Repo Men was based on a book called Repossession Mambo and closely resembled another movie called Repo! The Genetic Opera.
This is another movie whose internet grumblings were so bad that it prevented me from seeing it in the theater. I regret it because this movie was impressive. Keep in mind that I’d never heard of Repo! The Genetic Opera or Repossession Mambo before seeing this movie so I didn’t have anything to compare it to. Firstly, the futuristic city-scape was beautiful. It’s a near future movie about a society where organ transplants are easily accessible by all but expensive. As normal as it is to have an organ transplant, it is equally normal to have an organ repossessed. There is no expensive hospital stay to get your organ repossessed. No, they cut out your organ where ever you are at the time, leaving you gaping open and bleeding with little chance of getting medical attention in time to save your life.
Forrest Whitaker and Jude Law make an unlikely gruesome team that work together seamlessly. They are brutal, enjoy their work and even compete for body count. They get highly rewarded for discovering nests. Nests are remote, abandoned locations filled with people who have fled their normal lives in order to not have their organs repossessed. On a mission, Jude Law’s character, Remy gets hurt repossessing an organ from The Rza (wtf?). His equipment malfunctions and electrocutes him. He has to have a heart transplant. For whatever reason, Remy’s company doesn’t insure workers that get hurt on the job so he has to pay for the transplant himself. When it is time to return to his job, Remy has lost the drive to cut open people. Since Remy doesn’t work, he doesn’t get paid and ends up being hunted by his best friend.
The rest of the movie is an intense chase and bizarre tale of love and adventure. The ending is one that I didn’t see coming and mostly likely contributed to overall movie-goer dissatisfaction. I didn’t mind the ending and I preferred it because the story began to be unbelievable after awhile. Even with the wacky ending, Repo Men was a judged too harshly and should be put on your Netflix queue immediately.
Repo Men was released March 19, 2010 by Universal Pictures.