A movie post for a busy day: Repo Men

So this is a little late today b/c, yes, I'm at work again.  How do you work-outside-the-home-every-day people blog?  I just don't get it.  Anyway...

Sunday night, my husband and I watched Repo Men.  Now, let me preface this by saying we hardly every get to watch movies.  Our DVR fills up and we fit in one show an evening after the kids are in bed, and usually still have a a whole queue come the weekend.  But last week, we sprung for a little RedBox.

For a random Wed. my husband rented Hot Tub Time Machine.  I won't even comment.

For the weekend, we rented, as previously mentioned, Repo Men.  First of all, one of the hottest and most intimate sex-but-not-sex scenes ever.  It's toward the end of the film so I won't give it away.  Secondly, our absolute lack of exposure to gore recently made this film hit pretty hard.  Oh, and we watched the unrated version.

Premise: "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...When he can't make the payments, The Union sends its toughest enforcer, Remy's former partner Jake, to track him down."

Needless to say, there is lots of blood, a few fake organs being ripped from bodies, and some serious knife-fight scenes.  Personally, I don't mind all of this.  I love a good action movie--don't throw chic flicks my way.  But the one thing that stood out from the was the intensity and apathy Jude Law seemed to exude at the same time.  The connection between him and the woman who becomes his leading lady late in the movie is hard to explain as anything but animalistic.  The relationship symbolizes the mechanized world in which Law's character lives, in contrast with the human need to survive and be happy, not just exist.  The actress who plays Law's wife furthers this contrast, with her emotionless tone and blank face.

At first glance, the movie is just another excuse for action and the exploration of futuristic technology.  (Reminds me of a post I did a while ago, actually.)  But look deeper and you'll see the theme I just mentioned portrayed through a series of contrasts--setting (aesthetic Union vs. jungle-like home of the outlaws), characters, and sound (the robotic words of the boss [Liev Schrieber] vs. the easy jazz and classic music that penetrates the lives of those on the run.

Bottom line:  If you have no tolerance for blood and weapons, avoid this movie.  If you like looking behind the face of a plot and enjoy the SciFi aspect in film, rent Repo Men today. 

One more comment--I don't think this movie has to be set in the future, but could also be set in an alternate reality.  A big theme in Repo Men is science and the use of it to create more perfect, alternate states of being.  The whole movie could be just one big alternate state of mind.