Directed by Miguel Sapochnik Starring Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Liev Schreiber, RZA, Alice Braga, Carice van Houten 18 cert, gen release, 111 min

YOU HAVE to feel a bit sorry for Jude Law. Once touted as the hottest new actor on the planet, he now pops up in the sort of routine science-fiction potboiler that might cause even Jason Statham to pause before signing. He'll be on Strictly Come Dancingnext.

Repo Men(no relation to Alex Cox's Repo Man) is, to be fair, not entirely appalling. The central concept, though not original, offers the film-makers scope for all kinds of futuristic high jinks. Medical boffins have devised a whole range of mechanical organs to replace our own when they fail. The bad news is that the items are expensive and, if you miss too many payments, Mr Law and his pal Forest Whitaker will call around and repossess the pounding heart or throbbing liver.

The film-makers spend some time playing the concept for laughs: before Law extracts some poor fellow's heart, he clarifies that a counselling service and a complaints department are available. They also indulge in some impressive sub-Asian ultra-violence: a final conflagration redecorates an entire corridor in various arterial shades. (You don't see too many 18 certs these days, but Repo Menmanaged to secure just such an honour.)

Unfortunately, most of the film is taken up with endlessly boring muttering in warehouses and only marginally more diverting arguments in motorcars. Offered a perfectly serviceable science- fiction plot, the first-time director chooses to construct a dreary soap opera featuring characters – Law’s naggy wife, Liev Schreiber’s corporate nasty – of such thinness that the scenery is visible through their flapping flesh.

This is not where Mr Law would have expected to end up. Oh well. There's always Sherlock Holmes II.