Paycheck

Year of release: 2003

Genre: sci-fi

Director: John Woo

Stars: Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart, Uma Thurman, Paul Giamatti, Colm Feore, Joe Morton, Michael C. Hall

Rated PG-13 for violence and language

Believe it or not, there was a time when the prospect of a new John Woo movie created some sort of buzz. However, after recent disappointments like Windtalkers, any creatitvity or inventiveness Woo once had now seems to be buried in a mish-mash of "star power" and bad CGI effects. From start to finish, Paycheck is a by-the-numbers science-fiction movie that seems to serve no real purpose. Hardcore sci-fi buffs have undoubtedly seen this kind of thing done better, and Woo fans will miss his trademark pyrotechnics.

The basic plot takes place in the near future, and has Ben "at least it's not Gigli" Affleck starring as a "reverse engineer", a man who steals company secrets to create new machines, only to have his memory erased after each job. After his latest job, Affleck wakes up with only an envelope filled with seemingly innocuous items, and with the FBI and his former employers on his tail. Enlisting the help of his girlfriend (Uma Thurman), Affleck must try to unravel the mystery of his last assignment.

Like I said before, Paycheck is a very generic movie. The film can't even capture a decent futuristic look -- it was made in Vancouver and there's almost no attempt to make it look like something from years down the road. This makes it harder to buy the supposedly "advanced" technology Affleck is working on, and things aren't made any better by his performance. He just runs around getting sweaty and speaking monosyllabically; in other words, he looks more like someone that has to take a dump, rather than someone who is going to save the world. The other actors also phone in their performances. In particular, Uma Thurman seems to be sleepwalking, especially compared with her dynamic work in the Kill Bill movies.

As for the action, well, there just isn't much of it. There is one decent chase sequence and that's about it. Woo does try and use some of his mainstays like the Mexican standoff, but they seem like forced cliches here. One sequence that uses Woo's trademark doves speaks well to the film as a whole. It just looks fake, generating unintentional laughs instead of drama or excitement. I used to be pretty adverse to the idea of John Woo making musicals, but really, it would have to better than this snooze-fest. Even die-hard Woo fanboys would do well to steer clear of this.

RATING: 4

DVD Information