Paycheck

52 Films in 52 weeks - 1

The premise of this film is excellent. Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) is a techie genius who develops cutting edge technologies for a large payout and agrees to have his mind erased afterwards for security reasons. After a particular three year contract he discovers he has signed away his right to his multi-million payout and has had the wrong personal items returned to him. Of course he has no memory of this, and also discovers people are trying to kill him thus he must piece together the mystery himself. The clues are all there and whilst some are obvious, others are more obscure and this is where the potential lies.

Where the film fails, for me, is that the solving of the clues and the bigger mystery do not turn out to be as exciting or clever as they could have been and the film does not really have you on the edge of your seat. Affleck is too wooden and uncharismatic to be an action hero (and there are quite a few action sequences) and Uma Thurman is wasted as an under used token girlfriend (I think this film would have worked better if they had swaped roles). Other main cast members such as the geeky friend and the corrupt corporate big wigs are quite stereotypical.

In summation, this is an average action flick there are some good parts in it and some weak parts (in the story, the acting, and the whole coming together) which means I have to mark it down. I think the best way to describe this is as a poor man's Minority Report. There are worse action/thriller flicks out there, but there are also plenty that are so much better.

6/10