Survival of the Repo Men

Bad movie alert! Two bad movies in a row.

Survival of the Dead (2009)

As I’ve mentioned before, I can’t resist a zombie movie.  So when I heard that George Romero had a new zombie film out in the theaters (this was actually playing at the Mayan for a few weeks), I knew I had to see it. But not in the theater.  Scary movies are too difficult for me in the theater.  George Romero wrote and directed the both the original 1968 Night of the Living Dead and the 1978 Dawn of the Dead movies. These are zombie classics.  They also have a touch of social commentary as well as humor (well, Dawn of the Dead has humor).

This new zombie film was just bad.  Bad acting, bad dialogue, bad zombies.  The plot strangely centered on these two Irish families and their feud.  The zombie situation was sort of a side note.  There were funny bits but that’s not worth sitting through this.

Repo Men (2010)

I have no earthly idea why I put this in the Netflix queue.  It was mostly predictable and gorier than I expected.

Netflix description:

In the world of this sci-fi thriller set in the not-too-distant future, artificial organs are readily available to anybody with a credit card. But what happens if a buyer falls delinquent on his payments? Jude Law stars as an organ repo man who's now fleeing his ex-partner (Forest Whitaker) after failing to keep up the payments on his own recently installed ticker.

Lots of blood letting and fight scenes.  Liev Schreiber has a supporting role as an asshole organ salesman.  Why is he playing so many bad guys these days?  I first saw him in the 2000 Hamlet (with Ethan Hawke) and The Daytrippers, but this role and his recent roles in Salt and X-Men Origins: Wolverine are exposing his bad guy sides.  He does play the bad guy well, I must admit.

Anyway, many of the reviews I’ve read have hit on the point that a movie about repossession of anything in this economic climate is likely to strike a chord – esp. with the backdrop of healthcare debate and reform. Unfortunately this movie doesn’t deliver. I like this quote from Salon.com: It's sad when a bit of grim futuristic silliness like "Repo Men" falls short on all counts, down to the most basic level of entertainment value.