Review of Paycheck (2003) by Phil H — 08 Apr 2012

Another classic Philip K. Dick story is brought to the big screen only this time its been 'Woo'd'. To be very very honest this is pretty much a poor mans 'Minority Report' with a bad cast, accept for the big chinned Eckhart, why this short story has not been given the same care as 'MR' I don't know.

The film plays out with Affleck (yes -_-) as a 'reverse engineer' who...actually I still have no idea really what he is suppose to do in his role, all I know is it involves having his memory wiped after he's done each job but this time he has been used and set up by the evil Eckhart.

Cue allot of running around, guns blazing everywhere, your typical Woo car/motorbike chase with standard silly slow motion stunts and of course your typical standard Woo point blank face off...or Mexican standoff. The concept for the film is pretty neat, not totally original in today's film world but it has promise, unfortunately like 'M.I.2' Woo was totally the wrong director for such a decent sci-fi story.

The whole thing looks bad, especially during the finale which looks like its been filmed on a set from the 60's Batman TV show, plus the acting is poor and hammy from almost everyone. Its all too predictable and quite simply its been done allot better with other films.