Review of "Repo! A Genetic Opera" or Why I was forced to change my opinion of Paris Hilton
One of the things I dislike as an adult is the lack of movies that completely suck me in. It happened quite often as a child; a major reason why "The Dark Crystal" remains my top favorite movie of all time is it was the first movie that truly transported me and stayed with me long after the credits rolled. As an adult, I find that perhaps maybe one movie a year manages that. Probably the last that did so was "Stardust" in 2007, and before that would have been "The Illusionist" in 2006, "The Village" in 2004, and "Shaun of the Dead" in ... hm, can't remember when I saw that! It was a rental in my townhouse, though, so maybe 2005. I see plenty of movies that I love and enjoy and will buy and re-watch and would count as my favorites, but ones that get inside me are about a once a year occurrence. I found one of those last night.
Brian and I watch a lot of bad horror. A lot. We watch and enjoy plenty of children's movies, good dramas, action, and, of course, fantasy and science fiction, but, when we're bored, we try to find the worst horror movie on the shelf (or now on Netflix). We live for the pursuit of Gorgonzola and Muenster, in honor of my friend Tamra's phrase "Good cheesy fun" when discussing movies. Many of the bad movies we find by watching previews on the discs. Lion's Gate in particular tends to cram quite a few previews on their discs and we've found some gems that way (such as "The Burrowers.") However, with all the previews we watch on all the horror movies we rent, we saw a grand total of ONE trailer for Repo. Needless to say, it caught our attention:
So when I signed up for Netflix a couple weeks ago, I thought that would be a good first movie (we'd tried to find it at Blockbuster with no luck. Brian even described it to the clerk who said "That sounds great!" but they didn't have it). It sat around since last Friday and we finally watched it last night. Wow.
First, I need to explain my movie-viewing habits. I'm a multitasker. I am very nearly always crocheting or doing some other craft when I watch TV unless I am absolutely dead tired. Last night I was working on an afghan that I'm eager to finish. That usually is enough to keep me going until it's time to go to bed. However, after about five minutes into Repo, I gave up. The sets were just too interesting to miss a detail. The afghan lay on the couch forgotten as I was completely transported to a world of murder and music. About halfway through the movie, I realized it I was cold (it was nice earlier in the day so we had the windows open, but it got cooler when night fell). I mentioned us closing the windows to Brian. He said, "I don't want to stop watching." Neither of us wanted to pause the movie so we could close windows.
We expected it to be silly and over-the-top. It could have been so, so bad. The combination of graphic-novel stills with backstory could have come off as lazy storytelling. The music could have sucked. Anthony Stewart Head could have had an itty-bitty role. Paris Hilton could have been, well, Paris Hilton. But if it was bad, we'd have fun with it (you're talking about two people who've watched "Wrong Turn 2" and spent the evening ranting about stereotypes of people who live in the country). Instead, we were completely blown away by the story, the music, the sets, and the acting.
In the future, the company GeneCo has made organ transplants not only easy to do but even trendy (one amusing campaign advertises that "It's what's inside that counts!"). GeneCo's surgery, of course, causes a lot of pain. Fortunately, a powerful painkiller was found: a drug extracted from the dead by Grave Robber (played by Terrance Zdunich in probably what was my favorite performance of the entire movie, and that's saying a lot!). GeneCo is run by Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino, Law & Order, Romeo + Juliet), who is terminally ill and his own company cannot help him. He's at a loss which of his three children should inherit GeneCo: the short-tempered Luigi (Bill Moseley, House of 1000 Corpses, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. I didn't recognize him either, which, given how many times I've seen "House", says a lot about how engrossed I was in the movie), the face-swapping, inexplicably French (I think?) accented Pavi (Nivek Ogre of the band Skinny Puppy), or the surgery and drug-addicted Amber Sweet (Paris Hilton. Yes, THAT Paris Hilton).
Now, with organ transplants being so common, there are bound to be people who can't make the payments. When that happens, the Repo Man is sent to repossess the organs in a very bloody manner (we are talking about the same producer who gave us "Saw"). We'll ignore the inefficiency of this (not only would the repossessed organs be unusable, they also ignore harvesting other organs from the victims for future use) and just roll with it. The Repo Man (Anthony Stewart Head, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) has a very ill daughter named Shilo (Alex Vega, Spy Kids, Ruby and the Rockets). Shilo is very ill from the same disease that killed her mother and is kept a virtual prisoner by her father, a doctor searching for a cure. But when Shilo gets a message from Rotti Largo promising her a cure, she is enticed outside and her eyes are opened to the gritty world of GeneCo and repossessions. Her guide is the Grave Robber, who explains the finer details of organ transplants in my personal favorite song, "Zydrate Anatomy." She also meets Blind Mag, an amazing singer (played by amazing singer Sarah Brightman) who owes her eyes to GeneCo and so is bound to perform for them for the rest of her life. Blind Mag knew Shilo's mother and tells Shilo about her in a close second favorite song, "Chase the Morning" accompanied by a visually stunning hologram generated by Blind Mag's transplanted eyes.
Of course, Rotti's offer of a cure for Shilo comes at a price, a very steep one. I'm not going to go into more detail for fear of spoilers. I will say that, in grand opera tradition, there's a love triangle, revenge, and secrets. There's music spanning from heavy metal to almost traditional opera. The acting is impeccable (even, dare I say it, from Paris Hilton). Visually it's amazing, although people more squeamish than me might have trouble. I went to sleep and woke up with the songs and scenes in my head, and have ordered both the DVD and CD from Amazon. Until they arrive I'm contenting myself with clips on You Tube.
Brian mentioned during our post-movie discussion that he thought Rob Zombie should have directed. As much as I love Rob Zombie's movies and think he's highly under-rated as a director, I must disagree. This movie was perfection as is.
I personally find it a travesty that, as much horror that Brian and I watch and as many trailers as we see, we saw ONE ad for this movie! I've heard nothing about this movie at ICFA or online. Whoever was doing promotion for the movie should be fired. This not only is the best movie I've seen all year, it has now dethroned "Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human" as the best movie I love that no one's ever heard of. Rent it. Now.
Brian and I watch a lot of bad horror. A lot. We watch and enjoy plenty of children's movies, good dramas, action, and, of course, fantasy and science fiction, but, when we're bored, we try to find the worst horror movie on the shelf (or now on Netflix). We live for the pursuit of Gorgonzola and Muenster, in honor of my friend Tamra's phrase "Good cheesy fun" when discussing movies. Many of the bad movies we find by watching previews on the discs. Lion's Gate in particular tends to cram quite a few previews on their discs and we've found some gems that way (such as "The Burrowers.") However, with all the previews we watch on all the horror movies we rent, we saw a grand total of ONE trailer for Repo. Needless to say, it caught our attention:
Click to viewSo when I signed up for Netflix a couple weeks ago, I thought that would be a good first movie (we'd tried to find it at Blockbuster with no luck. Brian even described it to the clerk who said "That sounds great!" but they didn't have it). It sat around since last Friday and we finally watched it last night. Wow.
First, I need to explain my movie-viewing habits. I'm a multitasker. I am very nearly always crocheting or doing some other craft when I watch TV unless I am absolutely dead tired. Last night I was working on an afghan that I'm eager to finish. That usually is enough to keep me going until it's time to go to bed. However, after about five minutes into Repo, I gave up. The sets were just too interesting to miss a detail. The afghan lay on the couch forgotten as I was completely transported to a world of murder and music. About halfway through the movie, I realized it I was cold (it was nice earlier in the day so we had the windows open, but it got cooler when night fell). I mentioned us closing the windows to Brian. He said, "I don't want to stop watching." Neither of us wanted to pause the movie so we could close windows.
We expected it to be silly and over-the-top. It could have been so, so bad. The combination of graphic-novel stills with backstory could have come off as lazy storytelling. The music could have sucked. Anthony Stewart Head could have had an itty-bitty role. Paris Hilton could have been, well, Paris Hilton. But if it was bad, we'd have fun with it (you're talking about two people who've watched "Wrong Turn 2" and spent the evening ranting about stereotypes of people who live in the country). Instead, we were completely blown away by the story, the music, the sets, and the acting.
In the future, the company GeneCo has made organ transplants not only easy to do but even trendy (one amusing campaign advertises that "It's what's inside that counts!"). GeneCo's surgery, of course, causes a lot of pain. Fortunately, a powerful painkiller was found: a drug extracted from the dead by Grave Robber (played by Terrance Zdunich in probably what was my favorite performance of the entire movie, and that's saying a lot!). GeneCo is run by Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino, Law & Order, Romeo + Juliet), who is terminally ill and his own company cannot help him. He's at a loss which of his three children should inherit GeneCo: the short-tempered Luigi (Bill Moseley, House of 1000 Corpses, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. I didn't recognize him either, which, given how many times I've seen "House", says a lot about how engrossed I was in the movie), the face-swapping, inexplicably French (I think?) accented Pavi (Nivek Ogre of the band Skinny Puppy), or the surgery and drug-addicted Amber Sweet (Paris Hilton. Yes, THAT Paris Hilton).
Now, with organ transplants being so common, there are bound to be people who can't make the payments. When that happens, the Repo Man is sent to repossess the organs in a very bloody manner (we are talking about the same producer who gave us "Saw"). We'll ignore the inefficiency of this (not only would the repossessed organs be unusable, they also ignore harvesting other organs from the victims for future use) and just roll with it. The Repo Man (Anthony Stewart Head, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) has a very ill daughter named Shilo (Alex Vega, Spy Kids, Ruby and the Rockets). Shilo is very ill from the same disease that killed her mother and is kept a virtual prisoner by her father, a doctor searching for a cure. But when Shilo gets a message from Rotti Largo promising her a cure, she is enticed outside and her eyes are opened to the gritty world of GeneCo and repossessions. Her guide is the Grave Robber, who explains the finer details of organ transplants in my personal favorite song, "Zydrate Anatomy." She also meets Blind Mag, an amazing singer (played by amazing singer Sarah Brightman) who owes her eyes to GeneCo and so is bound to perform for them for the rest of her life. Blind Mag knew Shilo's mother and tells Shilo about her in a close second favorite song, "Chase the Morning" accompanied by a visually stunning hologram generated by Blind Mag's transplanted eyes.
Of course, Rotti's offer of a cure for Shilo comes at a price, a very steep one. I'm not going to go into more detail for fear of spoilers. I will say that, in grand opera tradition, there's a love triangle, revenge, and secrets. There's music spanning from heavy metal to almost traditional opera. The acting is impeccable (even, dare I say it, from Paris Hilton). Visually it's amazing, although people more squeamish than me might have trouble. I went to sleep and woke up with the songs and scenes in my head, and have ordered both the DVD and CD from Amazon. Until they arrive I'm contenting myself with clips on You Tube.
Brian mentioned during our post-movie discussion that he thought Rob Zombie should have directed. As much as I love Rob Zombie's movies and think he's highly under-rated as a director, I must disagree. This movie was perfection as is.
I personally find it a travesty that, as much horror that Brian and I watch and as many trailers as we see, we saw ONE ad for this movie! I've heard nothing about this movie at ICFA or online. Whoever was doing promotion for the movie should be fired. This not only is the best movie I've seen all year, it has now dethroned "Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human" as the best movie I love that no one's ever heard of. Rent it. Now.