Repo Men: Review By slysnide

Based on the 2009 novel "The Repossession Mambo" by Eric Garcia, Miguel Sapochnik's film adaptation has a strong exposition for what you think is going to be a great dark comedy, but just under the halfway point, the thing which we expect is going to happen does, and thus the rest of the story becomes an average action film akin to the master turning on the bosses. But with organ repossession as the occupation in question, it's a wonder Garcia and Sapochnik didn't realize how unique this was earlier to tap the potential this had to be one of the better sci-fi flicks of 2010.

Jude Law stars as Remy, who works as a repo man for 'The Union' which leases organs to desperate customers. When payments are late, they're given ninety-six days notice before Remy and others like him come to repossess the leased organ. Naturally he has no feelings of remorse on this job, and gets along famously with his partner Jake (Forest Whitaker) who enjoys the job too much. But what should happen if the repo man becomes a customer himself? Well, you can see how sticking with random 'on the job incidents' with a smaller main plot would've made for a far better film.

Some of the dark humor comes from things like letting a late customer finish cutting an album before repossession, or doing a quick job while at a family barbecue in the suburbs. Especially given how Whitaker doesn't understand why people take issue with it. I for one lament Whitaker not getting better roles after "The Last King of Scotland" (2006), but at least he was the most memorable element of the film. But back on point, once Remy discovers how disheartening it is to be at the mercy of his own colleagues, the dark humor virtually stops, and it becomes a dark action film about a guy trying to overcome a corrupt system which he conveniently didn't realize was corrupt until he was on the short end of the stick. And of course they give him a new partner (Alice Braga) to be on the run with. And to bring us back to reality is Remy's boss (Liev Schreiber).

So overall, while this started out as a potentially good dark comedy, it got repackaged too early into an average action film featuring a 'done to death concept' of the master turning on the bosses. It's unfortunate, because I was really enjoying this movie up to that point. Just let this serve as a lesson as to how NOT to go about closing an original idea when you're in search of a bigger plot device.