where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when: Friday, March 19th, 2010
show: 2:00 p.m.
costs: $7.25 Ticket + $5.75 Kid's Pack ( w/ the $1.00 upgrade ) = $13.00
auditorium: 14
seat: 7th row, 8ht column
synopsis: In the near-future, humans in need of replacement organs have the option of choosing mechanical ones. The only problem is, if the patient becomes delinquent on payments, the mechanical organ company sends out a technician, i.e. a repo man, to repossess it.
noteworthy scenes: 1.) Union man, Remy ( Jude Law ); 2.) Rough-housing with Jake ( Forest Whitaker ); 3.) Pancreas guy; 4.) Union men barbecue; 5.) Taxi; 6.) Nest; 7.) 32 1/2; 8.) Jimmy T-Bone ( RZA ); 9.) 3 knock-outs; 10.) Hospital; 11.) Luggage; 12.) Welcome back present; 13.) Problem; 14.) Past due; 15.) Knocking them dead; 16.) Not cut-out for sales; 17.) Knock-out # 4; 18.) Singer ( Alice Braga ); 19.) Altered bar code; 20.) Two parts of the same puzzle; 21.) Want the option; 22.) What brand are your lips; 23.) Cautionary tale; 24.) Bionic ear; 25.) Trap; 26.) Typewriter; 27.) Larry, the Lung; 28.) Airport; 29.) Bleeding; 30.) Freeway off-ramp; 31.) Surgeon; 32.) Rigged defib; 33.) Hunt; 34.) Welcome to your world, repo man; 35.) Subway train; 36.) The 3 guards; 37.) Assembly lab; 38.) Business suit types; 39.) Organ data bank; 40.) Is she worth it; 41.) Repossession Mambo; and 42.) Tropical paradise.
audience reaction: The audience seemed to like this gory slash-fest of a Sci-Fi movie which is an exaggerated satire on the preposterous premise of corporate greed run amock.
recommendation: This movie is strictly played for laughs, albeit a bloody one at that. This would be a great movie for pre-med and law students to poke fun at!
spoiler alert! All the patients who signed the contract did so "under duress"; or to be more specific about it, did so Coactus Volui ( consented under compulsion ), nullifying the contract. I could just envision all the lawsuits filed against this company! The company employed the services of "killers for hire." Why didn't the police do anything about such premeditated murders? Why didn't anybody on the train alert the security/undercover cop about Remy's estranged wife? In the cases wherein a patient had more than one artificial organ replacement done, why didn't the company first do a "credit history" check? All the field surgeries were done under less than ideal conditions, setting the stage for massive blood loss and septic shock. Were the repo men, a.k.a. "technicians", surgeons? Apparently, no! So, they shouldn't have been performing surgical procedures without the knowledge and guidance of a surgeon. Speaking of surgeons, how in heck did a little girl become one? ( Doogie Howser, M.D., look-out! ) Since a person can still live on just one kidney, why did someone go ahead and have an artificial one put in? Since most of the patients/victims died, anyway, why didn't the repo men go ahead and harvest real organs on the side to increase business and commission payments since I'm quite certain that there is still a market for real organs in the future, and because the repo men are employed in a business that is immoral, unethical and downright illegal to begin with? Lastly, why didn't it occur to anyone to add/purchase "delinquency insurance"?
fyi: Would you put a brand-spanking-new V-12 engine ( if you can fit it in ) in an old and rusted-out beat-up Yugo? No, because such an engine would rip the old Yugo apart since they would not be compatible with each other to begin with! This is a perfect analogy for the people in this movie who had the artificial organ transplant procedure done on them. Such organs would need to be calibrated properly to "custom-fit" its respective recipients. Without such a calibration done first, the patient would suffer undue anatomical/physiological stresses. And I don't think that the company hawking such organs sold calibration-capable models--at least, I didn't see any reference to it at all; all of their artificial organs were pretty much of the "cookie-cutter" variety. This is something to think about, for you future artificial organ inventors out there.
word of advice: If you want something done right, do it yourself.
tidbits: Before going to see this movie, I swung by the CSAA office first to pay on my car insurance.
Then, I stopped-off at Postal Annex to put my 'phone bill in the mail-drop. Mike, the proprietor, was outside the front door smoking. I asked him if the reason why he's outside was because his air conditioner was on the blink. No, he told me that he was just out there indulging in his nasty habit: smoking. He added that he's been smoking since he was 14-years old when he had a paper route and could then support his habit. I told him that I quitted when I was 13, that I started when I was four. He was incredulous! I had to explain to him that in the Philippines it's not uncommon to see little boys ( 1st and 2nd graders ) with a lit cigarette in one hand and an opened beer bottle in the other hand. ( Had someone told me early enough that continued smoking would stunt my growth, I would have grown-up to be a basketball player! )
I was going to see the 1:45 p.m. show of the movie, DIARY OF A WIMPY KID. But it was sold out.
