Paycheck
Was 2003 the year Ben Affleck hit rock bottom? While Affleck has been on a recent tear (for examples, see this Wikipedia list) and landed the coveted Batman role in the forthcoming DC universe, his ride to critical acclaim hasn’t been an easy one. Consider his three starring roles from 2003:
- Daredevil: a weak comic-book adaptation, despite a solid cast.
- Gigli: Currently at 6% on Rotten Tomatoes.
- Paycheck
Of the three, I enjoyed Paycheck the most. On paper, Paycheck should have been golden: great cast with a solid group of character actors backing up Affleck and Uma Thurman, top-notch source material (from the author who brought us Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report), and helmed by legendary director John Woo. What could go wrong?
Answer: casting. I like Ben Affleck (He was the bomb in Phantoms), but he was just wrong for the part of Michael Jennings.
Ben Action
Anyone only familiar with Affleck as an acclaimed director, moody supporting actor, and future Batman may have missed the attempt from 1998-2003 to make him an action star. My issue with his action movies is how corny and half-hearted screenwriters tried to shoehorn Everyman characteristics into Affleck. While he may have matured into an Everyman, early-2000s Affleck was too much of a pretty boy to be believable as a nerdy Everyman. Paycheck is no different. Villa Aaron Eckhart at one point says of Affleck’s character: “He’s not a superhero; he’s just an engineer.” Too bad for Eckhart the writer killed this idea of Affleck being “just an engineer” by including a stick-fighting training montage at the beginning of the movie.
Ben Affection
Uma Thurman is one of my factor actors, and was a big reason I watched Paycheck in the first place. Yet she’s largely invisible here, playing second fiddle to Affleck. Watching it again I’m all too aware of how much her character is window dressing, a damsel in distress for the lead to romance and save. Not a real person. Her character could have been played by any number of actresses and the end result would have been the same. It’s amazing that Paycheck came out the same year as Kill Bill, Vol 1, a movie that takes Thurman’s badassery and cranks it to 11. I guess Quentin Tarantino got all the strong female characters, leaving nothing left over for John Woo.
Ben Annoying
Affleck’s career has soared recently, between his acting and directing (looking at you, Argo), which makes me glad he never stopped trying. While I’ve enjoyed many of his recent movies, I realize it’s taken me a while to “warm up” to Affleck. (I had the same reaction to Brad Pitt’s early career.) Paycheck is firmly in Affleck’s Asshole Period, where he plays insufferable pricks determined to remain unlikable no matter how much they’re persecuted.
Despite all its flaws, Paycheck still works as a movie. It’s silly and entertaining, with visuals that still hold up, eleven years later. With a different main cast and a few tweaks to the script it might have reached the level of Philip K. Dick’s other movies, like Blade Runner or Minority Report. As it stands, though, it’s a solidly average movie.
tl;drs
Blank is a blanker version of blank: Paycheck is a poor man’s Minority Report.
Screen credits over/under: Under, although “From the screenwriter of Tomb Raider: the Cradle of Life” isn’t very reassuring.
Recommended if you like: Action/sci-fi genre blending
Better than I expected: The tech still looks good after 10 years, although I chortled when Affleck reverse-engineered a hologram and then told someone about it on a corded phone.
Worse than I hoped: That movie way characters refer to each other by their first names in every dialogue exchange. It’s unnatural.
Paycheck would work better as a(n): miniseries, or a show specifically for Philip K. Dick’s short stories.
Verdict: It’s a decent adaptation of a Phillip K. Dick short story and more entertaining than the recent Total Recall remake.
