Quick Review: Repo Men

Hard to believe they've been sitting on this movie since it was filmed way back in 2007. "Repo Men" stars Jude Law and Forest Whitaker as Remy and Jake. They're, well, repo men. They repossess their company's property from people who fail to keep up with the payments. However, what they're repossessing is artificial organs. This is a film set in the near future, where the science of artificial hearts, livers, etc. has been perfected. No more messy transplants of human body parts. However, it is expensive. After all, a heartless (no pun intended) corporation has to make its profit. In charge in some capacity is Frank (Liev Schreiber). He sends guys like Remy and Jake out to catch the deadbeats, slice 'em open and take out the organ to return to the company. The poor...repossess-ees? Repossessed? What's the word I'm looking for? Anyway, they're left on the floor, gutted open. Now that's health care reform! So something unfortunate happens that turns Remy into a customer. Then he falls behind in his payments. Uh-oh... It's more of a black comedy at first, and shows a little potential, but then it turns into a standard action movie with chase scenes and wild fights and is much less interesting. And I'm mad at myself for not seeing the twist at the very end coming. My grade: C.

Quick Review: Our Family Wedding

And then Jon Runyan...no, no, just kidding. Two posts on his entry into the world of politics and his evil, hate-filled political party are enough for now. Let's discuss something that's not quite as exciting: "Our Family Wedding." Okay, not nearly as exciting. It's not unpleasant, it got a laugh or two out of me, but it's paint-by-numbers and maybe a little dated. A Latino woman (America Ferrara) and her African-American fiancee (Lance Gross) travel home to Los Angeles to inform their families of their engagement. They're living together and she dropped out of law school, but they've kept that information from her parents. His father (Forest Whitaker) and her father (Carlos Mencia) actually meet for the first time under unpleasant circumstances, without knowing that their children will soon be introducing them to each other later, so when the families first meet at a restaurant, arguments ensue. There's all kinds of angst, part of it because of the mixing of the cultures, but there's nothing that hasn't been done before or done better. My grade: C.