Events Calendar
In This Section
Most Read Stories
Police accuse bank robbery suspect of gobbling up note (with dashcam video)
Victim of beating in Kent last week is declared dead at Akron hospital
Dad accused of forcing son into field, killing him
Man found dead in North Akron home is identified
Can DNA tests free ex-Akron captain?
Browns' roster nearly devoid of consistent players
Coventry man killed in crash at I-77 ramp
Does it work? Test team returns to try out new products advertised on television
Blogs:
Pets:
Cat-loving chihuahua suckles seven abandoned kittens
The Heldenfiles:
Friday Night Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
Browns vs. Lions live …
Akron Zips:
Akron trounces Howard to reach .500
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Robiskie, Harrison inactive
Kent State Sports:
Kent State blown out in second half, loses to Temple 47-13
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad
Varsity Letters:
Four area football teams play tonight
All Da King's Men:
The Sunday Sanity Challenge
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Will Health Care Reform Pass?
Akron Law Café:
Health Care Financing Reform: (69) The Brookings Institute Study on "Bending the Curve" – Four General Strategies
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Silverdome Potentially SOLD!
Ohio Travels with Betty:
George is looking for a Thanksgiving buffet in Akron.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
A Random Rant on Testing
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
By Colin Covert
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Published on Thursday, Nov 20, 2008
You thought Sweeney Todd was bloody? It's a skinned knee compared with Repo! The Genetic Opera. This goth rock opera features buckets of gore, a campy score and melodrama galore in a calculated effort to become a 21st century Rocky Horror Picture Show. Its creative juices, however, are strictly anemic.
The post-apocalyptic world has been decimated by mass organ failures. But one man's crisis is another's opportunity, and spleen merchant GeneCo rises to the occasion. It offers life-saving transplants at exorbitant prices. You'd better stay current with your payments, though. A cadre of masked slashers reclaim GeneCo's property when customers fall behind.
Paul Sorvino is corpulent villainy incarnate as Rotti Largo, the biotech's tyrannical CEO; a certain hotel chain heiress vamps cluelessly as his plastic surgery-addicted daughter. Their rough relationship is mirrored by the conflict between sickly Shilo (Alexa Vega) and her overprotective scientist father, Nathan (Anthony Head of TV's Buffy.) He keeps her locked in the family mansion to shield her from infection, to keep away suitors and to conceal a Terrible Secret she must not know. The two clans move through the story on a collision course. In true operatic style, it ends in tears, tragedy (or at least crimson Karo syrup) and song.
The film aims for instant Midnight Movie cult status, but its coolness credentials are wobbly. The sight of crooning cadavers has its appeal, but the film's strenuous efforts to dazzle are wearying. Darren Lynn Bousman, the hackmaster behind Saw II, III and IV, edits the film as if he ran over the footage with a Snapper lawn mower. The singers are strong enough (opera buff Sorvino is especially impressive) but strident score is torture porn for the ears. The costumes make every female look like a Victorian streetwalker and each man look like Jack the Ripper.
Unless you already own a collection of black lipsticks, bondage bridlery and Dracula capes, move along, there's nothing to see here.
You thought Sweeney Todd was bloody? It's a skinned knee compared with Repo! The Genetic Opera. This goth rock opera features buckets of gore, a campy score and melodrama galore in a calculated effort to become a 21st century Rocky Horror Picture Show. Its creative juices, however, are strictly anemic.
Get the full article here.
