Repo Man (1984) was a gritty cult hit about a couple of enforcers in a nasty line of work, namely, repossessing automobiles from folks who'd fallen behind in their car payments. A generation later, we now have Repo Men upping the ante, for this relatively-grisly, sci-fi adventure resurrects the same theme but applies it to the field of healthcare.
Set in the not too distant future, the picture revolves around the gruesome exploits of Jake (Forest Whitaker) and Remy (Jude Law), employees of The Union, a mega medical services corporation. The two best friends have each other's back on a job which literally calls for them to cut body parts out of the torsos of delinquent clients.
This state of affairs doesn't sit well with Remy's wife, Carol (Carice Van Houten), who's been pressuring her husband to quit, especially because of the example he's setting for their young son, Peter (Chandler Canterbury). But due to mounting financial responsibilities, Remy can't resign. Besides, he finds it easy to rationalize chopping hearts out of the chests of deadbeat patients, between the encouragement of his boss, Frank (Live Schreiber), and the healthy enthusiasm of his pal, Jake, for each of their assignments.
The plot thickens when Remy needs a heart transplant himself, and then has trouble meeting the monthly finance charges. And it's not hard to guess who is assigned to chase him down when the account is 90 days past due.
So unfolds Repo Men, one of those splatter flicks which seemingly celebrates dismemberment as a beautiful blood sport. It's hard to recall a movie where people were murdered with such glee and utter abandon. A paranoid fantasy of what's over the horizon if the macabre rumors about the Obamacare death panels are true.
Fair (1 star)
Rated R for profanity, graphic violence, grisly images, sexuality and nudity.
Running time: 111 Minutes
Distributor: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
DVD extras: Deleted scenes, feature commentary by the director and scriptwriters, and two featurettes, "Inside the Visual Effects" and "Union Commercials."
