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Paycheck
Paycheck had all the elements required for dodginess. A movie about seeing the future, starring Ben Affleck (who, after playing a blind superhero has dodgy credibility), Uma Thurman (who pretty much only has dodgy credibility) and Aaron Eckhart as the bad guy (yes, he can play sleazy snake oils salesman as well as cute and lovable) is definitely off to a good start, but could it live up to it’s promise?
Well, the short answer is yes, but not completely. There were explosions, car chases and fight scenes, but other than the fact that Michael Jennings could see the future and leave himself clues to prevent his death, the rest was pretty believable as far as movies go. Trying to figure out which personal item was going to be used next, and how it would be used was fun though.
Despite being directed by John Woo, and containing his usual gun battles and explosions, there weren’t any great slow motion action scenes that are his trademark. The action was alright and the plot was marginally intriguing, and yet it felt like there was something lacking. Maybe I was just expecting more from the film, after all, it was based on a Philip K Dick short story, so the source material was certainly good enough.
Dodginess
There was something lacking, which prevented this one from getting full score on the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man scale and it ends up with a respectable 4. In a movie about seeing the future, you would expect the dodgiest moment to be something that had changes from the vision. Failing that, you would expect it to at least have something blowing up. The entire lab getting destroyed in an explosion because of a bullet being shot into the Hydrogen tanks used for cooling, almost qualified. However, the dodgiest moment has got to be the climactic showdown indoors between the hero and the villain, complete with lightning courtesy of a weather machine. Some conventions are just too strong to ignore.
Rewatchability Rating
The plot twists in this movie are similar in nature to those seen in The Usual Suspects, and that does, unfortunately, impact the rewatchability of the film. Apart from the future seeing, the rest of the film is fairly standard. This means that while rewatching it is possible, you do need to let some time go past between viewings so that you can forget what each of the items are used for. Paycheck rates a 2 on the rewatchability index.
Most Memorable Quote
This was a surprisingly easy choice to make as far as the most memorable quote goes. “Michael Jennings is not a super agent, he’s an engineer.” We all know that every engineer wanted to be a super agent, they just didn’t have the prerequisite lust for bloodshed and intrigue.
Final Thoughts
Paycheck is a fun action film and is definitely worth watching, although maybe not worth owning. But if you’ve got everything else, this one will be a suitable addition to any dodgy movie collection.