A guilt-free Friday night show to enjoy… And then never think about again
The American healthcare system wishes it worked like this.
It’s a simple, yet wildly intriguing idea in the same vein as other similar sci-fi flicks like 2011’s In Time.
You’ve got failing kidneys, hearts and even eyeballs? The nameless, forgettable corporation “The Union” will lease one to you. At high cost. Your life. Simple really. Don’t pay, and a repo man comes by to tear you open from top down. And they aren’t afraid to get messy.
Dramatic and one-dimensional. I know. But it works pretty well! Jude Law plays Remy, a name just as forgettable as “The Union”, with a grumpiness and discontentment that serves as a backdrop for his jadedness towards a system that provides healthcare, and then violently takes it away once credit is due.
He’s backed up by long-time work buddy Jake (Forest Whitaker) and a host of other forgettable, bland characters as they make money of slashing people on the streets. Most of whom have outstanding payments on their inner steaks… I mean, organs.
It’s mildly comical, with some monologues that work, and some that just fall flat. Especially the Schrodinger Cat story that just doesn’t sound smart, or foreshadow anything. Pretty weird…
What’s not weird, however, is how simple and fun the storyline is. It’s carried by superb performances from the grumpy Jude Law, buddy and terminator Forest Whitaker, with generous amounts of meat sauce gore… And that’s about it.
Gore, one-liners, confusing side characters, and weird dollar store surgery scenes.
It’s nowhere near amazing (for that, see Snowpiercer or Deus Ex) but it falls squarely in the ballpark of easy mediocre recommendations that don’t pretend to be something they are not (see In Time, Gamer, Face Off).
I love it. It’s cheese fries, with fried chicken in cheese sauce and a fat bottle of Mountain Dew. It’s all cheese, except it’s red. Over the top, but oh- what a guilty pleasure.
Overall Rating: 5.5/10
Action: 6/10
Dialogue: 3/10
Main plot: 6/10
Sub-plots/filler-crisis: 1/10 *
*(I have no idea what some of these side characters and filler points are there for. Especially a train scene with the main character’s wife. Just leaves me going WTF was that about? Also. Don’t force a family “crisis” to bond a dad and a kid if the kid has less than 15mins screentime)