Miguel Sapochnik's sci-fi thriller shows flashes of style and originality, but never transcends its genre, and is far less interesting than the remarkably similar Repo! The Genetic Opera. Repo Men follows a typical dystopian sci-fi script, influenced by Logan's Run, Blade Runner, and--inexplicably--Total Recall. The film takes place in a society ruled by pharmaceutical companies (social commentary!), or an artificial organ company called The Union to be more specific. The human life-span has been theoretically expanded by the invention of mechanical replacements for virtually any body part. That's in theory. In practice, life spans are shortened by the fact that the organs are reclaimed if the transplantees get behind on their payments. That's where our heroes come in. Remy (Jude Law) and Jake (Forest Whitaker) are the repo men of the title, hunting down those who have defaulted on their loans and removing their organs manually. The victims are offered a ride to the hospital, but what's the point? They don't have good enough credit to get a new organ at that point anyway.
     On the face of it, the central concept of the film seems timely and relevant, but it is not explored in depth. Director Miguel Sapochnik instead opts for the usual, "changing of the hero's mind once he walks a mile in someone else's shoes" method. It's the same trick that Minority Report used extremely well, and which Surrogates used very poorly. Unfortunately, Repo Men is more Surrogates than Minority Report. That's not for lack of trying though--Repo Men's world definitely takes some stylistic cues from the Spielberg thriller, with the rest being made up of blatant homages to (or theft from) Blade Runner. The rest of the film follows suit, spitting out a hodgepodge of ideas from other better sci-fi films. It's a shame too, since the organ repossession concept is good enough to stand on its own without a lot of other needless genre contrivances.
     The film stops being fun and starts becoming an ordeal when Remy is nearly killed and is given an artificial heart himself. Apparently this changes everything. His wife leaves him, he can't do his job, and he begins to empathize with other human beings. It's not so much that the dystopia starts coming unraveled, as it is Remy waking up to reality. That's all well and good, but Repo Men doesn't want to be a character drama, so instead we watch Remy desperately trying to evade The Union for the rest of the film. He meets Beth (Alice Braga), a woman who is more machine than woman at this point. They go on the lam together, maybe falling in love (I'll leave you in suspense). This means we spend most of the latter half of the film away from two of the more interesting characters/great actors, Jake (Forest Whitaker) and Frank, the Union manager (Liev Schreiber). Someone must have called in some favors to bring this great of a cast together (Carice van Houten too) for what is certainly not a great movie.
     Repo Men is at its best when it focuses on the perverse joy Remy takes in extracting organs from the unfortunate victims of predatory lending. The soundtrack is filled with interesting choices which contrast with the action onscreen, bringing to mind some other satirical works, A Clockwork Orange in particular. The contrast between the light-hearted melodies and Remy's grisly deeds draws attention to the moral issues which are present in the actions of him and The Union. Even this strong point is not strong enough however. The music is noticeable, but not used as bravely as someone like Tarantino surely would.
     Repo Men may have been a very good film with a different director. Sapochnik does an adequate but unspectacular job and his inexperience shows at times. In order to fully exploit the gory nature of the organ reposession concept, someone like David Cronenberg would have excelled, reveling in the gooiness of it all and bringing the sexual undertones to the surface in some of the scenes. Some of Sapochnik's other stylistic flourishes seem cribbed from David Fincher or Guy Ritchie, featuring rapid-fire flashbacks and hyperactive action sequences. Sapochnik would have been much better off picking a style and sticking with it, carving out a name for himself rather than trying to imitate other directors.
     There is a twist near the end, for no reason whatsoever except to appeal to people who enjoy unneccessary plot twists. It doesn't kill the film, but it just reinforces the hodgepodge nature of the screenplay. With tighter direction and a sharper focus, Repo Men could have been a powerful, even important, film. As it is, it's only worth a look for fans of the genre, and only barely. In addition, the passage of a landmark health care reform bill yesterday makes this film seem strangely dated instead of topical. That's not to say that the world we live in today isn't a dystopia itself with plenty of problems left to fix, but today Repo Men's pessimistic tone seems a bit old hat.