some very daring things with “Repo Men”, pouring on the violence and gore at every opportunity. (The film will include an Unrated Edition, which I recommend.) There is plenty of blood, and when the repo men go to work, they don’t exactly take prisoners. The second half features a number of brutal fights between Remy and his former colleagues, including a hallway finale where Remy takes on about a dozen Repo Men with bladed weapons. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit to learn that Sapochnik had seen Chan-wook Park’s “Oldboy” more than once and decided to take some inspiration from it. At one point, Remy even pulls out a hammer.
Gorehounds will find plenty of titillation, and the movie’s combination of blood and sex borders on the fetishistic at times, especially towards the end. To be sure, mainstream viewers may find these moments to be major turn-offs, but those willing to get a bit uncomfortable with their dose of bloody sci-fi action will get a kick out of them. Braga is great as Beth, and though Law is sometimes a bit of a stiff next to her, there’s no denying that he has a pretty good career as a straight action movie star if he were so inclined to follow that path. I had no idea Jude Law could kick ass so convincingly. The film features a number of excellent action choreography featuring Remy, and Sapochnik doesn’t skimp on the brutality. Those blades look like they really hurt.
There are some notable supporting performances, with Liev Schreiber being ridiculously amusing as the company man, and an uncredited John Leguizamo shows up about halfway through as a “ghetto” doctor who deals in organs. The film misses the opportunity to really get into the issue of why The Union has such a stranglehold on the city that its repo men seem to have carte blanche to ply their bloody trade, including outrageous moments where they herd and then slaughter organ fugitives like so much cattle. There are also some intriguing side plots about an underground community of people who help the fugitives, but they’re quickly forgotten almost as quickly as they’re introduced. Too bad, because I would have really liked to learn more about them.
Give them credit, though: Miguel Sapochnik and the screenwriters don’t take a lot of easy roads in “Repo Men”, a decision that might have caused them dearly with the studio. “Repo Men” is not exactly what you would call a mainstream movie, and if you tend to get squeamish around scenes of bodies being chopped up for their organs, I would avoid the film, because there are a lot of those. For those who can stomach that, or indeed find it intriguing that Sapochnik was able to do so much with what is, in Hollywood terms, a relatively modest budget, “Repo Men” is a pretty entertaining, albeit insanely bloody mess of a good time.
”Repo Men” arrives on DVD July 27th from Universal Pictures.
Miguel Sapochnik (director) / Eric Garcia, Garrett Lerner (screenplay), Eric Garcia (novel “The Repossession Mambo”)
CAST: Jude Law … Remy
Forest Whitaker … Jake
Alice Braga … Beth
Liev Schreiber … Frank
Carice van Houten … Carol
Chandler Canterbury … Peter
John Leguizamo
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