Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Darren Lynn Bousman

Writers:

Darren Smith (screenplay) &
Terrance Zdunich (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

20 November 2008 (Czech Republic)

Genre:

Horror | Musical | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Not Your Parent's Opera

Plot:

A worldwide epidemic encourages a biotech company to launch an organ-financing program similar in nature to a standard car loan. The repossession clause is a killer, however.

Plot Keywords:

Company | Organ | Repossession | Epidemic | Savior

Awards:

2 wins

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Alexa Vega	...	Shilo Wallace
Paul Sorvino	...	Rotti Largo
Anthony Head	...	Nathan / Repo Man (as Anthony Stewart Head)
Sarah Brightman	...	Blind Mag
Paris Hilton	...	Amber Sweet
Bill Moseley	...	Luigi Largo
Nivek Ogre	...	Pavi Largo (as Ogre)
Terrance Zdunich	...	Graverobber
Sarah Power	...	Marni
Jessica Horn	...	Jessica Adams
Branko Lebar	...	Rotti's Chauffeur
Brianna Buckmaster	...	Sherrie Alviso (as Briana Buckmaster)
Anna Kostan	...	Young Mormon Woman
Brad Austin	...	Young Mormon Man
Marty Adams	...	Big Man

MPAA:

Rated R for strong bloody violence and gore, language, some drug and sexual content.

Runtime:

98 min | USA:150 min (original cut)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:R | UK:18 (DVD rating) | Australia:MA | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Japan:R-15 | Finland:K-18 | Netherlands:16

Filming Locations:

Cinespace Film Studios, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Twisted Pictures

Trivia:

Sarah Brightman did not originally appear in the song "At the Opera Tonight".

Goofs:

Continuity: When Luigi raises his knife to stab the Gentern she throws her arms in the air and then in the next shot she puts them up again.

Quotes:

Rotti Largo: See your knife!
Pavi Largo: See it glide!
Luigi Largo: See it slice!
Luigi Largo: Who's your night surgeon?
Rotti Largo: Hope you have my money!
Pavi Largo: Or it's buon viagg-ee!
Luigi Largo: He'll do your ass like dishes!

Movie Connections:

Version of Repo! The Genetic Opera (2006)

Soundtrack:

Vuk-R

A cult wannabe with a dash of Blade Runner and a slash of Saw

Darren Lynn Bousman has cojones. Big brass ones, it would appear, after viewing his twisted eclectic musical known as Repo! The Genetic Opera, which was given its world premier at Montreal's Fantasia film festival months in advance of its November release date.

The Director of Saw II, III and IV is hardly a person you'd associate with a rock opera, and when you factor in a cast that includes such artistic polar opposites as Sarah Brightman and Paris Hilton, you could be forgiven for feeling that the stink-o-meter would be going off the chart. And yet, it doesn't.

Set against a futuristic backdrop where an epidemic of organ failures is plaguing humanity, people turn to the unscrupulous Geneco Corporation to purchase replacements for their failing vitals. Not everybody makes good on their payments, however, which is where Nathan Wallace (Anthony Head of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame) goes into action as one of Geneco's "repo men", brutally reclaiming defaulters organs at scalpel-point.

The movie has a visual style that both works to its benefit and runs against the grain of conventional movie telling (comic strip look, richly colored and stylized sets, heavily filtered camera shots) and much of the music is surprisingly good. Even those sung by Hilton, who blends surprisingly well into the mix as Amber, the vain, plastic-surgery obsessed daughter of Geneco's president (Paul Sorvino). While Sarah Brightman's career as a pop-opera singer makes her, on paper at least, the best casting choice, it's Head who's really surprising. Sure he an act, but in a movie with no spoken dialog he not only shows he can sing, but is actually able to change his vocal style from controlled, when in character as Wallace, to raunchy when he dons his Repo Man persona.

Among the movie's flaws is the performance of Bill Moseley (House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects) as Luigi Largo, the scheming son of Geneco's president, whose singing talent can charitably be described as "lacking". Then again, considering the nature of the story, its roles, and ambitious scope, you'd have to expect that Bousman was going to break a few eggs en route to making his omelet.

The folks who run the hype machines at Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures are spinning this as another cult classic along the lines of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Phantom of the Paradise. That's a bit much. Musical cult classics aren't instantly created, they assume that mantle as a result of fan approval, and the cultivation of a following – something not easily done given the demise of repertory cinemas and weekly midnight screenings. Right now such corporate accolades are nothing more than hyperbole. Even though a lot of the prerequisites are in place, only time will tell if Repo will allow Bousman to reserve a permanent spot shilling to character-dressed fans on the convention circuit.