Repo! The Genetic Opera

Director: Darren Lynn Bousman Darren Lynn Bousman

Overview

Saw series mainstay Darren Lynn Bousman reunites with Twisted Pictures producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg for this futuristic shocker detailing a terrifying epidemic of organ failures. The denizens of planet Earth have been devastated by inexplicable and widespread organ failures, and as a result scientists begin planning a substantial organ harvest. Though an innovative biotech conglomerate subsequently offers the fearful public a means of maintaining their health by enacting a series of hassle-free organ payment plans, things begin to get messy when it's revealed that the financed body parts are subjected to legal default, and that failure to maintain proper payment will result in forceful repossession of the organs. Paul Sorvino and Spy Kids' Alexa Vega star alongside celebrity socialite Paris Hilton in the Lionsgate film.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/20/2009
UPC:	0031398106418
Original Release:	2008
Rating:	R
Source:	Lions Gate
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound]
Time:	1:37:00
Sales rank:	12,706

Special Features

From Stage to Screen featurette; Audio commentary with director Darren Lynn Bousman and actors Bill Moseley, Alexa Vega and Ogre; Audio commentary with Darren Lynn Bousman, co-creatores Darren Smith and Terrence Zdunich and music producer Joseph Bishara; Video sing-alongs; Webisode featurettes; Select scene commentary with Paris Hilton and director Darren Lynn Bousman; Deleted scenes with optional commentary by Paris Hilton and director Darren Lynn Bousman; Theatrical trailer; Poster gallery

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Anthony Head	Dr. Nathan Wallace/Repo Man
Alexa Vega	Shilo Wallace
Paul Sorvino	Rotti Largo
Terrance Zdunich	Grave Robber
Bill Moseley	Luigi Largo
Nivek Ogre	Pavi Largo
Paris Hilton	Amber Sweet
Sarah Brightman	Blind Mag

Technical Credits

Darren Smith

Terrance Zdunich

Darren Lynn Bousman	Director,Executive Producer
Peter Block	Executive Producer
Mark Burg	Producer
Jason Constantine	Executive Producer
Sarah Greenberg	Executive Producer
David Hackl	Production Designer
Daniel Jason Heffner	Producer
Jenny Jue	Casting
Alex Kavanagh	Costumes/Costume Designer
Oren Koules	Producer
Carl Mazzocone	Producer
Jonathan McHugh	Executive Producer
Tim Palen	Executive Producer
Johanna Ray	Casting
Harvey Rosenstock	Editor
Darren Smith	Score Composer,Screenwriter
Joseph White	Cinematographer
Terrance Zdunich	Score Composer,Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Because Darren Lynn Bousman had just soullessly toiled away on the second, third, and fourth Saw movies, it would be easy to dismiss him as a hack with no vision beyond that required to see his next paycheck. But if churning out those movies was a necessary evil toward making his passion project, Repo! The Genetic Opera, then all is forgiven. Repo! was excoriated by critics for such reasons as the casting of Paris Hilton, as well as its risky premise: an R-rated opera in which surgically implanted organs are repossessed for nonpayment. It seems many critics couldn't get past their knee-jerk reactions, because if they had, they would have recognized Repo! as the ambitious feast of originality that it is. This is what Tim Burton should have gone for with Sweeney Todd: a dark, dystopian epic that's emotionally satisfying, but also sometimes funny, and lives up to the expected scope of its format. As the father and daughter at the center of the story, Anthony Head and Alexa Vega bring terrific depth of feeling to their characters, and Buffy fans will be especially delighted to see Head (their beloved Giles) in the leading role he so richly deserves. It helps to have plenty of feeling built in to the songs from the original stage musical, composed by Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich, whose lyrics stop just short of being comically literal. The supporting performances are also effective in context, from Paul Sorvino to soprano Sarah Brightman, with even Hilton herself fitting into the film's thrust. It's important to remember that Repo!'s trash factor is intentional, as this film actively aspires to join the lurid ranks of film's great exploitation movies. But there's nothing unintentionally trashy about it, either in terms of its sentiments (the tragic story is plenty involving), its social commentary (our appearance-obsessed society gets a wicked skewering), or its production (a balance between sweeping digital cityscapes and low-tech sets that embrace Repo!'s stage origins). Even the comic-book panels that advance the narrative work perfectly with Bousman's design. "Narrated" by a sympathetic gravedigger who traffics in street surgical drugs, Repo! The Genetic Opera has got "future cult classic" written all over it. It could be the Rocky Horror Picture Show of gothic rock operas, to a receptive audience. And Bousman proves he has good creative vision after all, free from those snapping traps that had shackled him.

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