Although its title might lead viewers to believe this 2010 film is a continuation of Repo Man (1984), the film is thematically and stylistically closer to Blade Runner. Based on a sci-fi novel called The Repossession Mambo, the futuristic tale tracks a couple of highly skilled bounty hunters dispatched to reclaim cybernetic human organs from hosts who have fallen behind on their astronomical payments.
Buy Repo MenJude Law and Forest Whitaker play best friends and veteran employees of The Union, unstoppable in their quests to locate and eliminate customers. Life is great for the pair until Law’s character nearly dies during a job, resulting in him waking up to find himself with a new heart without his consent. With no way to pay the bills, it’s only a matter of time before the hunter becomes the hunted, with his best bud forced to target him for elimination.
The film is clearly intended as a biting indictment of the U.S. medical industry, so heavy handed in its preachiness at times that it loses sight of its primary purpose of sci-fi escapism. Although it’s set in the near future, it’s not at all hard to see how close the scenario is approaching reality. There’s a fair amount of action, and bleak world-building in the vein of Blade Runner, but it comes off feeling like a weak replica with a dull, obvious narrative arc.
The new 3-disc special edition includes the theatrical cut on 4K and Blu-ray, as well as the extended unrated cut on Blu-ray. Aside from an expanded role for John Leguizamo, the extended cut does little more than allow particularly gratuitous scenes play out a bit longer than the theatrical cut. As such, the 4K technical boost makes it the preferred version, encoded for Dolby Vision and HDR. The movie is shot fairly dark, with lots of night scenes and grimy urban decay, so the 4K UHD helps to define and enhance the murky details. Overall, the color grading adheres to original undersaturated hues, minimizing opportunities for UHD color benefits. The default DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is suitably immersive, with plenty of crunchy action and pulsing music driving a decent workout for the speakers.
Bonus features include a new commentary track by entertainment journalists, as well as the archival commentary track by the director and writers. Other archival features also made the cut, including deleted scenes, a look at the visual effects, a set of commercials, and the trailer.
