Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)

June 27, 2024 7:06 PM

By the year 2056, an epidemic of organ failures has devastated the planet. The megacorporation GeneCo provides organ transplants on a payment plan - and those who can't fulfill their plans have their organs repossessed. In the midst of this, a sickly teenager discovers a shocking secret about herself, her father, and their connection to GeneCo.
posted by bunderful (12 comments total)

So Anthony Steward Head plays a doting father whose daughter has a genetic condition. He keeps her sequestered - or he tries to. He tells her he's a doctor. In fact he's a repo man who repossesses organs for GeneCo - with zealous assiduity. He's also finally getting to show off the musical talent hinted at in "Once More, With Feeling."

I can't say this is good. I don't know what it is exactly.
posted by bunderful at 7:13 PM on June 27 [1 favorite]

Repo, not to be confused with the Jude Law movie Repo Men (which may or may not have jacked Repo’s concept, no one could ever really figure that out in a court of law) is a sung-through goth opera set in a dystopian future where universal organ failures have decimated the human population. A company called GeneCo steps in and invents expensive artificial organs that save the human race, but the high cost of the organs causes some to fall behind on payments for their life-saving new parts.

When someone can’t pay for their shiny fake heart, the Repo Man comes and reclaims the company’s property. Permanently.

Did I mention that Repo is produced by the same company that makes the Saw movies? Right, sorry. That part’s important. All of the onscreen “repossessions,” of which there are not few, are rendered with alarming, gory realism. Blood everywhere. Intestines swinging in the breeze. There’s even a little song about it. Think about that a little.

******

I can’t defend this movie as a commentary on anything besides what happens when producers finance a project because “fuck you is why.”

- Mashable
posted by bunderful at 7:23 PM on June 27 [1 favorite]

Repo! was certainly a film. Paris Hilton, Anthony Stewart Head, Joan Jett, Sarah Brightman, delerium. I never got around to the Jude Law movie, it sounded like the same idea without any fun.
posted by mersen at 7:43 PM on June 27 [2 favorites]

Watched this at a friend's "bad movie night" party many years ago. I remember bits and snatches of the beginning. I was blackout drunk by the end. That was probably for the best.
posted by jordemort at 9:22 PM on June 27 [2 favorites]

I can't imagine the kind of person who would dislike this movie. The final scenes at the opera are weak musically, compared to the rest, but even then the visuals step up and save it. So many great songs before then.
posted by one for the books at 11:46 PM on June 27 [4 favorites]

I worked on some of the VFX for this and it was a lot of fun to do - one of those projects where everyone's creativity was welcomed, the more odd details that you could jam in there the better. Also Nivek Ohgr is in it, being just over the top weird. I like it, it's a trip.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 2:43 AM on June 28 [6 favorites]

The world is a richer place for having this movie in it. (Not so much Repo Men.) I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone that doesn’t appreciate it when things get weird, but for those that do, there’s a lot to appreciate here.
posted by ejs at 4:33 AM on June 28 [1 favorite]

This movie sounded right up my alley, and I was eager to watch it. I hated it. Possibly because it's opera, possibly because it's so bad it's bad.
posted by adamrice at 5:30 AM on June 28 [2 favorites]

This movie swings for the fences and I'll admit, it misses as often as it hits. However it baffles me that the people who complain about that are usually the same people that complain about boring, formulaic Hollywood movies.
posted by haileris23 at 8:06 AM on June 28 [1 favorite]

Being a huge fan of Ohgr/Skinny Puppy, I thought I would like this movie, but I found it unwatchable. It's interesting on a visual level, but that's as much as I can say in its defense.
posted by abraxasaxarba at 4:47 PM on June 28 [1 favorite]

I have been tempted over the years to see this because I'm a huge Sarah Brightman fan, but then I remember how much I hate gore. Sarah loses out this time.
posted by lhauser at 7:16 PM on June 28 [1 favorite]

If you don't mind a 100-minute video essay, I really enjoyed Laura Crone's video on Repo! The Genetic Opera, which is partially a review and partly about grappling with art made by problematic people but a lot about the ubiquity of lowkey (and sometimes highkey) sexual harassment in the entertainment world.
posted by Jeanne at 5:48 AM on June 30