‘Repo Men’ falls short of its lofty philosophical ambitions

"Repo Men" attempts to ask philosophical questions while providing social commentary but falls short because of its excessive use of action movie cliches and its uninspired, predictable ending.

The movie follows Jude Law's character Remy, a repo man of the future. Instead of repossessing cars or houses, Remy collects artificial organs, or Artiforgs, from people who can't afford monthly payments.

Remy and his partner Jake (Forest Whitaker) enjoy their jobs as repo men, but Remy's wife (Carice Van Houten) wants him to transfer to organ sales, because she wants him at home more.

Remy tells his boss Frank (Liev Schreiber) he wants to transfer but agrees to do one last repo job.

There's a mishap during the job, and Remy requires an Artiforg heart. He can't do repo jobs anymore because he empathizes with the people who can't pay, and as a result, he falls behind on his payments.

The rest of the film follows Remy and Beth (Alice Braga), a street junkie with numerous Artiforgs ready to be repossessed, as they avoid repo men and try to escape to safety.

There are some interesting questions posed by "Repo Men," that make viewers wonder how far corporate greed would go in gouging customers if a company could sell desperate people something as essential as a heart or lung.

Unfortunately, "Repo Men" ignores this question for most of its runtime, instead opting for a formulaic plot with a predictable ending that combines elements of "Total Recall" and "The Matrix," an ending most moviegoers should see coming halfway through, if not sooner.

The movie wasn't a total letdown though. There were some good, very dark jokes throughout the film.

Law, despite looking like the lovechild of Christopher Eccleston and Simon Pegg, plays a believable action hero, even if he has no on-screen chemistry with Braga.

Whitaker is also solid as Law's best friend and comes through as a good guy in the end.

Schreiber, although being almost mustache-twirlingly evil, is okay as the main antagonist but doesn't have much of a script to work with.

The action sequences are well-done, and inexperienced director Miguel Sapochnik keeps a good pace through much of the film.

The penultimate action scene, where Remy fights through a hallway of repo men, is fun to watch and doesn't lack bloodshed.

"Repo Men" isn't likely to stay with many moviegoers more than 30 minutes after the credits role, and the film tries to be more ambitious than it is, but audiences looking for violent escapism might want to give the film a chance.

Grade: C+