Payback

Rating:
Summary: Get ready to root for the bad guy
Review: I saw "Payback" because I am somewhat of a Mel Gibson fan. The movie, which is a remake of the Lee Marvin thriller "Point Blank," falls far short of the original film; "Payback" is nowhere near as intelligent and dazzling as the Marvin movie. Nevertheless, every action movie fan should see this movie at least once.

Robber Mel Gibson is shot and left for dead by his wife and best friend after a heist. Gibson survives and seeks both revenge and stolen money that he feels rightfully belongs him.

Mel Gibson saves this picture. In "Payback," there are no good guys(Only murderers, thugs, crooks, and gangsters). Mel Gibson's Porter is the quintessential antihero. Porter is a crook and a murderer; he would even steal from a homeless person. Neverthless, Gibson takes an unlikeable character like Porter and has the audience cheering for him. Gibson is the ONLY present day American action movie star who comes close to matching Steve McQueen. He has genuine acting talent and charisma.

Every Mel Gibson fan and action movie buff should see "Payback" at least once.

Rating:
Summary: Good. Not as good as RANSOME...but...
Review: I watched this one five years ago and the truth is I did not like that much. RANSOM is a very suspenseful film. Like I do with all my movie reviews, I'm not gonna tell you the plot or what's it about, but I can tell you this:
If you like those kind of movies in which revenge is involved, than I think this one's for you. I don't like most of those revenge movies like THE PUNISHER. But, overall it was pretty good and suspenseful.

Rating:
Summary: The Dead Should Stay That Way
Review: Thanks to his work on films like the Oscar winning LA Confidential and the cool medieval actioner A Knight's Tale, I became a fan of Brian Helgeland. As I have worked my way through the rest of his filmography though, I was suprised to discover that, other than the two standouts I mentioned, most of his other work seems...lacking. Despite having mega-star Mel Gibson as the movie's anti-hero, Payback, ends up being a generic, by the numbers film.

Since the cash was already stolen by other thieves, Porter (Gibson) and Val (Gregg Henry) figure that if they steal it, they're in the clear. When the time comes around to split the take, Val makes three grave mistakes: he takes Porter's cut of the loot; he takes Porter's wife Lynn (Deborah Kara Unger) and then tries to take Porter's life. Trouble is, Porter didn't die, and now wants revenge. He wants his cut and doesn't care what he has to do to get it. Now, everyone in the city's criminal underworld, have Porter's cross-hairs trained on them. Porter turns to former girlfriend Rosie (Maria Bello) for help in tracking down his enemies.

Adapted from author Donald E. Westlake's novel, entitled The Hunter, the Payback script penned by Helgeland and Terry Hayes has little suprise to it. The cynical movie watcher will surely groan at the way things play out. As the director, Helgeland tries to be cool and gives the film a sterile metalic look, bleeding out most of the color--nothing new--it's kind of distracting. Gibson is O.K. but let's face it, he could do this role with one hand tied behind his back, hopping up and down on one foot..eyes closed of course. I have always had a bit of a thing for Bello...but she's wasted here, as are the likes of James Colburn, David Paymer, and Bill Duke.

The DVD extras, like tke film they support, are devoid of much subtance. A hollow behind-the-scenes featurette, with cast and crew using doublespeak to talk up Payback, and two theatrical trailers are all you get.

I give Payback two stars for Gibson, who does the best he can in a role he has done before, in Lethal Weapon.

Rating:
Summary: that's just mean
Review: dark and dreary, perfect for a revenge movie. payback was shocking from the gruesome scenes such as the hammering of 'piggies' and the ripping of the rings out of the heroine dealer's nose. this movie was great. porter is the man who has almost nothing to lose and won't stop no matter what the cost to get his 70,000 dollars, not 130,000. lucy liu looked great as a pain loving 'working girl'. i just loved how porter made people listen who didn't want to listen. the lack of color adds to the effective crime life scenerio. after all is done, you find it hard not to root for this antihero.

Rating:
Summary: You got a light?
Review: Considering thirty percent of this movie had to be reshot when Brian Helgeland was replaced as director, you'd expect there to be all sorts of continuity problems, especially as the re-shoots resulted in a delay of almost one year, because Mel Gibson was committed to Lethal Weapon 4 right after principal photography ended. But the film turns out pretty well in the end.

Despite the fact Mel Gibson isn't ageing too well, since his days as Mad Max, and the constant cigarette in hand (I was told I wouldn't like this movie due to this), if you can ignore the cigarette, then the film passes quickly. If you want to call Mel all the names under the sun because he's stupid to be ruining his looks by smoking, then you'll probably want to punch the screen every time he smokes. I dread to think how many cigarettes he smoked during production. And poor Maria Bello had to kiss him. Ugh.

The use of guns in this movie is quite shocking, every character seems to have at least one gun, and while Lucy Liu (credited as Lucy Alexis Liu) evens it out by doing her high kicks, it's just pure violence at its best. (Including some very surprising scenes between Lucy Liu and the bad guy - that's supposed to turn people on, beating the daylights out of each other?! Right) There are some scenes, especially towards the end, which will definitely give you flashbacks to Braveheart. You expect Mel to yell "Freedom" at any moment! Think this little piggy went to market, and you'll be curling your toes, until they're meeting your ankles.

In the first few minutes of the movie, he has stolen from a 'crippled' Vietnam veteran, pickpocketed a man's wallet, stiffed a waitress, and used the said credit card to buy a nice fancy suit, a gun, and dinner. Later, when his meal is over, a waiter informs him the credit card he is trying to pay with has been canceled. "Nonsense," Porter says. "Try it again." The waiter then leaves and so does Porter. (Can't they trace him?) Mel does some voice over in the movie, in one of the most sadistic voices I've ever heard.

The movie's very dark, and it's a surprise to see such a cheery character as Maria Bello (best known to me as Lil from Coyote Ugly, although the long hair put me off from recognising her). Mel Gibson is pretty good in this, despite the smoking, but I'll let him off with that. He's obviously gonna suffer in later years. Worthwhile getting this movie, as long as you don't get offended by violence, and Lucy Liu getting smacked around.

Rating:
Summary: Average
Review:
Mel Gibson takes revenge on his former partner-in-crime in an over-the-top and blackly comic noir melodrama.

Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable 90's noir film with a 70's edge to it
Review: This 1999 noir owes alot to its genre predecessors that were prevalent during the late 60's and most of the 70's. Films like Eastwood's Dirty Harry films, Charles Bronson's Death Wish series, and especially Lee Marvin's Point Blank which Payback was a worthy remake.

For a first time director, writer Brian Helgeland uses every rule set by past noir films to create Payback. We have a colorful rogues gallery of heavies. Some range from your non-typical femme fatale/dominatrix gangstress Pearl played ably and with relish by Lucy Lui to the three leaders of the so-called "Outfit": Kris Kristofferson, William Devane and James COburn. These three actors eat up the time they have on the screen and combined the coolness factor of Payback increases threefold. A special mention of Coburn's Mr. Fairfax character has to be made. His portrayal of the flamboyant gangster makes for alot of funny lines whenever he's on.

Another noir plot staple Payback relies on was the revenge factor of the main character against those who he thinks has done him an unforgivable wrong. It's this role that Gibson excels and holds the entire film from falling into self-parody. Mel Gibson is very underrated as an actor and Payback will probably not change that, but if one looked closely his portrayal of Porter throughout the film is very subtle and at the same time direct. We know that Porter is the good guy and Gibson playing him we're convinced from the start, but throughout the film Porter's actions and behavior doesn't distinguish him apart from those other rogues in the film. We may cheer for Porter, but we inwardly we also cringe at some of the stuff he does and does so without hesitation. To Porter what he does is a means to an end. Porter's the lesser of the evils in Payback. Gibson's performance is convincing and believable.

Lastly, Payback's dialogue sounds like it could've been lifted from an old Bogart and Cagney noir. Helgeland's script is very lean and memorable. It seems that almost every character gets a chance to have a small exposition about the life of crime. Where L.A. Confidential (Helgeland also wrote the script for that fine film) was a serious take on the noir genre, Payback has an almost tongue-in-cheek fun angle to it. From the look of the cast and their performance it shows they're having fun.

Payback is not the greatest film out there and not even the best and greatest i nthe last 20 years, but it is a fun and enjoyable romp through the noir world that only exists in detective and mystery novels and especially on celluloid.

Rating:
Summary: Mel Gibson's Payback
Review: "Payback" is a funny dark comedy and crime thriller at the same time. Mel Gibson plays Porter, a theif who has sworn vengence against his best friend (Gregg Henry) and his wife (Deborah Unger) for ripping off his share of heist money and leaving him for dead. He returns, enlists the aid of a hooker friend, and takes on the entire New York mob (called the Outfit). All of the men in the movie are bad guys, it's just that some are worst guys. Mel Gibson has never been funnier, even though he never cracks a smile through the whole movie. His delivery is dead pan, and that makes it so much funnier. Gibson's Porter (there is no first name) is tough. Porter has a kind of street smart that allows him to survive, much like a fox in the woods, always having the bad guys fall into their own traps. Lucy Liu is also pretty good as an extream S&M dominatrix. The three main bad guys are old hands at being bad. Kris Kristofferson is the head of the Outfit, Bronson. James Coburn is funny as the older man, Fairfax. And William Devane as Carter, a slimy day supervisor is funny at how casual he orders rather grisly murders. The violence is gruesome (though not exactly "Friday the 13th" level), but it is done in a "Three Stoges" extreamity that's kind of comic (although the torture scene at the end is not at all funny, I'll never look at Three Little Pigs the same way). I loved this movie, it has action, comedy, and a melodramatic scene that is out of this world. "Payback" is based on Richard Stark's "The Hunter", the first Parker novel. The movie has the correct feel that jibes with the book.

Rating:
Summary: PAYBACKS ARE HELL MEL
Review: Having Mel Gibson play such a lowdown creature as Porter is original enough in its own right. The fact that he plays him so well and that we root for him only goes to show the magnetic power of this charismatic performer. Briskly helmed by Brian Helgeland (he'll win an Oscar someday!), this flick moves like lightning and offers Gibson a chance to off Gregg Henry, William Devane, David Paymer, James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson. That's no small feat. The atmosphere is perfect, the musical score sublime, the overall effect cheesily gratifying. Maria Bello is fine as Gibson's love interest, too, and we can't overlook Porter the Dog. An involving and entertaining noir film.