Review of Repo Men (2010) by Davidp — 23 Mar 2010

This film is an uneven mix, starting off as a black comedy, shifts quickly out of funny territory and into stilted drama, and eventually finds itself stumbling into an action picture. The plot, which has been derided by some as a poorer, commercial version of the cult classic "Repo! The Genetic Opera" and dismissed by others as a barely more palatable version of the atrocious "Repo! The Genetic Opera" in fact bears almost no resemblance to the 2008 film.

In fact, it owes much more to "Logan's Run." If you saw that film, you've already seen this one, and seen it better done with more imagination. The main problem I had with the setup of this film is that there was no reason to believe that this would actually happen, that in an otherwise quite mundane world we'd allow people to kill each other on the streets for the price of their artificial organs.

That wouldn't be a barrier if the film embraced it's early, satirical tone, but as it quickly attempts to take itself seriously, it becomes very hard to ignore the fact that the entire premise is utterly ridiculous.

In the end, I can't make up my mind as to whether this picture is a poorly conceived critique of the health care system in the USA or an unnecessarily graphic action vehicle, but it doesn't ever quite work on either level.