Customer Reviews

Paycheck (Full Screen)

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

This movie clearly reflects the characteristics of its director John Woo. I would define it as "Mission Impossible" meets James Bond, and as happens in these productions, the creator of "Paycheck" goes overboard in a couple of scenes making them extremely unbelievable. Nevertheless, it is an entertaining film, which ended up being more fulfilling than I had expected, since the plot is considerably better than other action-packed films out there.

Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) is specialized in reverse engineering and his job consists in working non-stop for several weeks in each project he faces. Upon completion, he gets his money and his memory of that time interval is erased. The longest Michael has worked on a project is two months, but now his boss entices him to work on a three-year project. The bait is an eight-figure remuneration. Of course Michael has doubts, but the offer is too tempting for him to pass. By the time he finishes the project, he gets his one big paycheck in exchange for three years of his life: close to one hundred million dollars.

Michael gets a huge surprise though, when he finds out from his attorney that he has forfeited the portfolio and that the only possessions to recover are a set of items in an envelope at the attorney's office. Michael sent these items to himself, and they all look worthless; the list includes a can of hair spray, a pair of glasses, a book of matches, a bullet, a lighter, a watch and several other little an seemingly unimportant personal effects. When the FBI comes after him, Michael realizes that there is something wrong and that the items he sent to himself are meant to help him solve the mystery and keep him alive.

Even though I am not a big fan of Ben Affleck, I think he does a good job in this movie and that he fits his role very well. I am a fan of Uma Thurman though, who in the film plays the part of Dr. Porter, a lady that captivated Michael since he met her and who also works for Michael's boss. As usual, Thurman's performance is convincing and shows the passion she puts in her work. This is a good movie for spending a couple of hours entertained, but it is not one I would enjoy seeing repeatedly.

Other reviewers have described the plot and characters in great detail, so I'll just mention how much we enjoy this film each time we watch it. We view it once or twice a year, and still marvel at the twists and turns and action. It's entertaining, but it also makes us think.

It's not Shakespeare or a Chow Yun Fat film, but it is a very enjoyable way to spend an hour and a half, and it never gets old.

I expected this film to be an okay movie - worth the money, but nothing special. After Ben Afflecks last few flops of movies, I was thinking his acting skills were lacking in talent.

This movie gave me back the belief that Ben is still a pretty good actor. One anoyying thing in the movie is "that haircut" Uma Thurman "wears". It really looks bad and when she's not on screen it's a reflief. They could have casted a better actress to play her part, she did not come off convincing enougth.

But even with that, the movie makes up with great car chases, stunts, complex plot changes and a movie that keeps you guessing and has laughs in the right places and edge of the seat watching.

Strap in and enjoy a good movie. Not the best ever, but better than most.

This is a good action movie with big names like Ben affleck and Uma thurman. Its a cat and mouse movie because Mike played by Ben Affleck gets chased around alot through pretty much the whole movie. There is some gunplay but mostly hand to hand combat.This is a memory lose movie such as (bourne identity) where Mike a highly intelligent engineer gets paid big bucks to do top secret jobs and then after he is done they erase his memory up to a certain point where it is ok that he knows. There is romance in this movie between ben affleck and Uma Thurman.Uma plays a brilliant scientist who falls for mike while he is in his missions and usually after its over he doesnt remember him. Mike got offered an 8-digit paycheck to do a 3year top secret program and then after words lose the memory of the past three years. Well he wakes up from the memory lose project with all his stock money (92,000,000 dollars) gone .The FBI and thugs from the business where he did the project chasing him and trying to kill him and all he has is 20 objects in an envelope that arent even his. He has to use these 20 things to figure out his past and not killed by the henchman chasing him.

usually i can check out intellectually and enjoy an action movie. e.g. The Sixth Day, when Schwarzenegger says "We should smoke cigars more often," i distinctly remember thinking that it was total trash, and i loved it.

not so with Paycheck. started to lose me when the big action hero made an escape with a bus pass. conspicuous product placement was offputting.

i lost count of the nonsensical firearm standoffs after the third one. i guess if there is a shootout and a guy gets a clear shot and doesn't take it, it feels like the story has stopped; it's like you can see the writer hunched over his notebook, scratching his head

summary: Paycheck is competently shot and well-produced all around, but the screenplay is simply lazy. the logic behind the action doesn't hold up

**1/2 Though futuristic in look and tone, John Woo's "Paycheck" is really a throwback to that oldie about the man who wakes up one day as an amnesiac only to find himself being pursued by the authorities for a crime he may or may not have committed (just about every other Hitchcock film seemed to be built on this premise to one extent or another). The difference is that Michael Jennings is an amnesiac by choice, a brilliant engineer and scientist whose job it is to develop top-secret inventions for hi tech corporations. Once he's delivered the goods, he allows his memory to be erased - thereby rendering him innocuous as a security threat - in exchange for the lucrative paychecks the companies offer him.

Yet another of the many recent adaptations of a Phillip K. Dick story, "Paycheck" begins in the present day, a strange choice on the part of the filmmakers actually, for in this film's view of 2004, the technology for memory erasure seems to be in full swing and widely accepted (perhaps the producers didn't want to have to deal with the expense or bother of creating futuristic designs for their sets and costumes). The majority of the story, however, takes place in 2007, after Jennings "wakes up" from a three-year stint working on a secret project about which he can remember nothing. The trouble is that things haven't quite worked out the way Jennings planned as he finds himself the quarry of both the FBI and the organization for which he was working. Of course, Jennings doesn't know why. As is customary with films of this type, we uncover the clues and piece together the picture right along with the increasingly more enlightened main character.

It's that piecing together that is the sole factor of interest in "Paycheck," for Dick is clearly a writer with a fertile imagination and a gift for mind-bending storytelling. When the film sticks to unraveling its plot complications, it is generally sharp, intriguing and thought-provoking. Too often, though, the film degenerates into a collection of man-on-the-run, action movie clichés. Although the special effects are occasionally impressive, the far-too-frequent chase sequences defy all logic and believability. In fact, a number of scenes actually elicit a few unwanted giggles, so ludicrous and over-the-top are the setup and execution. Director Woo, past master of action spectaculars, is clearly working on autopilot in this film.

There isn't much to say about the acting, either. Although Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman - as the woman Jennings fell in love with during the three years, but whom he can no longer remember - do their best with the characters assigned to them, neither is given much chance to expand beyond the stereotypical confines of their respective roles.

When it comes to all those involved in this film, I suspect that Jennings isn't the only one here working solely for the paycheck.

This movie is the biggest waste of celluloid since the last Rob Schneider movie. An embarrassment for all involved. Why did Uma agree to do this? She's far better than this material, but she can't save a bad script.

Was this based on a Phillip Dick story? If so, they must have mangled it somehow. But the premise of the movie is self-contradictory. The movie is partly based on the idea that the future is fixed and cannot be changed, and partly based on the idea that the future can be changed. Mutually contradictory premises. If the unfolding of the plot had not been so mindless, this small difficulty could be forgiven.

Basically, this movie is for people who are entertained merely by things moving loud and fast, and people hitting and shooting at other people. In other words, a tale told by a company and crew of idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

The plot was okay, but the acting was horrendous. Paul Giamatti was the only good thing about this movie. Ben Affleck is good looking, but his acting is not at its best. Uma Thurman's dialogue was so contrived and wooden - it was almost painful to listen to it. The two characters (Ben and Uma's) had NO sexual chemistry and their relationship was unbelievable from the start.

I only gave this film 2 stars because the plot was pretty original. Definitely only rent this when the video store is out of everything else.

his is another joke in Hollywood's long list of big budget jokes they play on the American public. "Paycheck" is just that -- it had to be about the money -- otherwise no one would have been involved in this nasty mess. John Woo must have gotten a HUGE paycheck. Affleck, HUGE paycheck. Uma, HUGE pacheck. The audience got to pay $8.50 out of their hard-earned paychecks to watch this disasterous headache. It is ridiculous, convoluted and just plain stupid. Who likes these movies??? Hello America, when do we finally make them stop with the garbage?

Considering this was directed by John Woo, and it was about memory erasing, and then trying to follow clues, I was expecting to be lost throughout the entire film. But I wasn't - and I'm easily confused!

The film features Ben Affleck as Michael Jennings, playing a very smart guy, who gets his memory erased after every 'job' he does (no smart jokes about Jennifer Lopez). For this, he receives a lot of money, and 8 weeks (the most he'd ever done) erased afterwards. Then he discovered he forfeited all right to getting paid beforehand, but he left himself a series of clues, to get his money back. At first, the clues seem like a load of nonsense (there's 20, but he only gets 19 - watch out for the surprise one and very cool one) It's weird, but cool, how he manages to work out the clues, solve the mystery, and grab the girl.

As it's a John Woo movie, there are a couple of his trademarks. The dove (which totally doesn't make any sense), and the Mexican Stand Off (the latter of which I recognised from Face Off - it will seriously give you deja vu!)

I wasn't sure about the chemistry between Ben & Uma. Personally, I'm not keen on Uma as an actress - she quite often looks very weird. Joe Morton also stars in this, playing almost the same character he plays in Terminator 2, and looking loads older than he did in that and Speed - not aging well my man!

There are also a lot of car-chases, guns, loud noise, and lots of running about, and holding an envelope, that despite everything it goes through, doesn't get blown up/wet/ruined once!

When I saw the running time of the movie (1hr 54mins), I nearly died. But surprisingly, the film flew by, and was soon at the end.

The ending was also surprisingly good, and I was filled with dread when I saw there was an alternate ending among the sparse extras. Normally, alternate endings are endings that weren't received too well at test screenings - meaning they're generally a lot of rubbish. But the alternate ending is just as good as the ending left in the movie - so much so, that I don't know which ending I prefer!

This was a good film, despite what some reviewers say, and it's a very interesting concept, considering the film is basically based around 20 little, meaningless items. See if you can work out what they do before Benny-Boy does!