Review
PAYCHECK
Starring Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman and Aaron Eckhart
Directed by John Woo
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Sci-fi fans will tell you that Hollywood has been ruining the novels of Phillip K. Dick for years. The debate over Blade Runner rages, but Total Recall was an overblown farce and Minority Report a thiny stretched abomination. Add to that list Paycheck, a Ben Affleck vehicle so laughably bad that you wonder how anyone involved kept a straight face.
Affleck stars as computer whiz Michael Jennings, a man who pirates technology through reverse engineering and then, to eliminate his culpability, has his memory erased. When his latest assignment goes bad he finds himself with no memory of the job, on the run from vicious killers, armed with only a envelope full of items he sent himself before the memory wipe.
In the hands of someone willing to play up the tense paranoia and social ramifications of technology out of control, this could have been a wonderfully cerebral thriller. Instead ex-patriot Hong Kong action director John Woo rehashes all his greatest hits and trades brains for action set pieces.
Even if all you want is to watch a few things blow up, the logistics of this film are so questionable it’s impossible to forgive. How can the audience believe that machines can predict the future and erase memory when so much of the little stuff is implausible? Jennings’s life relies on the contents of an envelope that he keeps dropping and nearly losing. Why doesn’t he just put the stuff in his pockets?
In Paycheck the future appears to be awash in crappy haircuts, outdated props and bad acting. Aaron Eckhart does his best as the heavy, but as the romantic lead Uma Thurman sleepwalks through the film with all the conviction of failing high school drama student. Not that the cast has anything to work with. The script is peppered with dialogue so atrocious – so comically awkward – that if the logical fallacies of the film don’t make you scratch your head, the piss-poor banter will.
And if you think I’m just being mean, remember that I am one of the few people who actually likes Ben Affleck and who will put up with the toned-down Americanized safety of John Woo. Even so, there is so much wrong with Paycheck that I can’t help but wish that all memory of this film could be erased from my mind. |
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