"Where Movie Critics Get A Taste Of Their Own Medicine"
Subscribe To Weekly Newsletter!

PAYCHECK
by Peter Sobczynski

December 25th, 2003

(out of 4 stars)

FILM CREDITS: Starring: Ben Affleck, John Davis, Aaron Eckhart, Uma Thurman, Paul Giamatti. Directed by: John Woo. Produced by: Michael Hackett, John Woo, Terence Chang, John Davis. Paramount Pictures. PG-13 for intense action violence and brief language.

The problem that filmmakers have had over the years in transferring the works of sci-fi writer Philip K.Dick to the screen is that his stories have traditionally been less about hardware and more about ideas. Therefore, the challenge has always been to figure out a way to combine those ideas with the requirements of big-budget action filmmaking. Sometimes the process works, such as in "Blade Runner", "Total Recall" and the first two-thirds of "Minority Report". Sometimes it doesn’t and the result is something like the anemic "Paycheck", a film that squanders a potentially intriguing premise and, in John Woo, a stylish director on a film that is merely content to waste them on a silly collection of clichés.

Ben Affleck stars as Michael Jennings, an engineer who is hired by corporations to acquire new products from rival companies, discover their secrets and then create new and improved versions-he then has his memory of the time spent on the projects erased so that he can’t reveal to anyone what he does. (The question of why he needs to wipe out the memories of tinkering with a product that s already commercially available is one of many never answered by the film). A sleazy businessman pal (Aaron Eckhart) hires him for a mysterious three-year project for a hefty fee. After losing his memory, Michael discovers that a.) he is being pursued by government agents who fear that the project, that he has no memory of, may cause a potential catastrophe and b.)he has forfeited his money in exchange for nineteen trinkets.

Despite some interesting ideas (some of which are similar to those seen in "Minority Report", "Paycheck" fails because nothing ever comes of them. In wrenching Dick’s story into a screenplay, writer Dean Georgaris has transformed it into just another silly action film that is chock-full of plot holes. As for Woo, his work is competent but lacking the excitement of his Hong Kong masterpieces or even such lesser American projects as "Windtalkers" or "M:I-2". The action scenes are fairly pedestrian (they come off more like someone trying to imitate Woo in a PG-13 context) and the only times that Woo seems interested in the proceedings are in some of the smaller details. There are numerous homages to Hitchcock that are fun to spot and Woo comes up with a striking bit of visual imagery to introduce Uma Thurman (otherwise wasted in the girlfriend role) by focusing on her most astonishing physical attributes-namely her stunning eyes. It is a gorgeous bit, fleeting and lovely, and one that deserves to have a better film surrounding it.z`z`

-- PETER SOBCZYNSKI

Copyright © 2003 Peter Sobczynski
All rights reserved.
Used with permission
Peter's Archives

While the views expressed by Peter Sobczynski do not necessarily reflect the views of Criticdoctor.com, the Critic Doctor will occasionally examine Mr. Sobczynski's film reviews to bring forth an honest examination of those views expressed.