Movie Info:
Writer: Terrance Zdunich, Darren Smith
Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
Cast: Paris Hilton, Alexa Vega, Sarah Brightman, Paul Sorvino, Bill Moseley, Anthony Stewart Head, Ogre, Terrance Zdunich
Rating: R
Studio: Lions Gate
Release Info:
Theatrical Release: 2008
DVD Release Date: January 20, 2009
Online Availability: Amazon for $18.99
“You know you want it baby! Geneco’s Got it!”
Have you ever started off loathing a movie before seeing it only to find that it becomes your favorite movie of the year? The idea of Repo! The Genetic Opera, to me, prior to seeing it was something similar to a train wreck. Maybe it was the inclusion of Paris Hilton that bothered me, but I really thought there was no way they were going to pull this one off. I have faith in Bousman and I absolutely adore the Saw franchise, but I didn’t think he could do it this time.
I didn’t understand how Hilton could be in a musical because she cannot sing well enough to accommodate the needs of something like that. Furthermore, I didn’t understand why seasoned vets like Sarah Brightman and Paul Sorvino would want to be in a movie that Hilton would be sure to butcher. Well, when I am wrong, I will admit it. Bousman has my utmost respect for playing things out the way he did. He gave Hilton a part straight out of most anti-fans minds and hearts. It couldn’t have been better if I had thought of it myself. Needless to say, no one could have been better for the part than Ms. Hilton was.
It took precisely one watching of Repo for me to become addicted to it. The music is infectious and gets into your head. It demands to be heard or you go around humming it every day. Then again, you do that with some songs whether you hear them or not. “Zydrate Anatomy” for example, just sits in my head all day long and I go around singing it. Hell, I even tried to find it as a ringtone for a Verizon cellphone, but have been unsuccessful so far. It would be well used if I found it though.
Terrance Zdunich is the co-writer of Repo and he also stars on screen as the Graverobber. Prior to this movie (and even during it, for a brief period) I had no clue that Zdunich existed. I ended up looking up his name because I had to know who the Graverobber was. He rarely acts, though I hope to see him in more things in the future. His character, the Graverobber, was one of my favorite characters and Zdunich is one hell of a singer.
Paul Sorvino shocked me because I’d never heard him sing before. In the first couple of numbers they have him speaking to the beat and then out of nowhere he just starts singing. I think my mouth dropped. I can easily see why Sorvino was chosen for the role of Rotti Largo. The same can be said for Sarah Brightman, who stars as Blind Mag, though I knew she could sing prior to hearing her in this movie. Of course, I do have to say she looks amazing in Repo. It seems as she ages she just continues to get better looking. It’s entirely odd, but it’s certainly nothing to complain about.
Bill Moseley could not have been handed a better part if they had wrote one for him. Luigi Largo is a temperamental maniac that is out for blood. The character had Moseley’s name all over it. I only remember ever seeing him in Rob Zombie movies, in which he plays characters similar to Luigi, but more bloodthirsty and less musically inclined. His character is a huge source of amusement though and I was definitely glad to see him in this.
Huge props need to be given to Anthony Stewart Head who manages to pull off two sides and voices when playing the father (Nathan) and the Repo man. He goes from being caring to sadistic in the same song. Then there is Alexa Vega. I was told she was in the Spy Kids movies, but I have to confess I don’t remember her. I will be looking out for her in the future thanks to Repo. Not only was she fabulous at portraying her emotions and all of the bottled up angst you would expect the character of Shilo to have, she was also a really pleasant singer. I couldn’t have been happier with the casting choices Bousman made and I will make an effort not to doubt him in the future.
I recognize that this movie will not be for everyone. It has a tendency to be gruesome. There is murder all around, drug addiction, and manipulation. Still, Cult Classics are so rare these days. It seems they are even rarer when they come out of the gate as a cult classic and you know that’s what they will become. Repo already has a cult following and I suspect it will only get bigger. Some believe that it will rival that of the Rocky Horror. I cannot say that to be sure, though I can tell you, I once used to go around humming “Time Warp” and now it’s on to “Zydrate Anatomy.”
The truth of the matter is, they don’t make movies like Repo anymore. I think that’s the main reason that I love it so much.
The Repo! The Genetic Opera Plot
Repo can be summed up in a series of words which I will give you before fleshing out the plot. If you do not like movies with these words then you will probably not like this movie.
Love. Hate. Revenge. Repossession. Obsession. Betrayal. Heartbreak. Opera. Seclusion. Fury. Addiction.
In the not to near future, a virus kills off much of the population. People need to be saved or the human race will die off. Rotti Largo (Sorvino) and Geneco are the cure. Geneco is able to offer surgery to replace what faulty genetics have put in your body. Need a new kidney? No problem! Can’t walk? Just pick up a spine and you will be on your legs in hours. However, as time went on surgery became more of a fashion statement. You could change everything about yourself in the blink of an eye. You might think surgery for sport would hurt, but thanks to the manufactured painkiller, Zydrate, patients feel no pain.
The rules of the game are simple. Geneco and it’s founder will help you get all the surgery that you need and a lot that you don’t. Financing is available so things like upfront payments are not important. As long as you make your payments you are fine and can live with all the surgeries that you have had. However, if you forfeit on a payment (even one), the Repo man comes and takes back whatever the surgeons put in.
Rotti Largo is the most important man in the world thanks to his genetic advances, but not even those advances can help save his life. Largo has cancer and is lost about who to leave Geneco to because all three of his children are utter morons. Amber Sweet (Hilton) is a terrible singer that is self-obsessed and hooked on surgery and street Zydrate (the big drug on the street, harvested from dead people that had taken the actual drug while living). Luigi Largo (Moseley) is filled with rage and not very smart about it. This is a guy that will stab you in the neck if you make his coffee wrong. Finally, Pavi Largo (Ogre) is a face snatching love machine with little self-control. They are all addicted to surgery and they are all idiots.
On the opposite end of the spectrum you have Nathan (Anthony Stewart Head), a devoted widow to Marni, and loving father to seventeen year old Shilo (Vega). Marni died in childbirth due to a blood disease that was passed on to Shilo. Since Shilo was a child she had to be sequestered to save her life. Nathan makes sure that no one gets in or out to see her, though she occasionally sneaks out to her mother’s tomb while her father, the doctor, is working. What Shilo doesn’t know is that her father has a terrible secret. He is also the Repo Man. He works for Rotti, repossessing body parts. He does this so Shilo never has to learn the truth about what he did to her mother.
On the night of the Genetic Opera, Rotti has a plan to go out with a bang. He can fix years of pain on his part and finally get revenge on Nathan for stealing his fiancee, Marni, away. Blind Mag (Brightman) will perform for the last time and then when she is finished, Rotti will end the evening with a bang. That is, if everything goes according to his plans.
Storyline/Plot: 
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing:
Audio/Visual:
Early in the movie a doctor is shot through the head and the blood and guts fly quickly out through the back of his skull in the prettiest pattern you ever did see. When you see something like that and you find it beautiful, you know that you’re in for a visual treat. Offering a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, Repo is one of the nicest looking Blu-rays that I have seen recently. A comic book feel is present at times with bright, strong colors, and major amounts of detail. When the movie is current and not in comic book mode it looks even better. The slightest speck is visible.
You can count the stitches on a surgery patient or see the definition of the veins on a person’s body that is missing skin. As detailed as it is, at times you feel like you’re in a dream. There is this overtly powerful softness to it that you notice especially when you see Shilo without her wig. However, it is this softness that allows you to see her head is bald, not the truth, that Vega is wearing a cap. The majority of the film appears to have been shot in HD and it shows. The dark colors draw you in easily and the blues simply pop off the camera. Even the dingy backdrop of the world looks good in it’s own way. It certainly fills every necessary need to push this movie forward and make it even better.
At the end of the day though it is going to be the audio that is absolutely necessary here. After all, this is an opera we’re talking about. Without good audio this movie was going to be in some serious trouble. The audio specs for Repo include DTS-HD MA 7.1. You don’t have to know what that means to know that the movie sounds absolutely incredible. There is no way that Bousman could have allowed anything less. An opera isn’t going to sound good if the channels aren’t proportioned right or if everything is weakly defined where audio is concerned. The majority of the movie is sung. I think all in all there might be a few lines spoken, but they are rare. The music not only sounds good, but offers an intense and emotional backdrop to the story. This backdrop is filled with strength and more intense emotions when you add in the lyrics and the voices of the actors in Repo. While the visuals certainly sold me, the real prize has to go to the audio in this set.
Visual:
Audio:
Bonus Features:
The DVD copy had some good features and while those are still here, additional features have been added to appease the Blu-ray crowd. There are some simple offerings, such as the theatrical trailer and the poster gallery. Still, there are a number of other excellent offerings including the two audio commentaries and a few featurettes. I’m also quite partial to the Sing Alongs, which we will discuss in a minute.
As far as the two commentaries are concerned, the first contains Bousman, Vega, Ogre, and Moseley. It is a laugh fest to say the least. There is a good time to be had here and it includes singing occasionally. You can expect to hear a lot of stories about how poor the budget was for Repo. A personal favorite is when Bousman talks about how he tried to trick the set makers on Saw IV into making things that he could later recycle for Repo. Vega’s need for mints and Alka-Seltzer and the fact that no one noticed that a set caught on fire are two other funny things you can expect to hear.
The second commentary includes Bousman, Zdunich, Smith, and Joseph Bishara. I was excited about this one merely because I wanted to hear what Zdunich would add. This commentary pays the most attention to the music in the film. You never hear these guys become too technical, which will be nice for most people. If you have time to listen to this I highly recommend you do so. It’s awesome to hear how these guys went out of their way to market this film on their own (Bousman is on my Twitter and I recall several Repo tweets) when the studio didn’t bother to do anything today. It’s really a shame they didn’t as I am sure that it would have been worth it to them. Either way, these commentaries are some of the best that I have ever sat through.
Paris Hilton might not have been in either of the commentaries, but she is available with Bousman on various scenes that include optional commentary. The songs that have Hilton commentary are “Zydrate Anatomy”, “Blame Not My Cheeks”, and “Happiness is Not a Warm Scalpel.” “Who Ordered Pizza” also includes some commentary. This is not nearly as good as the other commentaries. It’s mainly Bousman pushing Hilton to talk through questions. It was interesting to hear her talk about how she had to sing bad on purpose though.
Six minutes of deleted scenes are also included here in the form of two musical numbers that were never finished. “Come Up and Try My New Parts” is Sweet’s invitation to the Graverobber when she is trying to get some of his Street Zydrate and “Needle Through a Bug” deals with Shilo and the Graverobber. The first song was too similar to “Zydrate Anatomy” which is why they axed it and “Bug” just didn’t work it’s way into the film. Also included are “Buon Giorno”, which is most easily described as an introduction to the Opera and “Graverobber and Shilo escape” and well I am sure you can figure that one out. All of these scenes include more commentary with Bousman and Hilton.
“From Stage to Screen” is a ten minute look at everything that went into making Repo the cult classic that is was destined to become. Everything from production issues to music and a crap budget are discussed. You get some cast and crew interviews, too. It would have been nice to see this as a longer, fleshed out featurette, but for what it’s worth it is good.
Three webisodes for three of the most popular songs in Repo, “Chase the Morning”, “Zydrate Anatomy”, and “Legal Assassin” are also included. Web promos usually make for bad additions, but these actually offer a good deal of information. You get to see rehearsal footage, art, casting information, and plenty of more Repo tidbits that make these worth watching.
Things are wrapped up with my favorite feature of all, the Sing-a-Long tracks. These tracks allow you to follow the bouncing heart and sing with the music that Repo made cultishly popular. The songs offered here are “Zydrate Anatomy”, “Legal Assassin”, “Chase the Morning”, and “We Started This Op’ra Shit”.
Bonus Features:
Bottom Line:
If you have access to a Blu-ray player I highly recommend purchasing Repo! The Genetic Opera. It looks good on DVD but it’s simply amazing on Blu-ray. I have watched this at least four times since I put it in to review it. The music is infectious and the performances are all worthy of praise, even Paris Hilton’s as much as it pains me to say that. This is one movie you are guaranteed to not forget once you see it.
Overall Rating:
Technorati Tags: Repo The Genetic Opera, DVD, Alexa Vega, DVD Review, Lions Gate, Alexa Vega, Musical, Sarah Brightman, Paris Hilton
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Written by Ashtyn - Visit Website
Ashtyn Evans is a writer, advocate, free thinker, and all around cynical person. Always quick to find the negative in anything pop culture, she loves being a part of that which she despises. Ashtyn and Dominick own numerous blogs together, as well as a full-time writing business. In her spare time she is a full-time college student studying History and Psychology. She plans to one day give up her freelance career and be a full-time blogger, novelist, and domestic goddess. She can be contacted for writing projects, fan mail, or just to say hi. She really is friendlier than we make her look.
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