Enlarge Lionsgate Repo man cometh: Anthony Head, right, and Pavi Largo, center, are out for organs. ABOUT THE MOVIE Repo! The Genetic Opera * out of four Stars: Alexa Vega, Paul Sorvino, Anthony Stewart Head, Sarah Brightman, Paris Hilton
Director: Darren Lynn Bousman Distributor: Lionsgate
Rating: R for strong bloody violence and gore, language, some drug and sexual content
Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes
Opens Friday in select cities
WATCH THE TRAILER through Claudia Puig, USA TODAY The biggest mystery about Repo! The Genetic Opera is why the grisly Goth-horror symphonious is opening the week about Halloween.
The second-biggest mystery is why this unfunny, unscary, preposterous bloodbath about organ transplants is opening at all. And why did a serious singer like Sarah Brightman auspice on and donate her pipes to this infernal, self-indulgent misfire?
Director Darren Lynn Bousman must have hoped to make a cult favorite along the lines of Rocky Horror Picture Show. And since he directed SawsII, III and IV, perhaps out of professional courtesy he didn’t want to open on the same day as the most recent installment of the franchise. But such a macabre affair would seem to have a short shelf life.
Its derived production design seems influenced by Tim Burton.
It’s 2056, and an epidemic of voice failures has made transplants big business. As the operations grow more popular, surgery becomes a rank symbol and fashion mention. Only the coolest people sport designer body parts and organ upgrades. Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino), the malevolent head of GeneCo., offers complaisant financing. But miss one payment and the Repo Man (Anthony Stewart Head) comes a-calling, knife in hand.
Paris Hilton plays a surgery addict, adding a bizarre glam factor. through forgettable tunes, from generic power pop to overbearing heavy metal, Repo! makes hackneyed observations about genetic engineering.
For illustration: “The reality is: My legacy is not up to my genes/My destiny will always exist up to me.”
Photographed in a murky style ostensibly to feel futuristic, the movie is a convoluted mess, rife with sado-masochism. As if that weren’t enough, viewers must slog through a sappy conclusion, accosted by more of the most banal songs imaginable.
Repo! might have been an SNL or MADtv skit, but as a movie, it should be repossessed by its financiers.
To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.