I Watch 'Em So You Don't Have To

Holy Crap It's A Rock Opera!

Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)

How many rock operas have you seen in your lifetime? I'm not gonna even count the just released piece of... stuff they put out with a recently divorced sissy boy who ruined some 80's tunes. I'm talking about Tommy, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street. None of which is suitable for children, including this one. While it is in rock opera style, if there is such a thing, there is also some language and quite a bit of gore, not surprising considering the subject matter. I remember seeing Tommy when I was little and it freaked me the hell out - I didn't understand any of the references (drugs, violence, molestation) and the scene where Tommy's mother thinks she's rolling in baked beans on a white carpet? For years I wondered why she'd roll around in poop. I didn't know, I was little, and that kind of stuff can stick with you for years. 

It would not be surprising if you've never heard of this film, it only opened in seven places in America and Canada. It did create a following however, there were several road tours, each selling quite a few tickets. I'd love to see this live - but the movie was interesting, especially the way they used comic-book style scenes for backstories and scenes that were either too gory or too expensive. This opera also holds the record for the most songs played in a film, at 64. That's a hell of a lot of singing. But then again there wasn't too much talking in this thing either.

Daddy's little billiard ball.

Basic plot (if you want to call it that, it gets kind of random): A sick girl named Shilo (played by Alexa Vega and don't worry about forgetting that name, if you watch this thing I think it's repeated about 1,000 times) thinks she's inherited a blood disease from her mother. She yearns to be 'normal' but cannot even go outside without wearing a gas mask and a bracelet is a constant reminder of her physical status and when to take her medication.

Rotti and his deadly crew.

This America, set 'in the not too distant future', is pretty much owned by GeneCo, a massive corporation that provides organ transplants and cosmetic surgery, all available on payments if you don't have the funds up front. It makes it so easy that most people are now addicted to surgery, even if it makes them look more monstrous - they keep having them. Keep up those payments though, or the dreaded 'Repo Man' will come for you and, well, take whatever you bought back. While you're still kicking - pulling organs from dead bodies is not allowed I guess. 

Good thing I can afford all these wigs.

See this is why I watched this to begin with - I know there was a recent movie about this same setup but I couldn't remember the title and when I searched - well, I was in for an earful. Anyway, GeneCo is owned by Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino who, if it was his voice, can sing really well). He finds that he is dying, but he detests his three children, all freaks in their own way, also addicted to unnecessary surgery (His daughter is played by Paris Hilton - need I say more?). His true love was Shilo's mother, who, when she dumped him for Shilo's father Nathan (played very well and with a good voice by Anthony Head - familiar to all you Buffy fans), slipped a poison into her medication when she became ill while carrying Shilo. Nathan could only save one of them - Shilo (see I'm repeating her name endlessly too). Rotti tells Nathan the death was his fault and blackmails him into becoming the main Repo Man, a secret he keeps from his daughter Shi- umm his daughter.

Hot damn, it's Joan Jett!

We get some confusing side trips about a drug also made by GeneCo that's very addictive and so much in demand that grave robbers take it from corpses (Yuck, no embalming?), plus a formerly sightless (until GeneCo gave her electronic eyes) singer who was Shilo's mother's best friend. And an enigmatic grave robber provides a lot of the dialogue and explanation throughout the movie - sort of this movie's version of Riff-Raff I guess. Except a lot cuter. We also get a pretty cool scene where 17 year old Shi- uh what's-her-name goes on a rock and roll rampage about needing to be free. I say cool because her bedroom kind of becomes a rock concert, there's groupies at her window, and a stage on the other side - playing the guitar for her while she's ragging on her father is Joan Jett - nice.

Since Rotti cannot stand any of his kids and he is still in love with the dead woman he himself killed, he wants to make Shilo (geez, look how  many times I'm using that name) his heir. IF she brings him the Repo Man so he can kill him. Don't fear the Repo, dude. Sorry, couldn't resist. So things get convoluted in this opera of many stories (which is why you have the grave robber to help you keep the story straight) and soon the Genetic Opera is scheduled at which Blind Mag (the one with electronic eyes) will give her last performance. It will be her last breath too - she apparently didn't read the fine print with those new eyes. She belongs to GeneCo and so the instant she leaves, her eyes stay. Ick.

Quite a change from a librarian...

When Nathan learns that his next target is Blind Mag (who is <sigh> Shilo's godmother), he refuses to kill her, so Rotti wants him dead. Rotti then phones Shilo on those cool bracelets of theirs and invites her to the upcoming Genetic Opera, planning on using her as bait as well as offer her the company. Nathan defeats the other Repo Men sent after him and rushes to Shilo's room to find her gone. Fearing Rotti has kidnapped her, he dons his uniform and heads to the Opera. Oh and they all sing. Constantly. About every movement. Every thought. There's a reason why 64 songs fit into this thing...

At the Opera, Mag sings her final song, ending it with a final act of defiance by gouging out her eyes. Rotti immediately has her killed. Nathan, his face concealed by his mask, appears onstage. Shilo attacks him before realizing that he is her father. A dying Rotti reveals that Shilo's illness is caused by the poisoned medicine her father gives her to keep her weak and dependent, and tells Shilo that if she kills her father, she will inherit GeneCo. This is the truth, so now she's torn - but Nathan tells her it was the only way to keep her close, as he couldn't bear to lose her like he did her mother. Not good enough for me but apparently Shilo forgives and refuses to kill her father, rejecting the offer to own GeneCo. Rotti then uses the last of his strength to shoot Nathan before he himself dies. After a tearful good-bye, Shilo leaves, free at last to live her own life (Doing what exactly?).

Come to grave robber if you get confused.

In an epilogue, our trusty grave robber explains some and reads about the events of the opera from the previous night and reveals that Shilo has fled, leaving GeneCo with no heir (see, keeping the story straight for you). Rotti's unloved daughter Amber Sweet (Paris Hilton, wearing another of many faces she dons in this movie) becomes GeneCo's new CEO, promising to change the company's repossession policy. Because she's nice? Nah, that can't be it.