Rating: 
Summary: fun movie, good in its category
Review: I don't understand about all the complaints--this is a fun movie, good in its category. Quite dynamic, well paced, and the acting is decent (how much acting can you put in a movie of this category anyway? It's not a Cold Mountain or a Mystic River--it's a sci-fi action thriller). The concept of predicting and changing the future is an old one, but with a good plot, it still can be interesting. I particularly like the moment when our guy first learns how he changed 90 millions for a bagful of everyday items such as hair spray. Pure disbelief, frustration--especially effective when the actor is Ben Affleck whose face always projects cold confidence bordering on arrogance. It's also fun to watch the unravelling of the mystery--how those 20 items gredually reveal their uses one by one.
I think this is an entertaining, neatly done movie of its genre.
The only hole in the plot is that Michael (played by Ben Affleck) had met the woman Rachel (played by Uma) before his memory was erased.He should not have forgotten her so completely.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Story, Bad Acting!
Review: The critics all agreed. "Paycheck," was a bad movie. But what do I have to say about it? I liked it. I like Ben Afflick. I really do. I like the movies that he chooses. I liked "Gigli," alot. I enjoyed "Daredevil." "Chasing Amy," was pretty good, and I loved "Dogma." But this review is about his preformance in "Paycheck." Nothing that he does in the past is going to change how I felt about him in this movie. I thought he was pretty bad in this movie, but he doesn't hold the candle to the preformance of Uma Thurman which was just the worst acting that I ever saw. Her preformance cost the movie a star and a half, and the other half a star was because of the weak, but good preformance of Ben Afflick. The biggest and only problem with this movie was the preformances. I really loved the story. It was just so brilliant and clever, and interesting. It begins in the present year and we are introduced to Michael Jennings who is hired by companies to update current technologies for them. But the deal is that once he does his work for them, they wipe his mind of all memory of him working there. His next client is an old friend of his, Jimmy Rethrick, and it is for three years of work. He relizes that he is not going to miss the three years of something that he is not going to remember, so he says yes. He also says yes because he is going to be working with Racheal Porter, played by Uma Thurman. He also says yes for the 90-something millions dollar paycheck. Three Years Later... He's done. They wipe his memory and he goes to collect his paycheck, when he discovers that he gave up his money in exchange for an envelope containing nineteen everyday items. What I could remember: 1)key card
2)crossword puzzle
3)lighter
4)bullet
5)ring I can't remember the others but those and the other items confuse Micheal, because he can't figure out why he would give up all that money for these stupid items. More problems arise when he is arrested by two agents who demand to know what he has been doing for the past three years because it is a matter of secruity. He escapes from the police, and goes looking for Jimmy. Jimmy is surprised that Micheal is not dead yet and sends Wolfe to go and do the deed. Micheal finds Racheal and together they find out that Micheal left himself the clues to stops something horrible from happening... in the future. The great part about "Paycheck," is that the story, and what happens throughout the film, is go clever and interesting that I was engaged throughout the whole film. I even liked the final twist, or trick, during the last scene of the movie. I only wish that the makers found a better actress to play Racheal then Uma Thurman because I felt that she did a terrible job in it. I thought that she was brilliant in "Kill Bill, Volume One," but she just didn't make the cut in this one. This would have been a perfect film if the actors just worked alot more on their preformances. Aaron Eckhart as Jimmy was good, but Afflick and Thurman really needed some work. I liked it! ENJOY! Rated PG-13 for intense action violence and brief language.
Rating:
Summary: Run of the Mill
Review: How can you not go see a movie directed by John Woo (even if you won't admit to anyone that you turned Hard Boiled off after 10 minutes)? Okay, so I'm a kung fu poser. That's all right, because Paycheck is more of a run-of-the-mill action movie than an artistic, "balletic" John Woo movie (remember when everyone used the word "balletic" to describe Mission Impossible II?). Woo throws in some of his trademarks (a dove, Mexican standoffs, lots of action), but this movie is more Hollywood than Hong Kong. Based on a story by Philip K. Dick (author of the stories that inspired Minority Report and Total Recall), Paycheck has an intriguing setup. Ben Affleck is a reverse engineer who does freelance jobs creating competitive technology for a company (ubiquitously named "Allcom"). At the end of each stint with Allcom, he has his memory wiped clean. He signs on for an eight-figure paycheck on a tour that will take three years of his life and memory. At the point where his three year contract ends, his memory is erased, after which he finds out that his $90 million in stock dividends has been forfeited, and all he is left with is the contents of a manila envelope. Action ensues. The setup for this movie is top notch. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie doesn't quite live up to the promise of the first 30 minutes of the film. Although entertaining, the rest of Paycheck lapses into more predictable Hollywood action fare. This movie is not completely mind numbing, though. Paycheck is reminiscent of old Hitchcock movies, mostly North By Northwest. Affleck is styled to resemble Cary Grant-the swarthy complexion, the dark, slick hairdo, the crisp white shirts and tailored suits. He manages to shed his J-Lo/Gigli baggage for this film and turns in one of his most convincing (and best acted) performances to date. A cold-blooded Colm Feore is the only notable supporting actor in the film, delivering a mean performance as a bad guy. Uma Thurman is ungainly and awkward in her role as Affleck's love interest. Paul Giamatta's role as Affleck's right hand man is inexplicable, as he drops in and out of the story at random, almost as an afterthought. Paycheck is not a Christmas movie. If Paycheck had been released mid-autumn, it would have done moderately well. The studio suits should have realized that the hype surrounding other big movies of the weekend would drown out the weaker pull of this movie. Even if it was directed by John Woo.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome movie!
Review: I loved this movie, one of the best I have seen in a long time. The non stop action and edge of your seat cliff hangers made this movie like a modern day Indiana Jones movie...that's pretty high praise considering the Indiana Jones movies are the best movies to come out of Hollywood!
So, it is NOT a waste of money to see this movie! GO NOW AND SEE IT!
Rating: 
Summary: the payoff sucks
Review: this is another amneisa based movie, but this time it doesnt have Matt Damon in it...no no no it has Ben Affleck in it...what a coinscidence. and get this. Damon was up for the role but he declined saying he already did The Bourne Identity..good for him because this makes the second bad movie Ben Affleck has been in this year..this and Gigli...all in all we get as just about the same thing as any amneisa thriller..someone loses their memory beacause they're too dangerous or they have something important. Eckhart is wasted and Thurman struts her stuff but her being in this after Kill Bill, was a waste and its directed by John Woo..not much from him..same old same old..this si right up there with Impostor..bad
Rating:
Summary: Great Way To Begin 2004
Review: Not being a hugh fan of Ben Affleck, I was skeptical to watch this movie. However, I am extremely glad I did. It was a great way to begin the year. Director John Woo has definately done it again. Great storyline, great special effects, spectacular stunts and a motorcycle chase scene to die for. The acting was first rate and Uma Thurman got the thumbs up as she was instrumental in moving the plot along. She kicked butt with the best of them. The only downside to this entire movie was that Joe Morton did not have the opportunity to play a bigger role.
Rating:
Summary: What's with Uma's hair?
Review: Paycheck is utterly atrocious. Please, please don't waste your hard earned money on this pathetic excuse for a movie. It's an INSULT to people's intelligence. Acting in this movie must have been hardly any work at all! No one had any complicated or lengthy lines to learn that's for sure! The most appalling part of this movie however is (the normally good looking) Uma Thurman's ghastly appearance, especially her hair; did anyone notice how dry, brittle, knotty and yucky it looks? Her face looks so weird. Her skin is so greasy and blotchy like she's having an allergic reaction to something (perhaps to Ben's acting or the claptrap script?). It makes me so annoyed that Bennifer has gotten a cool few million in his account for this tripe. Hey Ben! I hope you spend some of it on some acting lessons or shampoo and deep conditioner for Uma!
Rating: 
Summary: Bland, boring, ridiculous.
Review: I went in to Paycheck with low expectations and it was just as I thought it would be - boring. The basic story is Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) plays a reverse engineer who does work for companies then gets his mind wiped afterwards, just picks up the paycheck and has no idea what he did for the last several months. He meets up with a friend of his, Jimmy Rethrick (played by Aaron Eckhart of the Core and Erin Brockovich), who offers him a job. The catch is that it's going to be a 3 year job and the entire 3 years will be wiped from his memory when its over. He takes the job and afterwards goes to pick up his 92 million dollar paycheck only to find he forfeited all funds and sent himself 19 apparently useless items, that end up being clues and lifesavers that help him figure out what he did the last 3 years that was so bad. The only interesting part about the movie was seeing how each item was used in an interesting way to further the plot. Also starring in the movie as Michael's girlfriend (whom he no longer remembers since his mind was wiped) is Kill Bill's Uma Thurmon (who can do SO much better than this!). The action scenes are just "ok" and very typical John Woo (lots of cars that randomly blow up.. if cars in real life blew up as easily as they do in John Woo films, I would be dead right now!). I did enjoy the BMW motorcycle chase, which was probably the best action sequence of the entire film. The dialogue is horrible as is the casting. Although I get made fun of a lot for it, I do like Ben Affleck and when he's cast right, I think he's a great actor. I think he did just ok in this role. Uma Thurmon is a fantastic actress, but the writing for her part was just horrible. And whoever did her hair needs to find a new job - they made her look absolutely terrible. The film is full of ridiculous events, real forehead slappers. One of the most memorable is when Michael is being questioned by the FBI, who for some reason have him in a chair that revolves around and around and around, and they have the camera moving around it as well, it almost made me dizzy. Then for some reason, one of the FBI agents lights one of the cigarettes from Michael's envelope, which sets off a smoke detector. You'd think these agents would KNOW there are smoke detectors and NOT light a cigarette. Anyways, Michael fortunately has some glasses in his envelope that help him see through the powder fire prevention system that has all the FBI agents bumbling around like idiots because they can't see. (Great system! If there is a fire and this goes off, no one will be able to see! They'll all fumble around like chickens with their heads cut off and eventually die because they can't get anywhere!) The concept of the film is interesting and I'm willing to forgive that most movies involving time travel or "seeing of the future" will have unexplainable plot holes, this one was just poorly done. The ending especially is anticlimactic and just plain BAD. I give it two stars because while the writing was terrible, I did enjoy parts of it (mostly I enjoyed anticipating what each item would be used for).
Rating:
Summary: Bark 5.95
Review: If you've watched the SCI-FI channel for more than a few moments, you've probably noticed that it's the only television network that hypes its night of Giant Crocodile movies as a major television event. It built its reputation on showing the crappiest movies this side of the Atlantic. After watching John Woo's (Face/Off) latest outing I kinda think they should have premiered the thing of Sci-Fi, and not a theater near you. PAYCHECK tells the story of a mild mannered software engineer named Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck). He's hired by huge companies to steal other people's great ideas and make them better. There's a catch though, every time he does this his memory of the processes are blotted out, and he can't remember a thing. He collects a paycheck and goes home none the wiser. When his old pal (Aaron Eckhart, The Core) hires him to do a job. He's left three years later mostly penniless, with a bunch of objects and the FBI after him. So through a bunch of finagling with the objects, a choice meeting with the girl (Uma Thurman, Pulp Fiction), and a series of less than stellar chases, a mystery unfolds that is so convoluted and stupid, you want your money back. Honestly there is a scene near the end where I distinctly saw a sign at a flower nursery that said 'BARK 5.95.' I wished I'd bought the bark, at least I could go home with something, and still had a couple of bucks to buy biblical tracts to give to by unsaved pals. But seriously folks this movie is not 'Good' bad'. It's not even bad. PAYCHECK is downright manure. Its biggest problem is its gimmick. It involves a packing envelope and a bunch of objects. Each object is necessary to move the Jennings into the next scene. For instance, Jennings is in a room being interrogated; one of the objects is a cigarette. This cigarette is lit causing smoke alarms to go off triggering a white powder to fall from the sky. Causing a cloud of white smoke to fill the area. Another object that Jennings has is sunglasses that can see through smoke. So of course he get out alive and the FBI agents are scrambling around in the dark. (To digress no one seems to realize that if this powder fire prevention system was armed in a fire, nobody would be able to see where they were going and they'd probably die, or get seriously injured trying to get out of the building. So much for those great and mighty technological advances. Oh wait I almost forgot where I was.) So anyway these objects are mainly used to steer the plot along. Ben Affleck is not the star of this movie, a crumpled up envelope is. (Not since Tom Hanks had conversations with a volleyball has an inanimate object been so needlessly clutched onto) far more important. This gimmick not only steals any amount of humanity away from these people; it also steals any life or death crises away from the characters. Of course Jennings has to survive so we can see what each of the unrelated objects is used for. On top of that this is the kind of movie with plot holes that can never be explained. Large exhaustive papers could be written on them. In another movie it might be okay, but PAYCHECK wears its holes on its sleeve. Not giving us great action sequence to look at, or interesting characters. So all we worry about throughout the film is what's he gonna use out of the envelope next, and most tragically what the hell happened to Uma Thurman. Remember when she used to be a gothic beauty? She played Venus for heaven's sake. Now she looks like an emaciated Barbara Striesand, who has been living in a trailer park for years. NO offense Uma but what happened, could I take you out for a burger and fries? To make matter worse John Woo still acts like a little boy in film school. He's spends the whole film testing our patience, and then begins to moralize at us. This film has not paid its audience any respect so why should we respect it. Woo has made some fascinating films, PAYCHECK is not one of them Honestly, PAYCHECK should have starred Dolph Lundgren, and had it's world premiere in the discount bin at Wal-Mart. Unfortunately it was visited on a theater near you. Before you lay down your hard-earned cash to look at Ben Afflecks paycheck. Go over to your local flower nursery and get yourself some bark. Trust me you'll have a better time.
Rating:
Summary: Void of most value.
Review: John Woo's "Paycheck" takes its intriguing "Remember the Future" premise from a Phillip K. Dick story and turns it into a rather humdrum, by-the-books action movie with a terrible, terrible ending that feels like it was tacked on to the final reel. Trying to echo "Minority Report," "Paycheck," with the exception of one twist, instead echoes every movie with a chase scene about a wrongly-accused guy running from the law. Yeah, it's that boring. Our generic hero in this one is Ben Affleck, who seems bored and uninspired in his performance as a "reverse engineer" who steals and copies trademark-protected programs. Early in the film, when Affleck creates a program involving a portable porn star, the audience is shown that he has his memory erased after breaking copyright law for companies so, that way, he can't testify against them. (As a side note, Paul Giamatti, playing Affleck's brain-erasing sidekick, should REALLY stop taking these parts. I mean, after revealing his genius in AMERICAN SPLENDOR, he shouldn't do this wacky sidekick kind of work anymore. His scenes are PAINFUL - only because it feels like he's pandering.) After that early set of scenes and pointless, chemistry-deficient scenes introducing his character to the capable-of-much-better Uma Thurman's wacky biologist love-interest, Affleck agrees to work with Aaron Eckhart's character, an evil and slimy millionaire. Once the real plot of the movie kicks in, a memoryless Affleck tries to figure out how trinkets he sent himself in his past will help him survive the future. And he knows the future because the evil millionaire had him build a machine to see it. If this movie had been at all inspired, it would've cast Eckhart as the guy wrongly accused and Affleck as the smarmy, evil billionaire. The actors would've better fit the roles, and the film would've, frankly, been more interesting. If this movie actually cared enough about its plot to create an interesting film around it, as "Minority Report" did, then there would be more to say. But there isn't, aside from the usual. As in every John Woo film, things blow up. There are car chases. People get shot, and white doves show up for no reason whatsoever. (What's with the doves, anyway???) "Paycheck" is no "Minority Report." It's no "Kill Bill." It has all the resonance of "Daredevil." And you won't need a memory-altering machine to forget it.
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