Repo Men

By Ashley Hillard

Relativity Media are behind a lot of flicks these days. From ”The Wolfman” to ”Dear John”, chances are if you’ve been in a theater in the past few months, you’ve seen one of their films. Their latest is a collaboration with Mary Parent, Scott Stuber and Universal titled ”Repo Men”. Based on the novel by Eric Garcia, this is one of the most original concepts to be turned into a film in years. ‘

Think ”Blade Runner” meets ”Gattaca” meets ”Up In The Air” in this futuristic shoot ’em up sci fi drama that questions the medical business and ethics whilst serving up a rip-snorting good time for action aficionados.

The Union pushes artificial organs on people at a high premium, one that most families can’t afford. If you can’t pay, Repo men come to collect. Remy (Jude Law) and Jake (Forest Whitaker) are long time friends and the best of the best in the Repo world, until one fateful night when Remy joins the ranks of people indebted to The Union for their lives. With a literal change of heart, Remy can’t continue brutalizing people for being behind on payments and goes on the run with Beth (Alice Braga) who is also in debt and out of time.

Admittedly ”Repo Men” isn’t full of too many surprises in the first half, outside of impressive brutality and gore scenes, but in the second half, first time feature director Miguel Sapochnik channels robbed Oscar-nominee Quentin Tarantino and directs some over the top, impressive action scenes that left the audience clapping. Not one to turn away from blood, even I squirmed at some of the gorrific scenes of cutting, ripping and bleeding.

If the rest of the film was as good as the second half, this could have been a five starrer, but the slow lead up made it feel like it dragged at times. There’s also a twist at the end that could beat out ”Shutter Island” for surprise factor. The film is also timely in the U.S. due to the debate over health-care and the power the drug and insurance companies wield. Hopefully The Union isn’t in the real future.