I know a few people that absolutely love this movie. One friend had just bought a copy of it, so I bought it from him.
Big mistake.
I like movies from many genres, I like the "Saw" Series, (although "Saw II" was a letdown). The movie I watched directly before this (might have been a bad choice to have watched them back-to-back) was another musical, "High Society" (1956) scored by Cole Porter. Trying to compare "Repo" to a Cole Porter Musical is like trying to compare apples to Volkswagens.
"Repo" is a bad rip-off of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975). The storyline is different, but the background score and lyrics are reminiscent of Richard O'Brien's, closer to his second movie, "Shock Treatment", but nowhere near as clever or catchy. The costuming is actually similar to "Shock Treatment" too. The graverobber fits the role of the Criminologist (Charles Gray) in "Rocky Horror" perfectly. Both narrating the movie in a fashion. The movie nudges "Rocky Horror" a little too much. The score makes me, as another reviewer commented, made me cringe. Bousman likes his quirky "opera", its a personal project, based on the interviews on the DVD, but its not fit for anything other than a recycling container. The people who made this movie thought they could improve "Rocky Horror" or pay homage to it. Either way, no soap.
I love Paul Sorvino (Rotti Largo), I don't hate Paris Hilton (Amber Sweet) as much as other people seem to, and I even have a regard for Bill Moseley (Luigi Largo) from his other roles, notably "House of 1000 Corpses" (2003), "Halloween" (2007) and the "Alphabet Killer" (2008). The characters and their roles are augmented by a cartoon/comic book background, similar to "A Scanner Darkly" (2005) or "Creepshow" (1982), but I felt the whole mechanism fails badly. The characters and the acting hobble around without any guidance or point.
I should add I was amazed at Sorvino's singing ability at this point. Didn't help though.
A few thoughts/reactions to the movie from our watching of it: We're watching "Repo", laughing at it, making fun of it, ridiculing it. We're not laughing with it, we're laughing at it though. It has a quality that doesn't allow me to turn it off and throw the DVD across the room, but that doesn't really make up for the lack of what makes movies good. Sorry. The complete absence of what makes movies good. I like movies that are campy and ones that are classy, and this movie isn't either. I like Hershel Gordon Lewis' work. All of it. I like Dario Argento and Giallo. I love Sci-Fi, I love horror movies, especially zombie movies. I even like some of Troma's offerings of movies ("The Last Horror Film" (1985) Especially). Alexa Vega's singing is awful. Really awful. The movie has a nails on the chalkboard quality to it. Screechy. The scene with Paris Hilton on the Genetic Opera almost got me to break the DVD. Almost. Making farting noises for 98 minutes would be about a wash in terms of enjoyment factor. It has an unfortunate comic quality to it...similar to a clown being run over by a balloon truck.
Terrible.
Big mistake.
I like movies from many genres, I like the "Saw" Series, (although "Saw II" was a letdown). The movie I watched directly before this (might have been a bad choice to have watched them back-to-back) was another musical, "High Society" (1956) scored by Cole Porter. Trying to compare "Repo" to a Cole Porter Musical is like trying to compare apples to Volkswagens.
"Repo" is a bad rip-off of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975). The storyline is different, but the background score and lyrics are reminiscent of Richard O'Brien's, closer to his second movie, "Shock Treatment", but nowhere near as clever or catchy. The costuming is actually similar to "Shock Treatment" too. The graverobber fits the role of the Criminologist (Charles Gray) in "Rocky Horror" perfectly. Both narrating the movie in a fashion. The movie nudges "Rocky Horror" a little too much. The score makes me, as another reviewer commented, made me cringe. Bousman likes his quirky "opera", its a personal project, based on the interviews on the DVD, but its not fit for anything other than a recycling container. The people who made this movie thought they could improve "Rocky Horror" or pay homage to it. Either way, no soap.
I love Paul Sorvino (Rotti Largo), I don't hate Paris Hilton (Amber Sweet) as much as other people seem to, and I even have a regard for Bill Moseley (Luigi Largo) from his other roles, notably "House of 1000 Corpses" (2003), "Halloween" (2007) and the "Alphabet Killer" (2008). The characters and their roles are augmented by a cartoon/comic book background, similar to "A Scanner Darkly" (2005) or "Creepshow" (1982), but I felt the whole mechanism fails badly. The characters and the acting hobble around without any guidance or point.
I should add I was amazed at Sorvino's singing ability at this point. Didn't help though.
A few thoughts/reactions to the movie from our watching of it: We're watching "Repo", laughing at it, making fun of it, ridiculing it. We're not laughing with it, we're laughing at it though. It has a quality that doesn't allow me to turn it off and throw the DVD across the room, but that doesn't really make up for the lack of what makes movies good. Sorry. The complete absence of what makes movies good. I like movies that are campy and ones that are classy, and this movie isn't either. I like Hershel Gordon Lewis' work. All of it. I like Dario Argento and Giallo. I love Sci-Fi, I love horror movies, especially zombie movies. I even like some of Troma's offerings of movies ("The Last Horror Film" (1985) Especially). Alexa Vega's singing is awful. Really awful. The movie has a nails on the chalkboard quality to it. Screechy. The scene with Paris Hilton on the Genetic Opera almost got me to break the DVD. Almost. Making farting noises for 98 minutes would be about a wash in terms of enjoyment factor. It has an unfortunate comic quality to it...similar to a clown being run over by a balloon truck.
Terrible.