Sunday 18 April 2010

Film Review: REPO MEN (2010)


Director: Miguel Sapochnik
Running time: 111 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 18

UK Release date: 16th April 2010

Watched at the cinema Saturday 17th April 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This film is set in the near future when medicine has advanced enough that human organs can be replaced with artificial ones. One company ‘The Union’ controls the world market and as such can dictate the price. It is so high that most people opt to pay in instalments. But if you miss three payments then the Repo Men will call and surgically remove The Union’s property.

Remy and Jake grew up together, they joined the army together and when the war was over they became Repo Men together. Their boss is Frank, who is only concerned with the retrieval of The Union’s property, no matter how it’s done. Remy is married to Carol and has a son, Peter but Jake stayed single. Carol doesn’t like Remy’s line of work and wants him to move into sales. The two guys carry on with their work, which eventually becomes too much for Carol and she leaves Remy. Soon after Remy suffers an accident that leads to him having an artificial heart installed. Remy now gets a conscience and finds it hard to get back into the Repo business. He tries sales, but that’s not for him. Eventually he falls behind on his payments and becomes overdue. He goes off the grid and goes to live rough with others whose repayments have lapsed. Here he meets Beth, a singer who has had many illegal artificial organs fitted. The pair decide to try and get their records erased when Jake is assigned to recover Remy’s organs. I won’t say any more, don’t want to give too much away.

It’s a pretty well made film although it’s pretty violent and very gory, not recommended for those of a nervous disposition. Decent performances from all of the leading cast, honourable mentions go to Jude Law as Remy, Forest Whitaker as Jake, Alice Braga as Beth, Liev Schreiber excellent as the very slimy Frank, Carice van Houten as Carol and Chandler Canterbury as Peter.

I pretty much enjoyed this film but I found it didn’t quite hit the mark. There is a very surprising ending which I did enjoy, but over all it kind of left me a little disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s quite entertaining and there are some good performances, I just felt the plot could have done with a little more refining. So, over all, violent, gory, futuristic, entertaining but the plot needed a little work. Having said that, it’s still recommended.

My score: 6.9/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1053424/
Official Site: http://www.repomenarecoming.com/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi3661497369/

No comments: