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"REPO MEN"
(2010) (Jude Law, Forest Whitaker) (R)

Alcohol/
Drugs
Blood/Gore Disrespectful/
Bad Attitude
Frightening/
Tense Scenes
Guns/
Weapons
Heavy Extreme Extreme Heavy Extreme
Imitative
Behavior
Jump
Scenes
Music
(Scary/Tense)
Music
(Inappropriate)
Profanity
Extreme Mild Extreme Heavy Extreme
Sex/
Nudity
Smoking Tense Family
Scenes
Topics To
Talk About
Violence
Extreme Minor Heavy Heavy Extreme


QUICK TAKE:
Sci-fi/Thriller: In the future where artificial body parts are repossessed if their recipients can no longer pay for them, a repo man goes on the run when he becomes one of those people.
PLOT:
Sometime in the future, a company known as The Union manufactures and sells artificial body parts for those in need of one or more transplants. The only catch is that if a client can't continue to make payments on said parts, repo men are sent out to find them and reclaim them, even if that means the demise of the original recipient.

The local branch of The Union is run by Frank (LIEV SCHREIBER) who has a team of such repo men at his disposal, and two of the best are Remy (JUDE LAW) and Jake (FOREST WHITAKER) who've known each other since they were kids. But Remy's wife, Carol (CARICE VAN HOUTEN), doesn't like his grisly line of work and would rather him get into sales and thus be a better role model for their young son, Peter (CHANDLER CANTERBURY).

Jake doesn't think that's a good idea, but Remy finally agrees, although not before one last repo job. During that, however, malfunctioning equipment injures him, resulting in him waking up with an artificial heart in his chest. Shocked at the development and now needing to continue being a repo man for the higher pay after Carol has kicked him out, Remy tries to return to his old line of work. But he's unexpectedly developed empathy for those in similar situations and can't continue, thus putting him behind in his payments.

With time running out before his heart is repossessed, Remy goes on the run with fellow transplant recipient Beth (ALICE BRAGA), hoping to avoid Jake and other repo men who are now after him.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?
If they're into futuristic, sci-fi thrillers and/or are fans of anyone in the cast, they might, although teens seem the most likely audience among kids.
WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R
For strong bloody violence, grisly images, language and some sexuality/nudity.
CAST AS ROLE MODELS:
  • JUDE LAW plays a man who works as a repo man for the Union, repossessing artificial organs and body parts when transplant recipients can no longer pay for them. He's quite good at what he does (that usually results in those people being dead), but then develops a conscience for people in the same boat after he becomes a recipient. He then goes on the run with Beth, apparently has sex with her (after his wife has left him), drinks and uses strong profanity.
  • FOREST WHITAKER plays his longtime friend and coworker who isn't happy with Remy bowing to pressure from his wife to give up the repo gig and instead taking a sales position. He also kills people in the repo process, drinks, and uses strong profanity.
  • ALICE BRAGA plays a singer who ends up as a street person following many transplant procedures, both Union done and others via the black market. She goes on the run with Remy, apparently has sex with him, and uses some strong profanity.
  • LIEV SCHREIBER plays Remy and Jake's boss who likes their proficiency but not always their attitude and other behavior. When Remy ends up in arrears to the company, Frank doesn't care and calls for the repossession of his artificial heart. He uses strong profanity.
  • CARICE VAN HOUTEN plays Remy's wife who kicks him out when he doesn't follow her demand to trade in the repo gig for doing sales with the company. She uses strong profanity.
  • CHANDLER CANTERBURY plays their young son who ends up shocking his mom during her argument with Remy.
  • CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO

    HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE


    Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit?
    Then read OUR TAKE of this film.


    (Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below).


    OUR WORD TO PARENTS:
    The following is a brief summary of the content found in this R-rated sci-fi thriller. Profanity consists of at least 34 "f" words, while other expletives and colorful phrases are also uttered. An intended sexual encounter (female to male oral sex) is interrupted before it begins, off-screen sex is implied, and bare-breasted strippers are seen doing their thing (a bikini-clad stripper in another scene also does her thing). A scene featuring a couple being sensual while cutting into their bodies takes on a weird, fetish aspect.

    Violence consists of all sorts of extremely graphic deaths via a variety of weapons, as well as hard fighting and the striking of others. In addition to the related blood and gore that creates, various scenes feature people cutting into themselves and others, all in a grisly fashion. Some of that behavior might be enticing for kids to imitate, and those scenes and moments of peril might be unsettling and/or suspenseful for some viewers.

    Bad attitudes are present, as is tense family material and thematic elements. Drinking occurs in several scenes, there's one brief bit of smoking, and some sort of drug is rubbed on gums before said surgical procedures.

    Should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness for yourself or anyone else in your home, you may want to look more closely at our detailed listings for more specific information regarding the film's content.

    For those concerned with bright flashes of light on the screen, there's some of that from Remy's car zipping by street lights, thus causing a flashing effect.

    For those prone to visually induced motion sickness, there's some camera movement (nothing too bad) from time to time in the film.


    ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE
  • We see a man on the street holding a bottle (content unknown).
  • Jake and Remy have drinks in a club where bottles of liquor line the bar wall.
  • People have beer at Remy's barbeque, including Remy.
  • Realizing he's about to have his organ repossessed, a man takes something from a small vial, pours some on his finger and then rubs that on his own gums.
  • Remy is given pain medication via an IV drip in a hospital.
  • We see Jake with two beers, but neither he nor Remy has any.
  • We see people drinking at an office party.
  • Various people drink in a bar.
  • Jake has a glass of wine by him.
  • Remy drinks in a bar as do a handful of others
  • Remy finds Beth in the slums, takes her to a hotel, and we hear him talk of two days of withdrawal about her.
  • Jake has a beer.
  • Remy rubs some substance on his own gums before cutting into himself.
  • Jake holds a beer.
  • Jake brings over tropical drinks for himself and Remy.
  • BLOOD/GORE
  • Remy takes a scalpel to a man he's just shocked into unconsciousness, cuts him open, and removes an artificial organ from his body (seen in graphic bloody & gory detail, including with his hand inside the man's body). We then see him washing blood from the device that he then bags and later returns to Frank.
  • We see a flashback to a repo man stabbing a woman inside a subway train, sending blood splattering.
  • We see a speed zoom to an internal view of a man's mechanical part inside his body (with related visceral views, etc.).
  • A cab pulls up in front of Remy's place where Jake is waiting with a knife. He then opens the door, shocks the passenger in the back seat, and then stabs into him to repossess his organ. We don't see the contact, but do see blood splatter onto the window and then run out of the cab to the street.
  • During a repo raid, Remy fights and stabs several people, including slicing one's neck, all with bloody results. Afterwards, Remy is seen with blood on him.
  • About Remy doing sales alongside Frank, Jake sarcastically tells Remy that he'll be choking on his own vomit doing so.
  • Remy wakes up in a hospital with tubes running out of a now closed, full chest incision. He wants no part of that, and thus stumbles down the hallway where he pulls out the tubes, resulting in blood coming out and then dripping from the holes down onto the floor. We next see the actual surgical implantation of the device into his chest (in full bloody & gory detail).
  • Jake jokingly tells the story of a nervous client with a huge "snot bubble" from his nose that kept getting bigger.
  • Remy has some bloody cuts and scrapes on his face after getting beat up.
  • Beth is bloody after falling several stories onto a floor, while a repo man's head is then squashed by a dropped typewriter (with bloody/gory results).
  • Beth has a very bad leg wound that we see in full graphic detail, including her trying to fix it herself by placing something inside the gaping (and bloody/gory) wound.
  • Remy drops a patch of tattooed skin in front of Frank, revealing that to be from the repo man Frank sent to kill him.
  • Remy and Beth try to make their way through airport security by using illegal devices that jam scanners used on them (all while guards suspiciously look at them). They nearly make it until others spot blood on the floor around Beth's shoe (from a previous wound) and they're lead off.
  • We see the bad wound on Beth's leg again as a nurse checks it out.
  • Various people are bloody to varying degrees as Remy and Beth fight them in a small room.
  • A 9-year-old black market surgeon operates on Beth's bad (and open) leg wound, spreading it further to remove a device from it (all with very bloody results, including on the girl's gloved hands).
  • Remy is bloody while fighting Jake, including from his mouth down onto the floor, and is very bloody at the end of that fight.
  • Many repo men raid a building, sending transplant recipients fleeing, with many shot and stunned with shock guns. Later, Remy walks among the scores of dead and bloody bodies on the floor.
  • Remy fires his shock gun and hits two guards, and then throws the gun to hit a third. He then struggles with him before firing something into that man's open mouth (with bloody results coming out from behind his head on the ground).
  • Guards shoot at Remy and Beth in an assembly factory, hitting various workers by accident (with bloody results, including a pool of blood on a surface next to one victim).
  • Remy shoots many Union workers while using another one as a shield against bullets fired at him. While Beth hits one such man with an axe, Remy continues his rampage, including fighting, stabbing and slicing various people who come at him with knives (he's stabbed once). Beth then shoots at least two people with a handgun, while Remy then uses a hack saw to attack more (while Beth places a bag over one person's head that Remy then hits, and he strikes others with a hammer (and such). All of that (especially the throat slitting) has extremely bloody results.
  • In order to fake repossessing his artificial heart, Remy cuts into his own torso and Beth sticks her hand up inside his torso to scan the device. He then cuts into her and does the same, all with very bloody and gory results.
  • As a man goes to shoot Remy and Beth, Jake jabs a large knife up through his chin and/or neck, killing him (with very bloody results).
  • We see various probes or something similar connected to a man's head.
  • DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE
  • In voice-over narration, we hear Remy telling the story of a researcher who placed a cat in a box with a machine that would release poison gas and eventually kill the cat (meaning it was both alive and -- essentially -- dead simultaneously).
  • Remy, Jake and other people work as repo men for Frank and the Union, reclaiming artificial transplanted organs and other body parts when the recipients can no longer pay for them, usually leaving such people dead.
  • Frank reveals to a potential customer the mid 6-figure cost of his replacement part and the nearly 20% interest they charge. He later tells Remy that they don't want people paying in cash since that means they won't make as much money.
  • Jake playfully shocks Remy, prompting him to pretend, briefly and playfully, that he's mentally challenged.
  • Spotting an overweight, past due client, Jake comments to Remy, "Check out fatty."
  • One of the repo men refers to an unseen little person as a "midget," but Frank corrects him on that.
  • Remy tries to remove Beth's repo collection data on a work computer, but is caught by Jake.
  • SPOILER ALERT: Jake admits to being the one responsible for Remy getting an artificial heart (all as a means to keep him in the higher paying repo line of work rather than sales).
  • About the title of Remy's work, Jake jokes that it sounds "kind of fruity." Moments later, he hands him a tropical drink and says, "A little fruit for the fruit."
  • FRIGHTENING SCENES
  • Scenes listed here as well as under "Violence," "Blood/Gore" and/or "Jump Scenes" may be unsettling, suspenseful or scary to younger viewers and/or those with low tolerance levels for such material.
  • Remy and Beth try to make their way through airport security by using illegal devices that jam scanners used on them (all while guards suspiciously look at them). They nearly make it until others spot blood on the floor around Beth's shoe (from a previous wound) and they're lead off.
  • Remy slowly walks through a dimly lit area, his stun gun at the ready.
  • Seeing his repo man neck tattoo, a woman holds a gun to Remy's head until he reveals he's also a transplant recipient.
  • Remy jabs a large needle (of adrenaline or something similar) into Beth's chest to revive her.
  • GUNS/WEAPONS
  • Handguns/Knives/Futuristic Stun & shock guns/Explosives: Carried and/or used to threaten, wound or kill others and/or cause property damage. See "Violence" for details.
  • Seeing his repo man neck tattoo, a woman holds a gun to Remy's head until he reveals he's also a transplant recipient.
  • IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR
  • Phrases: "I don't give a f*ck about…" "Don't you f*cking touch me," "Oh f*ck," "I'm working with f*cking children" (nonsexual), "F*ck no," "F*ck you think you're doing?" "M*therf*cker," "What the f*ck /is that/is wrong with you/is this/do you want"?" "I'm not a f*cking client" (nonsexual), "You're just f*cking up our sh*t," "You're f*cking up everything," "You're as f*cked as me," "F*cking pissed," "It itches like a m*therf*cker," "Give me your f*cking heart," "You're f*cking crazy," "That's just f*cking great," "This is f*cking pathetic," "This is bullsh*t," "Do you believe that sh*t?" "Oh sh*t," "Horizontal mambo" (nonsexual), "Kicked my ass," "You're turning me into a horrible, nagging bitch," what sounded liked "balls" (testicles), "Check out fatty," "Bastard," "Midget," "Stupid bastards," "Kicking ass and taking names," "Soul suckers," "You're an asshole," "Get your convalescing ass in here," "Chinese chick," "Schmuck," "Crappy," "You screwed that up," "Yeah, that's right Einstein," "Christ it's hot," "Sounds kind of fruity" and "A little fruit for the fruit."
  • The fighting, stunts and other action might be enticing for some kids to imitate.
  • The same holds true for various scenes of people cutting into themselves or others and placing their hands inside bodies.
  • In voice-over narration, we hear Remy telling the story of a researcher who placed a cat in a box with a machine that would release poison gas and eventually kill the cat (meaning it was both alive and -- essentially -- dead simultaneously).
  • Remy, like all other repo men, has some sort of tattoo on his neck.
  • Various characters have varying amounts of tattoos in several scenes.
  • We see a flashback to scenes of Remy being knocked unconscious, including in the military where he was a test subject in a concussion experiment (where something large is used to hit him on his helmeted head).
  • We see miscellaneous graffiti in several scenes.
  • Remy burns his vehicle as he and Beth go on the lam.
  • JUMP SCENES
  • A typewriter suddenly lands on a man's head, squashing it.
  • As a man goes to shoot Remy and Beth, Jake jabs a large knife up through his chin and/or neck, killing him (with very bloody results).
  • MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE)
  • An extreme amount of suspenseful, ominous and heavily dramatic music plays in the film.
  • MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE)
  • A song includes at least 1 use of the "f" word (other lyrics couldn't fully be understood or heard thus presenting the possibility that other potentially objectionable content might also be present).
  • PROFANITY
  • At least 34 "f" words (2 used with "mother"), 11 "s" words, 1 slang term each using male and female genitals ("pr*ck" and "p*ssy"), 5 damns, 4 asses (1 used with "hole"), 1 crappy, 3 uses each of "Christ" and "G-damn" and 1 use each of "For Christ's sakes," "Lord" and "Oh Jesus."
  • SEX/NUDITY
  • We see Remy shirtless while typing.
  • A couple enters a place making out, including up against the wall where the cleavage-revealing woman asks the man if he's ready for tonight's entertainment. She then kneels in front of him and pulls down his pants (nothing explicit seen) when they realize Remy is in the room waiting for the man (nothing else sexual happens after that).
  • We twice see a large advertisement that reads "Don't leave it behind" and shows the close-up of a person's bare butt, with their hands clasped or cuffed back there, partially blocking the view.
  • We see Remy shirtless while doing pull-ups, and then in the shower (torso shot).
  • We see Carol's bare back as she's in bed.
  • Beth shows some cleavage while singing in a club.
  • We see a flashback to Remy and Jake in a strip joint where various bare-breasted women are seen doing their thing, including one moving up and down while seated on a guy and facing away from him (we don't see the actual contact, so don't know if it's actual sex or just a lap dance).
  • Jake informs Remy that a "Chinese chick" is soon arriving with her "hot friend" and makes a sex reference, but Remy (who's just gotten out of the hospital and needs a place to stay) just wants to sleep.
  • When Remy returns to work following his hospital stay, he's greeted by a stripper in a small bikini who does various sexual moves, delighting the men there.
  • We see part of Beth's bare breast as she lies in bed.
  • Remy and Beth do some passionate, clothed kissing, including him standing between her legs as she sits up high in front of them. We next see them on a bed, presumably post-sex (he shirtless, she in a robe or something similar showing some cleavage). We then briefly see them do some more passionate kissing.
  • We see another view of Remy shirtless while typing.
  • In order to fake repossessing his artificial heart, Remy cuts into his own torso and Beth sticks her hand up inside his torso to scan the device. He then cuts into her and does the same, all with very bloody and gory results. During this, we see the side of her bare butt before one such cut, while they kiss and act sensual toward each other, thus sexualizing to a degree the hand insertions inside the various wounds, etc.
  • We see Beth in a bikini top and sarong, while a woman in a bikini walks by.
  • SMOKING
  • A miscellaneous person is briefly seen smoking.
  • TENSE FAMILY SCENES
  • Carol wants Remy to go into sales rather than continue repossessing organs and thus killing people, and that puts stress on their relationship. That continues when Remy agrees to let Jake do a job outside their home in a cab that's pulled up, causing Carol to storm off.
  • After waking up in the hospital, Remy hears that Carol has left him.
  • Remy arrives home to find the door locked, and when Carol answers it, she puts a suitcase out for him (and doesn't allow him to see their son).
  • Carol and Remy argue on a subway car, with Peter then using his dad's shock gun to stun his mom.
  • TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT
  • Organ transplants, the use of mechanical devices for the same, and the notion of a company repossessing them for failure to make all related payments.
  • Jake stating that rules and the enforcement of them are what keep the world in order.
  • Remy gambles to try to make money to pay off his debt.
  • Remy talks of a serial killer's confession about killing getting easier each time it's done, adding that making people die eventually becomes second nature.
  • The comment that a job is not just a job, but instead is who you are.
  • VIOLENCE
  • In voice-over narration, we hear Remy telling the story of a researcher who placed a cat in a box with a machine that would release poison gas and eventually kill the cat (meaning it was both alive and -- essentially -- dead simultaneously).
  • Remy interrupts the beginning of a standing sexual encounter by shooting his stun gun at the man, shocking him to the floor and rendering him unconscious. The woman then hits Remy, but when she goes to do so again, he shoots and shocks her, blasting her backwards. He then takes a scalpel to the man, cuts him open, and removes an artificial organ from his body (seen in graphic bloody & gory detail, including with his hand inside the man's body).
  • We see a montage of Remy going through the motion of shooting and shocking people with his stun gun, but we don't see the impact.
  • We see a flashback to a repo man stabbing a woman inside a subway train, sending blood splattering.
  • Jake playfully shocks Remy.
  • We see a flashback to young Jake and Remy fighting and hitting each other as kids.
  • A cab pulls up in front of Remy's place where Jake is waiting with a knife. He then opens the door, shocks the passenger in the back seat, and then stabs into him to repossess his organ. We don't see the contact, but do see blood splatter onto the window and then run out of the cab to the street.
  • Remy and Jake raid a "nest" of past due clients, firing devices that cause shockwaves to hit many of them. They then fire their stun guns into many of them, but several attack Jake and he must fight them off. At the same time, Remy stabs others, including slicing the neck of one (all with bloody results), while Jake fights a larger man who grabs him by the throat with his mechanical arm. Jake manages to cut into that arm, followed by Remy slamming something large to the man's head, knocking him out (or killing him).
  • Remy goes to use a reverse defibrillator on a man, but is instead shocked backwards by the faulty device.
  • We see a flashback to scenes of Remy being knocked unconscious, including in the military where he was a test subject in a concussion experiment (where something large is used to hit him on his helmeted head). We then see him and Jake in a tank firing upon another that explodes, and then those two men roughing up some guys in a strip joint until one knocks out Remy.
  • Following his own surgery, Remy goes to repossess a man's body part, but that man hits him with a chair or something similar. Remy then uses a chokehold to render the man unconscious, but then can't get himself to cut into him to remove the part.
  • Remy smashes his hand down onto a glass in anger, shattering the glass.
  • Jake shocks a teen into submission, we hear sounds of violence elsewhere, and Jake then shocks a man (all for Remy to get back in the saddle again for repossessing organs). But after Jake leaves, Remy can't. He lets the boy go and is then hit over the head by the man or someone else and then repeatedly hit and kicked before being knocked out (we see his POV of the last blow coming at him).
  • Beth punches, kicks and then strikes Remy in the crotch while struggling with him.
  • Remy burns his vehicle as he and Beth go on the lam.
  • Remy and Beth see that a repo man is coming for them. She hides behind a door as the man enters the room, pulls out a machete, and heads toward Remy. But he then steps on a rug covering a hole in the floor, sending him falling several stories down onto the hard floor below. The floor then starts to crumble, however, and Beth also falls that same distance. The repo man then comes to and prepares to shoot and zap Beth, but an old typewriter suddenly lands on his head, killing him (with very bloody/gory results).
  • Remy punches Frank and then does so again. He then fires a warning stun shot at him, but then hits him the next time, knocking him out.
  • Remy and Beth try to make their way through airport security by using illegal devices that jam scanners used on them (all while guards suspiciously look at them). They nearly make it until others spot blood on the floor around Beth's shoe (from a previous wound) and they're lead off. After being discovered for what they are, Remy suddenly hits several of the men there, while Beth strikes the nurse who was helping her (who then pushes her finger down into Beth's open leg wound before Beth hits her again and stabs scissors down through the woman's hand).
  • Jake and Remy exchange various blows while fighting, including punching, kneeing, head-butting, pulling on a head and elbowing. Jake gets the upper hand and throws Remy through a wall, against another wall, and then down hard onto the floor. He continues to manhandle Remy, and pushes Beth aside when she tries to intervene. Remy then stabs Jake in the leg, followed by Jake bashing a large hook down on him just as Beth seems ready to shoot him with a shock gun.
  • Many repo men raid a building, sending transplant recipients fleeing, with many shot and stunned with shock guns. Later, Remy walks among the scores of dead and bloody bodies on the floor.
  • Carol and Remy argue on a subway car, with Peter then using his dad's shock gun to stun his mom.
  • Remy fires his shock gun and hits two guards, and then throws the gun to hit a third. He then struggles with him before firing something into that man's open mouth (with bloody results coming out from behind his head on the ground).
  • Guards shoot at Remy and Beth in an assembly factory, hitting various workers by accident (with bloody results, including a pool of blood on a surface next to one victim).
  • Remy shoots many Union workers while using another one as a shield against bullets fired at him. While Beth hits one such man with an axe, Remy continues his rampage, including fighting, stabbing and slicing various people who come at him with knives (he's stabbed once). Beth then shoots at least two people with a handgun, while Remy then uses a hack saw to attack more (while Beth places a bag over one person's head that Remy then hits, and he strikes others with a hammer (and such). All of that (especially the throat slitting) has extremely bloody results.
  • As a man goes to shoot Remy and Beth, Jake jabs a large knife up through his chin and/or neck, killing him (with very bloody results).
  • Explosives are placed inside a transplant device deposit drawer, thus causing a massive explosion inside the non-manned computer control room.



  • Reviewed March 16, 2010 / Posted March 19, 2010

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