[rating=2]
Back in 1984, Alex Cox made his tech-noir “Repoman,” a freewheeling homage to “Kiss Me Deadly.” Sadly, 2010’a “Repo Men” has nothing to do with that film other than the plurality of the title and a similar shirt/tie combination worn by the main characters of both movies.
What we do get is the shadow of Cyberpunk raising its ugly head for one more try-and not the good kind either. We’re in “Johnny Mnemonic” territory, outdated, confused and bristling with missed opportunities. Forget 3D, the filmmakers should hand out a set of virtual reality goggles and promise you cybersex, because it’s all so 1990s.
As it is always the case with such movies, “Repo Men” starts out promisingly enough. Good science fiction should hold up a mirror to the more sinister sides of our society and show us our hideous fun fare reflections, and what better subject than healthcare to scare us all to death?
The right in America still oppose universal healthcare and The Nuffield Council on Bioethics in Britain will be asking whether ideas such as cash incentives and payment of funeral expenses would encourage people to sign up to donate their organs.
In this film, The Union, a shadowy corporation (aren’t these corporations always shadowy?) controls the supply of artificial organs. Heart attack? No problem. Worn that liver out? They can sort it. Sounds too good to be true? Of course it is. “We want them buying, not thinking,” says Frank, one of The Union’s top dogs, “we don’t make money when they pay in full.”
So Eric B and Rakim wouldn’t like their extortionate credit rates even with a 3 month grace period. That’s where the Repo men come in. Guys like Remy and Jake (Jude Law and Forest Whitaker, sorely wasted) will hunt you down and recover The Union’s property if you can’t keep up the payments. Of course, that usually means death, but, hey you, were on borrowed time, as well as borrowed property.
After a botched job, Remy feels how the other half live when he is given a top of the range heart. This is when “Repo Men” should go with its gut (sorry) instinct, and spiral out of control into a crazy ass satire. Instead we flick open our tick charts and strike off one movie rip off after another.
“The Running Man,” “Robocop” and “Total Recall” all get a sneaky look in and remind you of a time when Paul Verhoven and Arnie would have made this movie in their sleep between Lear Jet trips. Even the promised “Logan’s Run” duel between Remy and Jake never really materialises. When it kind of does it’s in a cheap looking, Basildon car park wasteland, the sort that go hand in hand with these movies as the special effects budget is usually spent in the opening few shots.
We are then “treated” to an unnecessary “Old Boy” fight that then descends into a bizarre sex scene involving the bar coding of numerous vital organs. In the hands of David Cronenberg, this body horror would be monstrous and understandable; in “Repo Men” it’s just there to satisfy people who watch programmes about the removal of 20 ton tumours.
Now there’s a movie idea.