Paycheck

Year of release : 2003

Run time : 1h59m

Genre : Sci Fi / Action

Cast : Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman, Aaron Eckhart, Colm Feore, Paul Giamatti, Michael C. Hall

The movie, directed and produced by John Woo, is based on the 1953 short story by Philip K. Dick of the same name .

It's years into the future, when reverse engineer, Michael Jennings analyzes the technology existent on the market and recreates it for his employers with improvements, after which he has his memory erased!

Michael's former college roommate, James Rethrick, now the CEO of Allcom technology company, is offering him a job which he can tell him nothing about until he undergoes a memory marker, so his memory will be erased when the project will be done, 3 years later!

Looking around the premises, he sees the woman he met the night before on whom he thinks he didn't leave such a good impression. This makes him hesitate, as he likes her, but he undergoes the first procedure.

3 years later, he thinks he is 92 million dollars richer, but when he goes to the bank, he hears he forfeited the money in exchange for an envelope with random items.

He doesn't remember anything about it, and doesn't understand why would he do such a thing.

 

Michael is being taken into custody by the FBI who tell him he has access to classified government designs taken by his predecessor, Dekker, who is now dead (by "jumping" from a window).

Michael tells them he doesn't remember anything due to the memory wipe, and when the FBI try to retrieve the information from his head, they can't find anything.

Michael realizes one of the items in the envelope can help him get out of the interrogation room, and uses it.

Rethrick's right hand, who expects him to die, is surprised to see him run away from the FBI's offices.

Hiding from the FBI at a bus station, and hitting someone, his envelope's contents fall on the floor, and he discovers a bus ticket valid for one day!

On the bus this happens again, as a teen steals the diamond ring he took out of the envelope, which leads him to his lawyer's office.

He calls his friend, Shorty, who was the one doing the memory wipes for him until this 3 years job (which Shorty advised him against!), and while talking, he realizes he bought a lottery ticket with the winning numbers!

Michael realizes the items aren't random at all and he sent them to himself as he saw the future!

At the same time, Rethrick realizes he can't use the time machine Michael built, and asks his best man to fix it, but it takes a long time.

I personally enjoyed the movie, it's very fast paced, action packet.

What I didn't enjoy, was John Woo's trademark, the dove coming through the door (inside the Allcom facility !), which we can see in Face / Off too with many doves, and the standoff, with the villain catching the love interest!

Uma Thurman plays the love interest in this one, but she also helps him fight the bad guys in cool ways. I hated her hair which doesn't match her face, and her outfits.

The acting was good.

Ben Affleck won the Golden Raspberry Award (the award for worst acting!) for this role and for Gigli and Daredevil. I thought he was fine!

The visual effects were good.

The movie has been in the works since 1996!

Matt Damon (Ben Affleck's best friend) was given the role of Michael, but he refused, as he didn't want to play another amnesia role.

The movie grossed 117.2 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 60 million.

It received mixed reviews, but Cinema Score audiences graded it a B-.

Rating : Worth a watch !