While a good movie can open and play well any time of the year, studios are often inclined to release films of some particular content at specific times of the calendar. That's why romantic comedies come out around Valentine's Day, horror ones arrive sometime before Halloween, and end of the year holiday based ones show up between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Other pics simply luck out by being released in temporal proximity to a related true life event, thus sparking more viewer interest in them. The most famous example of that, of course, is "The China Syndrome" that just so happened to hit theaters days before the Three Mile Island incident. And now with Congress reportedly poised to pass some sort of health care reform sometime soon, those behind the release of "Repo Men" are probably hoping lucky lightning will strike twice.
Methinks that probably not terribly likely as the film really isn't about health care insurance per se and doesn't specifically pretend to be an indictment of the presence (or not) of such coverage. Instead, it's a grisly and over-the-top sci-fi thriller that operates like many a high concept, "what if" film from the 1980s. For the curious, no, that doesn't mean it's a sequel to the 1984 cult favorite, "Repo Man" (starring Emilio Estevez as an auto repossession agent).
Instead, it's based on Eric Garcia's novel "The Repossession Mambo" and its notion of what if the suppliers of artificial organs would repossess their product should their customers be unable to pay. Diehard cult film aficionados, however, will also clearly see the striking resemblance to the little seen "Repo! The Genetic Opera" from 2008 that basically operated off the same premise, albeit as a full-fledged and reportedly quite goofy and gory opera (I have not seen it). For yours truly, this latest offering struck me as somewhat derivative of "Logan's Run" and its hunter-turned-hunted storyline.
Regardless of the source of inspiration and/or the timing of the release, the question remains about whether the film is any good or not. In short, it starts out decently, quickly devolves into standard futuristic, Earthbound sci-fi fare that throws out writing and themes in favor of hard-hitting action, and then gets so goofy and goes so far over the top (especially in blatantly depicting the "violence is porn" mindset) that it becomes something of a guilty pleasure. There isn't enough of the latter to save it in the long run, but there's no denying the film has its moments.
Working from a screenplay by Garcia and Garrett Lerner, director Miguel Sapochnik has the story set sometime in the near future (noted by beer served in unusual metal containers, cars that are slightly different than today's, and a cityscape that looks like "Blade Runner") where our main repo men (Jude Law and Forest Whitaker) are quite good at what they do, even if their repossession of mechanical organs and other body parts usually leaves the client dead. But then something goes wrong, Remy ends up with a literal change of heart, and then becomes one of the hunted when he can't pay for his new ticker.
I can see how this would work on paper, but as a filmed experience it doesn't always succeed that well, especially regarding the protagonist's new mindset or second-half involvement with a singer (Alice Braga) and fellow transplant client. By the time that rolls around, the film has become a simple chase, hide and fight flick, with Sapochnik's effects and make-up team having a field day in creating all of the gory (and then some) effects.
Toward the end, the filmmaker first tries to emulate Tarantino in delivering a "cool" action scene set to a catchy tune and filmed in slow-mo so we can be sure not to miss all of the bashing, stabbing and slitting (and resultant blood). That's followed by a scene that will delight all of the graphic surgery or at least body penetration fetishists out there (and gross-out everyone else) as a man and woman cut and then reach into themselves and each other in a steamy/sensual fashion that's so absurd you can't help but watch and take in the sheer audacity of the moment. A concluding coda then tries to explain everything, but feels like a cheap and tacked on "get out of cinematic jail free" ploy.
Granted, there's occasional black comedy and tongue-in-cheek moments scattered throughout the film (the 9-year-old black market surgeon being a favorite among viewers at our screening), but not enough to make this the full-fledged guilty pleasure it so obviously wants to be.
Perhaps if the musical numbers had been included it might have turned the corner on being "good" enough to qualify, but that film has already been made. Unlikely to find supporters on either side of the health care coverage issue (or anyone else for that matter who isn't into seeing bodies opened in a variety of ways) despite posing an interesting question about how far and bleak such matters could go, "Repo Man" is deserving of a visit by its titular figures. It rates as a 3.5 out of 10.
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