Paycheck (2003)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

John Woo

Writers (WGA):

Philip K. Dick (short story)
Dean Georgaris (screenplay)

Release Date:

25 December 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Thriller | Action | Mystery

Tagline:

Remember the future.

Plot:

What seemed like a breezy idea for an engineer to net him millions of dollars, leaves him on the run for his life and piecing together why he's being chased.

Plot Keywords:

Engineer | Computer Engineer | FBI | Destiny | Amnesia

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Ben Affleck	...	Jennings
Aaron Eckhart	...	Rethrick
Uma Thurman	...	Rachel
Paul Giamatti	...	Shorty
Colm Feore	...	Wolfe
Joe Morton	...	Agent Dodge
Michael C. Hall	...	Agent Klein
Peter Friedman	...	Attorney General Brown
Kathryn Morris	...	Rita Dunne
Ivana Milicevic	...	Maya-Rachel
Christopher Kennedy	...	Stevens
Fulvio Cecere	...	Agent Fuman
John Cassini	...	Agent Mitchell
Callum Keith Rennie	...	Jude - Guard
Michelle Harrison	...	Jane

Also Known As:

La paye (Canada: French title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for intense action violence and brief language.

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Switzerland:14 (canton of Zurich) | Iceland:14 | Malaysia:18SG | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:14 | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Finland:K-15 | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Ireland:15 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of the Grisons) | UK:12A (original rating) | UK:12 (video rating) (2004) | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Burrard SkyTrain Station, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

DreamWorks SKG

Trivia:

Just before Michael starts his second project he comments on the Red Sox making the World Series. Although this film was released in 2003 - it is set in 2004 and accurately predicts the Red Sox making the World Series, although it incorrectly predicts that they would lose.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Michael starts his tenure at Allcom he is forced to hand over all the personal items he's carrying, including his watch, as he won't be able to take them inside with him. Three years later a watch is given back to him in the envelope as part of his paycheck. When he claims during interrogation by the FBI that none of the items are his, the watch is removed from the envelope and fastened back on his wrist to show that the tan lines match. However, the watch that was given back to him wasn't the watch he initially had. He could have been wearing it the entire time he was working on the project, up until the time he switched the items in the envelope (he would have needed a new watch, since his old one was confiscated when he entered the building).

Quotes:

[first lines]
Holographic Woman: It's time to wake up... and get a life. We live in a 3-dimensional world. Until now, the world of computing has been a flat world, consisting of 2-dimensional imagery. Now, through the use of exclusive breakthrough technology, ARC has made it possible for you to get a life. A-Life, where we can work and play in a lifelike world of 3-dimensional reality. A-Life, the living monitor.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in From Hong Kong to Hollywood: The Making of John Woo (2004) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Dream a Little Dream of Me

It's like a 50s Sci-fi tale.

This movie questions playing god with technology. In this case, the technology provides the ability to forsee the future. Ben Affleck plays Michael Jennings, a pretty suave computer engineer who hires out to various technology companies seeking to improve their product. His work is so promising that they require that his memory be erased, I suppose, so as not to leak trade secrets. With the expectations of a lavish paycheck, Jennings is willing to give up three years of his life to work on a top secret project. Except, when the project is complete and the memory erased, he runs into the snag--being out of cash and on the run from a fleet of wild gunmen hired by the company.

It's a good story, and one reminscent of a good 50s episode of the Twilight Zone. You'll even notice some old noir camera effects such as Jennings staring into a mirror with the camera at a cocked angle as he tries to figure out his dilemma. The story is also reminscent of Memento, in that a person with no memory who has left himself clues must solve the mystery.

I was reluctant to find good in this movie before I had even seen it because of two reasons: Ben Affleck and John Woo. John Woo, though working with a good story, lays on thick those couple of minute action scenes with everyone coming so darn close (yet so far away) from getting their heads chopped off by flying cars and all that mess. It really wasn't pivotal to the story, nor to the mood, but understandably, it is the director's trademark. Ben Affleck was pretty much inconsequential in his role as Michael Jennings, playing the same charming nice guy character he always portrays in nearly every role he's been in. Uma Thurman, as Jennings girlfriend and Watson to Jenning's Sherlock, got some cheers from the theater, as most of her quick kung fu leg work and perfectly timed reactions manages to knock out a few of their armed adversaries.

But, despite the flack that Affleck gets, or misdirected Woo's (which is pretty much any John Woo film...at least according to Homer Simpson), this is a pretty good science fiction story. Especially, given that somewhat undermined, but valid, examination of the technology race and what it could mean for the future of mankind.