Rating: 
Summary: Man you are mean!!!
Review: Gibson stretched his acting wings, yet again, with his first bad guy...well sort of bad guy role. I saw this on big screen and believe me, small screen is where this one belongs....it's, just a little hard to take when Mel is getting is toes hammered on the big screen or when the filthy quasi-doctor is removing the bullets from Mel.....argh!!!!!I love black humour, and this is about as black as you get...yet, somehow...you short of grin and bear it. Mel is a good bad guy...he set up a robbery and just wants his share that was stole from his jealousy wife and partner. James Colburn puts in a wonderful performance - again - and the whole cast is marvellous repellant....... You will watch this film, and wonder why you enjoyed it.... This is NOT a typical Mel Gibson film, so even if you love Mel you might have a hard time with this film. If you don't like off the wall, really grim, black humour, this one is NOT for you.
If you have a weak stomach, it is most definitely for NOT NOT NOT for you. However, is you like Pulp Fiction or films of that ilk...then you will enjoy Mel's walk on the wild side.
Rating: 
Summary: A Stinker
Review: I love Mel Gibson films and I usually love shoot-em-up adventures, but this one fails miserably. While there is plenty of action, there is no discernable plotline and the violence has no purpose beyond a vehicle for Mel Gibson on a rampage and a job for the special effects guys. There are very few films I have ever truely disliked, but my husband and I were in seperate theaters, and we both walked out on it and demanded a refund.
Rating:
Summary: One of Gibson's Best
Review: Some of Mel Gibson's are just dull. This picture starts out as one of those but there's something that keeps you watching and the ending makes it all worth the watch.
Rating: 
Summary: Great action movie
Review: Really enjoyed this movie. No oscar performances here but, It is really a quality crime movie that is very entertaining. Worth taking a look at.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome, I was totally ready to root for the bad guy
Review: I think the guy who gave Payback 2 stars doesn't know good movies. Payback was sooo cool. Mel gibson (my favorite actor) rocked in this film. I could see it over and over again.
Rating:
Summary: 5 stars all the way -- great action suspense
Review: All I can say is WOW! This movie is about a bad guy getting revenge on bad guys. Not a theme I would normally give 5 stars to, but the movie is so well done that you find yourself rooting for the main character Porter (played by Mel Gibson) during all the heart pounding, palm-sweating action.
The movie opens with a severely injured Porter getting bullets removed from his back. After he recuperates he goes back to the streets to get his revenge on the people who did this to him. In the form of a very well done flashback about a robbery with his partner in crime and a wife who drives the getaway car, you learn what brought him to this point. Well, his best buddy has managed to turn his wife against him, so when they go to an isolated area to split up the money he is double-crossed by his wife and his friend, shot in the back and left for dead. Hence begins the movie with all its action. Porter decides that it is literally payback time and goes after his friend, then after the Organization (the mob) to get his money. He manages to get every bad guy in town ticked off at him. What follows is a thrill ride of action and minor plot twists that leave you breathless!
I won't say more about this movie since I don't want to give anything away. Buy this movie. You'll enjoy it more than you realize. And guys ... you're girlfriends may need coaxing to watch this with you, but by the time it's over they'll be just as transfixed by it as you are.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor remake of an older better film!
Review: Payback is based on the 1967 film, Point Blank. However, Payback doesn't even come close to the original film. In the original film of Point Blank the actors put their all into their roles, here it just seems to me that they are just going through the motions. I really didn't care if the Mel Gibson character (Porter) got his money or not. While in Point Blank I was actually rooting for the Lee Marvin character (Walker). The villains in Payback are terrible. The actors playing them again just seem to be going through the motions in order to collect a paycheck. William Devane, James Coburn, and Kris Kristofferson were wasted in this film. I didn't believe for a moment that they were crime bosses. The original film, Point Blank, used the talents of Carol O'Conner, Keenan Wynn, John Vernon, and Lloyd Bochner to perfection. A major problem with remakes of old films is that the producers and/or directors feel they have to add a lot of violence in the form of shootouts, explosions, car chases, and vulgar dialog to make up for a poor script. This film needs all of that in order to make up for the actors dead performances. The only salvation of this film are the women. Lucy Liu and Maria Bello are very pleasant on the eyes. I'm going to sum up my review by saying that if you want a no-brain shoot 'em up action film, Payback will deliver. However, if you want a tense, gripping, and intelligent film view the original film, Point Blank.
Rating:
Summary: Oh Man!
Review: A thug haters type of movie (meaning if you despise felons and thugs as I do--you will love this movie!). Mel stars as the quintessential thug. A 'baddie' who is ripped off by an even 'badder baddie' and this badder baddies adjoining syndicate. I watched this movie and I thought to myself...'self, this is why I go to the movies to escape the cold cruel hard meanness of todays world'. This is escapism--in the theatre--at its very finest. Enjoy this movie as entertainment (too bad many parents in todays society don't teach their offspring not to emulate and grow up to be one of these types of creeps), for the movie is very well done in the portrayal of thugs and 'one reaps what one sows-isms'.
Rating:
Summary: An explosion!!
Review: Set in the dark world of drug runners, prostitutes, thieves, and mercenaries. In the middle of a job, Mel Gibson is double crossed by his partner, shot in the back by his wife, robbed, and left for dead. When he returns he let's loose the devil on a quest to regain his honor and his money. This movie is vibrantly new since the hero is no longer forced into doing heroic deeds like every other hero in Hollywood, but merely does what will get him to his goal. In fact, none of the characters have been made by the cookie cutter we so commonly see in Hollywood. This movie is a wild ride of unpredictable twists and turns, that hit you right out of the black. But best of all, the pace; this movie jumps from action scene to action scene in one long heart beat, but still brings in the rage and passion of the characters that drive you and the action to the final explosion. What are you waiting for? Buy it!
Rating: 
Summary: Fun, but too simply violent to be funny
Review: Mel Gibson plays a petty thief named Porter who is nearly killed by his double-crossing partner in the first few minutes of "Payback". Turning Porter's junky-wife (Debora Unger from "The Game") against him, Val fills Porter's back with lead and leaves with both of their halves of loot taken in a brazen daylight robbery. Left for dead, Porter manages to make it to an underworld doctor who removes the bullets, and now stalks the streets of Chicago out for both revenge and his half of the loot. Unfortunately, Val used the money to buy his way into "The Syndicate" - a criminal empire that controls the city - meaning that Porter will have to face them as well. Though the money is ridiculously minimal to the hardcore criminals of the Syndicate (and Porter constantly has to remind everybody that he's only up for half of it), Porter finds himself beset by a horde of small-time crooks convinced he can get his cash back. The script tosses in two crooked cops and rival gangs for good measure - one of them led by Lucy Liu as an oriental dominatrix who feeds Val's hardcore needs. Gibson manages to survive being tossed by each of these characters. The running joke is that Gibson is unstoppable yet, even once he's turned circumstances in his direction (after being shot, run over or otherwise pummeled), he only insists on his half of the stolen loot. (He constantly corrects those who state the higher sum, shocking them that he'd go to the trouble for a sum less than Coburn's character's dry-cleaning bill). Meeting up with Maria, a lover turned hi-class hooker (Porter's wife is dispatched early by an OD), Porter schemes to revenge himself on Val, outwit the other crooks on his case and get his money. "Payback" is fun, but not as much as it's supposed to be or thinks it is. It's worth a rental even though the film looses its funny edge and becomes too dark to sustain its comic tone by the end. Though Gibson works out a funny groove of Porter viz the army of hoods, the flick's grim outlook overwhelms by the 2nd half when Porter just shoots his way past anybody he feels stands between him and his cash - including William Devane as the syndicate's enforcer in chief. Devane's execution highlights how the film just trashes the talent assembled to beef it up - including Kris Kristofferson and Coburn as the Syndicate's bosses, William Paymer as another contestant for the stolen 70 grand and John Glover as a lower-level enforcer. The grimmness even overwhelms a scene which riffs on Gibson's "Ransom" (Porter planned an elaborate kidnapping of the Kristofferson character's son, a plan apparently unsuccessful: Porter is bound and tortured when Kristofferson shows him the ransom in cash - take a good look, cuz that's as close as you'll get to it.) In short, fun, but not as much as it could've been.
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