Repo Men (2010)

Set in the near future when artificial organs can be bought on credit, it revolves around a man who struggles to make the payments on a heart he has purchased. He must therefore go on the run before said ticker is repossessed.

Director:

Miguel Sapochnik

Writers:

Eric Garcia (screenplay), Garrett Lerner (screenplay),

Stars:

Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Alice Braga

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jude Law	...	Remy
Forest Whitaker	...	Jake
Alice Braga	...	Beth
Liev Schreiber	...	Frank
Carice van Houten	...	Carol
Chandler Canterbury	...	Peter
Joe Pingue	...	Ray
Liza Lapira	...	Alva
Tiffany Espensen	...	Little Alva
Yvette Nicole Brown	...	Rhodesia
RZA	...	T-Bone
Wayne Ward	...	John
Tanya Clarke	...	Hooker
Max Turnbull	...	Larry the Lung
Howard Hoover	...	Salesman

Storyline

In the future humans have extended and improved our lives through highly sophisticated and expensive mechanical organs created by a company called "The Union". The dark side of these medical breakthroughs is that if you don't pay your bill, "The Union" sends its highly skilled repo men to take back its property... with no concern for your comfort or survival. Former soldier Remy is one of the best organ repo men in the business. But when he suffers a cardiac failure on the job, he awakens to find himself fitted with the company's top-of-the-line heart-replacement... as well as a hefty debt. But a side effect of the procedure is that his heart's no longer in the job. When he can't make the payments, The Union sends its toughest enforcer, Remy's former partner Jake, to track him down.

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Plot Keywords:

future | near future | artificial organ | on the run | singer | 

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Taglines:

We Encourage You To Drink Irresponsibly.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for for strong bloody violence, grisly images, language and some sexuality/nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Spain]

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

19 March 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Repossession Mambo

Filming Locations:

Bay subway station, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$32,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£182,798 (UK) (16 April 2010)

Gross:

£182,798 (UK) (16 April 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Relativity Media, Stuber Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min 119 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Forest Whitaker has been studying Filipino Kali for several years under masters such as Dan Inosanto and Richard Bustillo. He utilizes his skills in several fight scenes in the film.

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Goofs

When they get on the subway train (TTC Bay Station) the car they enter is either a Hawker Siddeley(Urban Transportation Development Corporation) H5 or H6. After the first interior scene the car becomes a Bombardier Transportation's T1 for the rest of the scenes.

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Quotes

Remy: I saw an interview with a serial killer once. Said it took him six years to work up to his first kill. The second, a year. The third, just a week. Once that dam broke, it was a flood. Making people die, it had become second nature. Apparently, it also works the other way round.

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Crazy Credits

An advertisement screen for The Union appears at the end of the closing credits.

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Connections

References Oldboy (2003)

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Soundtracks

"Hit It And Quit It"
(uncredited)
Written by Eddie Hazel and George Clinton
Performed by Funkadelic

User Reviews

Some terrific stuff completely trashed by absurd and clumsy directing...

Repo Men (2010)

This could have been a powerful and exciting movie, with three great actors (Law, Whitaker, and Schreiber) and an interesting idea. The writing is either silly or redundant, and that doesn't help, but mostly it's a matter of direction and lots of bad decisions, too many to get into, ranging from pauses that didn't make sense to needless interludes to needless fistfighting.

There really are aspects to the movie that are excellent--the many sets, for one thing, and the vision of a near future that seems pretty accurate (neon ads and large buildings and a crossbreeding of the modern and the industrially decayed). There are troubles even here, though, with scenes of ultra normalcy (bar-b-cues) and scenes of improbable (impossible) medical violence (removing a kidney in a cab a minute later).

And back to the actors--even here it's an issue of casting. Jude Law pulls off a desperate bad guy better than you might think he would, but he's just not an action-adventure type. Forrest Whitaker, likewise--his canny sensitivity is wasted. Liev Schreiber has little to do and he does it functionally, which is not like him.

Expect a clumsy production with some curious twists. At times there is such beautiful irony just at the tip of everyone's fingers (like the artificial organ factory), it's painful that it's in a rough and tumble action flick like this. Oh, and did I say it's downright stupid at times, like when the police never ever ever hit their target when shooting? Talk about gratuitous blood.

The soundtrack has got to be terrific, however. Check that out somewhere.