Details
- Title
- Paycheck
- Director
- John Woo
- Cast
- Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart, Uma Thurman, Paul Giamatti, Colm Feore, Joe Morton, Michael C. Hall, Kathryn Morris, Fulvio Cecere, Michelle Harrison, Ivana Milicevic, Emily Holmes
- Length
- 119 min.
- Released
- 2003
Review
Ben Affleck wears so much Liquid Tan that you wonder if John Woo is trying to make him over Vertigo-style into Chow Yun-Fat. Then you wonder what Chow Yun-Fat is up to these days. Then you remember Bulletproof Monk. Then you resolve not to think anymore for the remainder of the movie.
Sure, Ben Affleck's ninja prowess is hard to buy. Sure, its kind of a shame John Woo has gotten so generic. This sure isn't Bullet in the Head. But it sure isn't (and here we are again, back at) Bulletproof Monk, either. The premise, courtesy of the humorously named (and dead) Philip K. Dick, is reasonably intelligent. Uma Thurman, still looking like she just woke up from her Kill Bill coma, and Ben Affleck are adequate. It is interesting, though, that it is after moving to Hollywood, which conventional wisdom holds pedals charisma in lieu of talent, that John Woo cannot find anyone with the charisma to hold a movie together (See Chow Yun-Fat in A Better Tomorrow vs. Nick Cage in Face/Off).
Is it worth seeing? If you have already resigned yourself to a movie and you are choosing between this and the Cat in the Hat, yes. An hour and a half later you'll still be laughing about the anti-marijuana public service announcement in which the stoners drive their car over a girl on a bike.
- Rating
- 3/8
- Reviewer
- Pat Jackson
- Published