Repo Men (DVD)

It goes to show how the likes of Hostel and Saw have changed the landscape of cinema. I mean here we are with a film about people who hunt others down to steal body parts and yet it’s almost entirely slipped by mainstream audiences. Ten years ago, a film like this would have been received with mouths agape – not because of the plot or the gore, but the character’s attitude towards their grisly situation.

Repo Men sees Jude Law and Forest Whitaker living it up a few years in the future, where artificial body parts are as commonplace as a tit in a bra. The only problem is that said body parts are pretty pricey and if the recipient can’t keep up repayments, then the scary bailiffs come around to take the fake appendage back – by any means necessary. Naturally, things get a bit Logan’s Run when an accident causes Remy, one of the best repo men in the business, to get kitted out with a new ticker and he ends up being targeted by his former partner Jake, when he can’t pay his monthly fee. The result is pretty much as you’d expect – Jude Law is being a cheeky scamp, people are getting murdered and having their insides turned to outsides and the inevitable game of cat and mouse ensues.

What makes it pretty good (for at least one viewing), is the cavalier attitude with which the titular organ harvesters go about their day to day business. Turning up and being utterly polite before plunging a knife through their clients’ chests and listening to swing music, it’s made all the more hypnotic as these guys aren’t bad men – they’re average people going about their daily grind...it’s just that their grind involves the grinding of tools through bone and muscle.

With hitters like Jude Law, Forest Whitaker and Liev Schreiber heading up the cast, you can’t really fault the acting. Similarly, the plot is pretty engrossing too. In fact the film’s only real downfall is that it drags on a bit. And when you can see where the film is going from a mile away, that’s a pretty hefty issue. Nevertheless, the journey is solidly entertaining thanks to the aforementioned performances and frequent lashings of action and boobage. In all, there are much worse films to watch on a Friday night with a few mates.

As for those extras, there’s a handful of neat fake adverts for the artificial body parts featured in the film, there’s a few deleted scenes and an in-depth commentary from the director and the writers. It’s neat enough stuff but nothing amazingly special.

In all, it makes for a disc that’s worth a peep if not for the performances, action and themes, then for the mild controversy that surrounded its theatrical release - namely the stark similarities between this and Darren Lynn Bousman’s Repo! – The Genetic Opera. Whatever, the reason it’s worth at least checking out.

Overall Verdict: Unoriginal but pretty good fun nevertheless thanks to Jude Law’s nonchalant butchering of his victims. Nice.

Special Features:
Feature Commentary with Director Miguel Sapochnik and Writers Eric Garcia and Garret Learner
Inside the Visual Effects
Deleted Scenes
The Union Commercials

Reviewer: Jordan Brown