Repo: the Genetic Opera
I picked this up on DVD. It was $15, and certainly promoted as being odd enough to justify the cost. Realistically, $15 is less than tickets to the movies for two. So I can't feel bad about the impulse buy.
Now that I've watched it, I don't regret it in the slightest. For the record, I'm still not 100% sure what I just saw. Repo was created for the sake of its creation. It is the realization of its concept, it is not trying to be anything except exactly what it is. So it's an opera. A rock opera. But the music is not... good. But I don't think it was meant to be. They've cast actors and actresses who aren't necessarily known for their singing talent. Like Bill Moseley. You may have seen Bill in any number of things, but might remember him best as Otis B. Driftwood from House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. Starring is Anthony Head. And in case kapnkaty thinks there's been a mistake, yeah I'm talking about Giles. Oh yeah, and Paris Hilton's in it.
The film is set in a world where, after a mysterious outbreak of organ failures, a corporation takes up the business of providing replacement organs on payment plans. Of course, the downside to payment plans is the question of enforcement when someone comes delinquint in their payments. The corporation, GeneCo, wields enough clout that they have organ repossession legalized. The movie chronicles the coming of age of a young woman named Shiloh whose father is keeping a number of secrets from her: that he is the notorious repoman that the populace lives in terror of, the secret fate of her mother, etc.
As Shiloh finds herself thrust into a mechanations of far bigger movers than she, she comes across the owner of GeneCo and his three degenerate heirs. Plots unfold, secrets are revealed, things resolve.
So was it any good? That was the question posed to me by benchilada , and I think the answer is yes. It certainly isn't what I expected. Or maybe it is, I'm not sure what I expected. I certainly didn't foresee Anthony Head singing as he disemboweled a man who'd grown a touch TOO delinquent in his payments. Nor did I expect to see Paris Hilton playing a macabre parody of herself. In fact, I wonder if she recognizes the parallels between her reality and her character, because it certainly is easy to rub those lines down until they're nearly invisible.
It's definitely going on my shelf. I'll definitely watch it again. I don't know that I need to own the soundtrack, which is perhaps not the best vote of confidence for a musical film. But there's no denying that part of the attraction of this piece is its visual presentation.
See it. It's fun.