Paycheck (Review)

paycheck_ver2Paycheck has a plot so similar to that of Total Recall that I cannot be sure it wasn’t adapted from the same Philip K Dick story (and really it’s a testament to my lack of research that I can’t be bothered looking it up myself).

Mike Jennings (Ben Affleck) is a technology wizard, though apparently someone who can’t be bothered coming up with his own ideas. He and his programming sidekick Shorty (Paul Giamatti) pimp themselves out to big companies who find themselves at a competitive disadvantage in the marketplace.

You see it goes like this; Mike is given a breakthrough invention and is locked in a room for two months. In that time he takes the invention apart and works out how it ticks, and often how it can be made differently, cheaper and better. At the conclusion of the two months in isolation Mike emerges to show his employers the results (and the hastily rebadge it and market it as the new improved version.

The strange thing is that in the current market if you take two months to replicate say the iPad, by the time you emerge there’s an entirely new one out anyway. So in essence Mike improves the obsolete…

Once the ‘mission’ is complete Mike has all memory of the product and his research wiped as terms of a non-disclosure agreement to preserve the ‘intellectual property’ of the company – which is a bit rich when you think that this is the same company that needs Mike to steal someone else’s idea in the first place.

When Jimmy (Aaron Eckhart) an old friend emerges to make Mike an offer that will see him wealthy beyond his wildest dreams, Mike is initially reluctant, after all this mission would see him ‘off the grid’ for two whole years, and Mike doesn’t want to lose that much time. (I bet if it was the couple years he spent with J-Lo Ben Affleck would jump at the offer.) The clincher in the deal proves to be working alongside Dr Rachel Porter (Uma Thurman), which is again odd as poor old Mia Wallace now looks like she’s gone 12 rounds with Father Time… and lost badly.

And just like that it’s over. Mike emerges memory wiped to be handed his personal valuables, only an entirely new set of personal valuables that weren’t the ones he gave when the job started.

Mike also emerges to find a bunch of guys who aren’t at all happy with him, most notably the FBI but it seems a line is forming rapidly behind them and running around the block.

Using the most random party bag in history, Mike painstakingly works his way backwards through the two years of absent memories to find what it was that he did and why it is that everyone wants him. Along the way certain events and triggers prompt memories and vague recollections which often prove very timely and handy at crucial points in the story.

And from here it’s another one of those amnesia/coma/black-out/Memento ‘try to find out what the hell is going on while the other guys try to stop you’ pictures.

John Woo was a strange choice as director given his ‘all action’ CV, and indeed I penalised this film for perhaps the most clumsy dove insertion in history (not that there are many nominees in the category, but it’s pretty dodgy and embarrassing when it arrives), however even the action here is cut rate and pretty samey by Hollywood standards. Of particular note is a lengthy car and motorbike chase which frankly defies logic multiple times; either that or two cars mysteriously decided to ram each other for no reason as Mike approached them, and a big truck coincidentally ran through an intersection against the red light only seconds later.

Ultimately Paycheck is just what I thought it was when I named it True to Label a few months back sight unseen, a film that takes a flawed premise and flogs it – and the poor viewer – to death in noisy and unpleasant fashion.

Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. If Paycheck wasn’t based upon the same story then the creators of Total Recall cherry-picked the right short story. If it was then this is very much Total Recall Lite… Now without flavour!

Either way I urge you to stick with the Full Strength Total Recall from 1990.

About OGR

While I try to throw a joke or two into proceedings when I can all of the opinions presented in my reviews are genuine. I don't expect that all will agree with my thoughts at all times nor would it be any fun if you did, so don't be shy in telling me where you think I went wrong... and hopefully if you think I got it right for once. Don't be shy, half the fun is in the conversation after the movie.
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