Four out of
Five stars
Running time:
111 mins
Preposterous but nonetheless enjoyable, this is an impressively directed slice of sci-fi trash with some nice ideas and a strong performance from Jude Law.
What's it all about?
Directed by Miguel Sapochnik, Repo Men is based on the novel The Repossession Mambo by co-writer Eric Garcia and is set in a Blade Runner-esque future where Repo Men hunt you down and violently extract your artificial organs if you can't pay for them. One such Repo Man is Remy (Jude Law), who's extremely good at his job and frequently indulges in competitive victim-chasing with his best friend and colleague Jake (Forest Whitaker).
However, when Remy falls victim to a terrible accident, he winds up with an artificial organ himself and when he can't make the payments, he hooks up with fellow victim Beth (Alice Braga) and decides to go on the run, with Jake and Union boss Frank (Liev Schreiber) in hot pursuit.
The Good
Jude Law is surprisingly good as Remy – he's credible in the action scenes and generates strong chemistry with Braga, who's equally good as the multiply-enhanced Beth. There's also strong support from Whitaker and an enjoyably laid-back, drily amusing turn from Schreiber, while the gorgeous Carice van Houten does a great job in her underwritten role as Remy's wife Carol, who's reached the end of her tether.
Sapochnik is clearly a huge fan of both Park Chan-wook's Old Boy and the films of David Cronenberg, as there are explicit references to both, notably a terrific fight sequence in a corridor and a scene involving the almost orgiastic removal of organs that has to be seen to be believed. Sapochnik's direction is excellent maintaining a steady pace throughout and orchestrating some superb fight scenes without resorting to the fast cutting and flashy camerawork that have ruined so many recent action flicks.
The Great
On top of that, the film has a superb score and there are some delightfully inventive touches, such as a revelation in a backstreet doctor's surgery that's both chilling and darkly funny at the same time. In fact, the only real problem is the guessable, overly-used ending that's not as original as it thinks it is.
Worth seeing?
This is an enjoyably trashy slice of sci-fi fun that marks director Miguel Sapochnik out as a talent to watch. Recommended.