UKingdom

Looks reasonably interesting. Weird to see a John Woo film without trademark double fisted pistol action, although looks like we'll get some MI-2 style motorcycle action and some slo-mo here and there. A hodgepodge of different concepts in another "chase" film.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/paycheck/

Giles

too bad my initial impression was "oh no not another goddamn Ben Afflick movie!"

matome

Looks OK. Wish Woo would get back to his Hong Kong style films instead of this watered down stuff.

Sunday Morning

Oh, you mean "John Woo's Next Paycheck".

Hopefully he'll go back to asia and make good films again one day.

matome

Good one!

PalmerJoss

Looks alright, but I imagine that having Affleck in it can only hurt the box office at this point.

DonnachaOne

Duplicate thread.
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...light=paycheck

fumanstan

Looks cool to me... i dont think Ben would hurt the box office too much. Plus after Kill Bill's mild success Uma should be a boost.

Plus, can't go wrong with Phillip K. Dick

jaeufraser

Hopefully this is an all out action movie. Guns blazing, the whole bit. I mean, no offense to john woo, but why would he want to get away from that? Is it the studios? As a dramatic director, Woo is...mediocre. It's his action that people want to see, so...action please! Guns! hell make another movie with Chow Youn Fat!! Only one of his american movies has somewhat reached the potential Woo has, but even Face/Off wasn't near the level his Hong Kong movies were.

Paycheck looks...well, uninspired by the previews, but hopefully it's the kick butt action movie we've been waiting for from Woo.

theneobez

No, it's not his action people want to see, and I consider myself a true Woo fan. The reason his American films have not worked for the most part (I think Face/Off was great) is because dramatically they have all failed. Most of the time the action is great, but it is forced and pointless. Look at M:I2. I can't remember a point where I really cared for the characters. Same goes with Windtalkers, which is basically an all-out action movie, dramatically it was cliche, and nothing really seemed to develop. Plus, he tried to make a war movie something like his Hong Kong movies, that didn't work so well.

I believe that Woo is at his best when he gets me to care for his characters and his story. The Killer is his masterpiece if you ask me, because it had great action that was made meaningful through the development of story and characters.

I hope Paycheck is good, but I guess we will see. I think his next movie with Fat and Cage will be a good action-less drama.

Der Krieger1979

Looks good. The plot seems interesting. Although I've always believed:

John Woo= overrated

raven56706

John Woo:$15,000,000
Action:$150,000,000
Ben Affleck:$2.50

Ben Affleck in a John woo movie:Useless

fumanstan

Unfortunatly, i don't think the majority of people will agree with you there, "true Woo fan" or not.

Jericho

I don't get that logic, I mean he was in one failed movie. Lots of people have been in one failed movie, doesn't mean people all of sudden hate him. If Ben Affleck ever had pull (if you believe in such things), I'd have to believe he still does.

Drexl

I don't get it either. After all, I hated Affleck long before Gigli.

This movie does look interesting though.

TCG

i recently read the Philip Dick story of this. It has great potential. I would normally be excited about this, except for affleck. he's really done nothing good outside of Kevin Smith films. it's a shame.

DealMan

Every single film John Woo has made in America has been utter and total crap, I expect this one to be no different.

He started out so promising, what a waste of a career.

fumanstan

Face/Off was gold, and this is from someone who owns the classic Woo films like Hard Boiled and The Killer.

John Spartan

Well, it's not like Woo had been just starting out in HK and they brought him here. He had already had a long and fruitful career in HK and had made some all-time classics. You can treat his American films like retirement or "weird experimentation phase" of a director in the latter stages of his career..

I will say that the bike chase in MI2 is the greatest motorcycle scene in the history of cinema. There's so much variety and it's all shot and staged beautifully. It holds up better than any other American action scene he has done so far. (well, the jousting is lame, but everything before that is gold)

immortal_zeus

Looks interesting. Even though Ben Affleck is a horrible actor, I like him and I think I've liked every movie of his that I've seen (I haven't seen Gigli or any of those Kevin Smith movies...I'm not a Bruckheimer hater like most people on this board...I liked Armageddon and Pearl Harbor). [Waits for the inevitable, "Well that destroys your credibility" comments.]

It doesn't look very action-packed, at least not in the traditional John Woo shoot-the-hell-out-of-everybody sense.

I'd watch it.

Troy Stiffler

I have an unhealthy addiction to anything that John Woo does. I guess I very easily get caught up in the excitement that he creates. For example, the action sequences in MI: 2. That movie was rather universally disliked. But me, I saw it six times at the theater, and watch it all the time on DVD.

I admit that Hard Target, Blackjack (what was he thinking???), were real stinkers. But to me, Woo seems to have really evolved in his american filmmaking. Of course, he still misses. But not enough to NOT have me excited about Paycheck.

Almost Unbearable American Woo:
Hard Target
Blackjack (made after Face/Off; unfortunate fluke in my opinion)

Watchable, But Not Great American Woo:
Broken Arrow
Windtalkers

Current Pinnacles of American Woo:
Face/Off
MI: 2
BMW "Hire" Short

I'm hoping that Paycheck is a good one. I don't mind Ben Affleck.

By the way, I'm really excited to hear more about his next film, "Land of Destiny". It's written by the two guys who wrote "Face/Off", and stars Nic Cage and Chow Yun-Fat.

fumanstan

Wow, never heard of that project. I think everyone John Woo fan and Chow Yun Fat fan has been wondering why they havent teamed up in the states. Throw in Cage, who was awesome in Face/Off, and i'm giddy

Trigger

Well, I'm in the camp that wants him to go back to Asia so he can make good movies again. Of his american stuff...

Unwatchable:
Broken Arrow
MI:2
Windtalkers

Watchable:
Face/Off
Hard Target

Everyone's gonna have a different list, but I think at least most people kinda agree that his best work came out of Asia.

Fred C. Dobbs

You have to wonder what's going on with the American film industry when they can turn the greatest Hong Kong action director into the director who made MI2, Face/Off, and Windtalkers. Phillip K. Dick wrote Paycheck (the book) so I think this will be better than most of John Woo's recent American films. I enjoyed Minority Report and Blade Runner, although I hear they were not faithful to Dick's vision...

RocShemp

Looks like something different for both Woo and Affleck. I'm interested.