Director John Woo has been responsible for some incredible action films, including Hard Boiled, The Killer and his second American film, Broken Arrow. His trademark Mexican standoffs (two characters pointing guns at one another) and wild and imaginative fight sequences have won him a good deal of respect among critics and fans alike. However, it’s been awhile since he’s had a hit film. So, almost on cue, his trademarks are wheeled out again in 2003’s Paycheck, a less-than-exciting film based on a story by Philip K. Dick.
Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) is a reverse engineer. He’ll take a competitor’s product apart to see how it works and how it can be improved. By breaking the law, his employers develop a superior product. To cover their tracks, he allows his employers to erase his memories of doing anything wrong. For the sacrifice of his brain cells, Michael earns a lot of money. One job, which would require up to 3 years of his memory to be wiped, promises to earn him an 8-digit paycheck. However, upon completion of his job, he finds that he’s apparently forfeited his paycheck, although he doesn’t remember doing so because his memory is gone. In exchange for his large paycheck, he’s given an envelope that contains seemingly random items like a container of hair spray, a coin and a half-completed crossword puzzle.
Shortly after getting the envelope, he’s taken into custody by federal agents, who are really interested in the project on which he’d been working for the last three years. But, since he can’t remember anything, he can’t offer them any information. Jennings manages to escape from the agents using items from the envelope and realizes that he’s given himself the items to solve the puzzle of the missing money and the missing time. And so begins a chase as the company he worked for tries to catch him before he can reveal his secret project’s details to the feds who are also searching for him.
While the idea is unique and the story has a lot of potential for being a thinking man’s action film, the plot and pacing are predictable and not very engaging. Ben Affleck’s character is introduced as a smug bastard with whom I found it very hard to sympathize. I didn’t care if he got his money or his life back. Nor did I care if he learned a lesson at the end of the film.
It was also hard to watch the likes of Paul Giamatti and Uma Thurman stoop to this level. They definitely did this film for the paycheck. So, at least the title is fitting.
2.0 out of 5.0 stars
Buy on Amazon!
