How is Paycheck?
 

I'm going to go with my mother to see Paycheck in a couple of hours. Has anyone had a chance to check it out yet? I dig John Woo - even his lesser american films - so I've got no doubt that I'll enjoy it at least on SOME level. I just want to know what I'm getting into.

So . . . thoughts?

Very so-so. Just got back.

The storyline was really stretching it.

The acting was subpar. I just can't see Eckhart as a bad guy.

Affleck was less than impressive IMHO.

Thurman was the best of the bunch.

The stuntwork wasn't too bad except that it was glaringly obvious that they were stuntpeople and not the actors. Normally I wouldn't care but its so obvious I just wanted to cringe at times.


I didn't pay full price as I went to a matinee....thank god.


Definitely won't be buying this one.

Hope you enjoy it though. I can see some people liking it.

I haven't seen Paycheck. And I don't plan to since I've heard terrible things about it. But Aaron Eckhart is definitely capable of being a villain. Watch In the Company of Men if you don't believe me. He was so effective in that movie, he had women walking up to him on the street wanting to smack him in the face.

I'll find out in a couple hours whether its worth the time and money

15% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Mega- Ouch. 60 rotten/ 11 Fresh. This thing has been savaged. Though it looks like the critics are falling all over themsleves if you compare it to 'Gigli'.
Affluck has flushed his career in 2 years. Amazing.

Paycheck is pretty much a truth-in-advertising" film title. Everything about this film screams "cashing a paycheck." There is nary a shred of emotional content in this film that doesn't feel forced or true, which undermines any human element to the film, and the ideas being presented aren't as interesting as the trailer makes it appear (an engineer-for-hire does reverse-engineering work and then has his memory erased for the time spent providing his services to whoever will cut him a paycheck). Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman, and Aaron Eckhart all phone in their performances, and the script is reduced to a series of chase scenes (and Affleck's character has managed to send himself a package that helps him through all the chase sequences, amazingly enough).

For a John Woo directed film, it feels totally like a "director-for-hire" project with not much of his directorial style invested in the film.

I give it 2 stars, or a grade of C.

I've seen that...and I would agree. I still just can't see him as a bad guy...in this type of film.

Maybe I should have stated it that "Eckhart" didn't seem like a villian in this movie.

The character development was nil.

I saw it and liked it. It's a solid action film that delivers what it advertises. I think some reviewers are jumping on the anti-affleck bandwagon. The story unfolds quickly and doesn't get bogged down at all.

Great chase, too.

D

I thought it was a decent sci-fi action flick. Everybody gave a fine although not overwhelming performance.

Actually, in the original Philip K. Dick short story, it's a package of seven items, and they're very cleverly written. When I heard it had been upped to 19! for the movie, I figured they had overstretched the gimmick and my anticipation for the movie went down real quick.

The short story is nothing amazing, but a cute little caper with a bit of time travel, but I don't see how even Hollywood thought they could stretch it out feature length.

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. It kind of went the campy route versus dramatic, but it worked well. The action was a bit of a let down for a John Woo movie, but the storyline was interesting and it was fun watching the plot unfold.

I saw this the other night. I didn't pay to get in, so it was worth the money. Entertaining but somewhat predictable. I won't buy the DVD, but it is worth seeing. There's my 2 cents.

i liked it alot! the end was kinda lame but the middle of the movie was great. i love movies like this where you are always thinking "hmmm..i wonder what that was for" - keeps you interested. well thats just me.

but you have to really get past the storyline since its soooo non-believable. if you cant do that for movies, forget it. if you can, you will love this movie.

im not anti affleck or pro affleck. im not the type of person who will automatically love or hate a movie because a person is in it. no actors are like that for me.

id give it a 7/10 and will buy it on dvd.

(and i want that motorcycle!)

Saw it, liked it.

Matinee worthy, movie was pretty good but didn't leave me wanting to purchase the dvd.

I thought it was Woo's worst.

Broken Arrow is a lot worse. I'd rank Paycheck as one of Woo's better American films. Behind Face-Off and about even with MI:2.

D

What? Woo's worst? Why? Wasn't woeful.

Whoa.

Just another action flick. Nothing too special, nothing too bad. It's one of those action movies where you'll watch it once and forget about it afterwards.

seven items in the story? are any of them the same?

i saw it as a matinee and was glad i did. would have hated myself even more if i had paid full price. i agree that the acting was mediocre. there seemed to be no chemistry between the actors whatsoever (giamatti may have given the best perforamnce in the movie).

may main beef with the movie is this: you know when you watch a movie, and something happens, and you think "well, that was certainly lucky for the character, but that scene is needed to advance the plot." basically, you see a plot contrivance. my beef is that this movie is made ENTIRELY of plot contrivances. oh, he just happens to have the stuff he needs at each particular time.

now, i know that's the point of the movie. i know he sent the stuff to himself to use when he needed it. but in most movies where things like that happen (i.e., a character needs something small and metal and just happens to find a paperclip), i roll my eyes. so i just couldn't get around the fact that this movie is based on plot contrivances.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!! ALTHOUGH READING THEM MAY SAVE YOU A COUPLE OF HOURS OF YOUR LIFE!!!

This was one of the silliest stories I have ever seen. I can get past the whole building a machine to see the future thing as this is supposed to be a sci-fi movie. However, the following 3 things bugged the hell out of me and just left me shaking my head:

1. Ben fraternizing with Uma. The bad company goes the thru the trouble of creating this top secret project, confiscating all of Ben's items, erasing his memory, yet they let him fraternize with the other staff that has nothing to do with his work and they let him fall in love with Uma, whose memory they are not erasing and who can freely leave the complex. That is just so inconceivable that it is laughable.

2. Mailing the items to himself. Once again, they have all of this security, yet they let him mail items to himself. In the movie, he explains that they would check all outgoing mail, so he mailed himself items that would not raise alarm. WTF??? Mailing yourself a paper clip wouldn't cause suspicion!!!??? Who mails themself a paperclip??? And a keycard to the very lab he works in!!! This is just so stupid.

3. The bad company sets him up to take the fall for building the machine and get caught by the FBI. And exactly how does the company benefit from this??? As soon as the govt. finds out that a machine has been built using stolen govt. research, they can confiscate the machine and the company wouldn't gain anything. Do they think the govt. will just let them keep the machine????

Wow, the man who brought us films like <i>The Killer</i> now brings us watered down, "family-friendly" dreck like this and MI2. Shoulda stayed in Hong Kong instead of selling out.

The new Chinese Government of Hong Kong would agree.

There's a reason HK stars like Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, John Woo, etc etc. all seemed to show up in the US around the same time.

D