(Review originally written at 22 October 2005)
"Paycheck" is by no means a bad movie but it fails to become above average.
There are several problems with this movie. One is the story. The concept of the movie really isn't that bad and actually is quite good, original, mysterious and tense. The execution of it all is however done very uninteresting. The movie rips-off a lot of other movies (mainly "Minority Report" of course) and it doesn't even try to hide this. Not even Woo's style is enough to make this movie above average.
Another problem of the movie is Ben Affleck. Now, I'm not a Ben Affleck hater but he simply isn't much of an action hero, at least not in this movie. He also has absolutely no chemistry on screen with Uma Thurman who plays his love interest in this movie. Affleck is simply terribly miscast.
The villains are also disappointing. There are too many evil villainous characters and it's not always clear who is the 'big-villain' of the movie.
The story is filled with missed opportunities and fails to become interesting or as mysterious as I could had been.
The action is good. To be honest, I wish that there would be more action movies with sequences like in this movie. There is no doubt that John Woo is a fantastic action director. Watching a Woo movie is always a feast for the action movie lovers, "Paycheck" is no exception. It has some fantastic action moments but in this case action sequences alone are not enough to save the movie.
It's a somewhat enjoyable action/science-fiction flick but it misses the depth that this kind of movie needs.
6/10
There are several problems with this movie. One is the story. The concept of the movie really isn't that bad and actually is quite good, original, mysterious and tense. The execution of it all is however done very uninteresting. The movie rips-off a lot of other movies (mainly "Minority Report" of course) and it doesn't even try to hide this. Not even Woo's style is enough to make this movie above average.
Another problem of the movie is Ben Affleck. Now, I'm not a Ben Affleck hater but he simply isn't much of an action hero, at least not in this movie. He also has absolutely no chemistry on screen with Uma Thurman who plays his love interest in this movie. Affleck is simply terribly miscast.
The villains are also disappointing. There are too many evil villainous characters and it's not always clear who is the 'big-villain' of the movie.
The story is filled with missed opportunities and fails to become interesting or as mysterious as I could had been.
The action is good. To be honest, I wish that there would be more action movies with sequences like in this movie. There is no doubt that John Woo is a fantastic action director. Watching a Woo movie is always a feast for the action movie lovers, "Paycheck" is no exception. It has some fantastic action moments but in this case action sequences alone are not enough to save the movie.
It's a somewhat enjoyable action/science-fiction flick but it misses the depth that this kind of movie needs.
6/10
No comments: