Rating - B
Blood and guts fly in the new post-apocalyptic rock opera Repo! The Genetic Opera. Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw IV), Repo! bleeds in the same vein as the highly revered and equally over-the-top musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
And while the film is not going to win awards, it will quickly head towards being a cult classic.
Repo! takes place 50 years in the future, when a rampant epidemic of mass organ failure has killed off a large portion of the world's population. Humanity turns to insanity through chaos and almost falls apart until a savior rises from the ashes in the form of Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino, Carnera: The Walking Mountain), creator of the international corporation GeneCo.
GeneCo supplies organs to those who need them, and customers in return must adhere to payment plans. If they fail to do so, they are paid a visit from the Repo Man, who gets the organs back in the goriest way possible.
In true Shakespearian fashion, Largo Rotti is dying of a terminal illness and his three children argue over who will take charge of the company. The family is made up of the short-tempered and murderous Luigi Largo (Bill Moseley, The Devil Rejects), the surgery and painkiller addict Amanda Sweet (Paris Hilton, The Hottie & The Nottie) and the vain and disturbed Pavi Largo (Nivek Ogre, Skinny Puppy: The Greater Wrong of The Right Life). As Largo finds fault with all of his ungrateful offspring, he searches for a new heir to his GeneCo fortune, our film takes heed.
Joining the Largo family are the Wallaces. Commanding the crest is Nathan Wallace, played by veteran English actor Anthony Head (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street). Maintaining his life as a doctor, Wallace does everything physically and financially possible to take care of his sickly daughter Shilo (Alexa Vega, The Beautiful Ordinary). A deep dark secret connects the polar opposite families and the mysterious, violent Repo Man.
The strong point of Repo! lies within its unique and colorful cast of characters. No matter how big or small the character, they each manage to absorb the viewer into their lives and latch onto his or her brain long after the movie is over. Each role is brilliantly fleshed out, carrying his or her own unique tricks to pull viewers deeper into their dark, disturbing world.
The definite standouts of the film are the members of the Wallace family and the three Largo siblings. Head steals the show as Wallace, a seemingly plain and normal man with something dark lurking inside of him. Watching Head's descent into madness is completely tragic. Through song, his pain gushes out on screen.
Vega holds her own amongst the experienced cast. She beautifully paints a picture of her suffering throughout her musical sets. The young actress vividly depicts the emotional tear between two opposing sides and the life that she has been denied by her father.
While the Wallace family is full of unhappiness and hopelessness, the Largo siblings are brutally entertaining. The three siblings are full of disturbing quirks and small character touches that truly bring them to life. Watching Bill Moseley as Luigi Largo, the short-tempered and murderous brother who constantly argues with his brother Pavi, is quite possibly the most entertaining character interaction in the film.
As Pavi wears guises resembling that of a demented clown, the duo bring about some of the more over-the-top songs and provide some of the most entertaining scenes in the film.
Hilton's Amanda Sweet actually manages to be passable as the sole Largo sister. The role of Sweet isn't all that different than that of Hilton in reality. Sweet's musical moments prove to be a futuristic Britney Spears offshoot, mixing unabashed sexuality with a touch of domineering female empowerment. While Hilton is not terrible, her moments are by far the weakest in the film.
Besides the multitude of colorful characters and compositions, the other high point of the film comes from its general atmosphere. The landscape looks like a drugged-up cocktail of Tim Burton's bugged-eyed view of faux-reality, Blade Runner and some sort of Goth-punk industrial wasteland. Although the film seems very dark, the tone of the film is actually very light and never takes itself too seriously, unless it has to.
Here Bousman succeeds with his stylized grit and grim, a technique that the young director showed glimpses of in Saw II, letting it wane as the franchise trucked forward at breakneck speed. With Repo!, Bousman's stylistic vision has truly surfaced, creating a world and look that's not only unique among his peers, but more specifically sets him apart from the rest the "Splat Pack" group of young and mindless violence-obsessed directors, including Hostel-helmer Eli Roth and Hills Have Eyes director Alex Aja.
Repo! The Genetic Opera is one of the most unique movies of the year. Though traditional fans of the musical genre will be turned off by the high amount of gore and disembowelments, anybody looking for a fresh movie-going experience is in for a treat. Just make sure you don't come on a full stomach.
