Repo Man (1984) was a pretty good movie.

Repo Men looks like a remake of Logan's Run...

"Operative or "Sandman" charged with enforcing the rule, as he tracks down and kills citizens who "run" from society's lethal demand—only to end up "running" himself."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run

The basic idea of "man who enforces society's insane law changes his mind when the law is applied to him" is the same in both films. Repo Men is grounded in a gritier, Blade Runner-ish corporatism that gives the story a much sharper edge.

Mike

*SPOILER*

I felt the same way. With all that build-up in the first two thirds of the film, I expected a murder spree of epic proportions...or at least a lot of Bourne-style cat-and-mouse... but then he just kills a few guys in a house and returns home.

On most commentaries I've seen, whenever there's (female) nudity, the (male) commentators get quiet and giggley, and start praising the actress for being such a "pro" and a "trooper," and for being so beautiful, and did we mention what a great actress she is? Like they're trying to compensate for the fact that they made her take off her clothes. I assume the mood on those sets is similar -- lots of nervous praise and "can I get you anything?"

But I've also seen commentaries where the guys just chortle and remark that they had to work extra hard to convince her that the scene was important for the story, and thank goodness she relented! Look at that rack! Or,"We got these girls from the adult industry -- they'll do anything! They don't care! You can bet we all showed up on the set that day!" One director even bragged that, after adding an impromtu nude scene to the script, he had to put the reluctant actress on the phone with the producer. "I don't know what he told her, but when she got off the phone she was ready to do the scene!" Another bragged that he made everyone trying out for the part take off their shirts for him. "Hundreds of beautiful girls!"

So I guess it varies.

It needed something. I don't know that I'd vote for more cat-and-mouse myself, in the sense that I had a hard time suddenly accepting Viggo as Mr. Superkiller as it was. But I agree knocking off a few guys from the old neighborhood and returning home just felt too thin. As if there won't be consequences to him and his family for that? This is the mob we're talking about. The final moment of the film is supposed to convey the sense that there is "hope" that they can still be a family. That's well and good until twenty more mobsters show up a week later. And this oversight is particularly troublesome because the story itself is designed to examine the protagonist's inability -- however long-delayed -- to so neatly escape his own "history of violence."

Also, in terms of performances, I didn't quite buy William Hurt's character, or even Ed Harris'. Both good actors, but, I don't know -- maybe they didn't have enough to work with. The whole movie just didn't feel quite as authentic as it seemed to want to.

K

Boy, this summer's selections aren't much.

Anyway, I love Joan Rivers, and saw A Piece of Work.

Almost all the movies I was interested in seeing are limited release, for some stupid reason. Solitary Man, Ondine, Harry Brown, Don McKay, Restrepo, Survival of the Dead, Get Low, Tales from Earthsea and of course Jeunet's Micmacs.

Micmacs is okay, better than Jeunet's last few, but no Delicatessen. Harry Brown is a generic vigilante film. Those are the only 2 I saw from that list.

Have you seen Oliver Stone's first feature film, The Hand? Dreadful movie, but Michael Caine was absolutely wonderful in his role, despite only taking the job to pay for a new garage. I can't imagine he didn't turn in a great performance in Harry Brown. He even made the Batman movies suck a little less.

Caine is excellent as usual.