Wasted Evening

When I found that Repo: A Genetic Opera was available on DVD I was genuinely excited. Sally and I both adore musicals. Our first date was to see "Space Puppies" at the now long defunct Evoteck theatre. So we especially like science fiction space operas. We like camp. "Carrie White: The Musical"is also a fave of ours. I have the soundtrack to "Evil Dead: The Musical" (I highly recommend it, by the way). The reviews for Repo were good at Amazon. So I ordered it.

It arrived today. We ordered Chinese delivery. We fed the cats. We settled in to the couch and prepared ourselves for a night's musical fun.

After having seen the musical, neither of us can think of anyone we dislike enough to give the DVD to. That's good. We've mastered our anger, jealousies and hatreds. That's also bad. We can't figure out what to do with the DVD. Turning it into a coaster really isn't a solution. I'd love to find it a good home, but no one I know would like it.

To be specific, it plays like a government funded production piece made for the Toronto stage. Which it likely is, oddly enough. It's slow, with unmemorable music and bad plotting. The dialog is pedestrian. The lyrics are pedestrian. The music is the sort written by overhormoned fifteen year old boys who like Rammstein.

The humour is nigh non-existent. The movie is so dark that even with the lights turned off, at night, we still could not see some of the sets. Did I mention the mediocre music? Which, since this tries to be an opera, is relentless and ubiquitous.

In some of the reviews over at Amazon, the reviewers mentioned that the distributor (Lionsgate) is not backing the movie with any money for publicity. I have been doubting the decision making ability of the powers that be over at Lionsgate but that news has restored my faith in them. In this matter at least, they are persons with keen powers of discernment.

I would say that it should have stayed in Canada, but I really don't dislike the Canadian people that much. If the Obama administration wants to abandon waterboarding, they may wish to consider playing this for the prisoners down at Gitmo instead.