PAYCHECK (2003, Blu-ray released May 19, 2009 – MSRP $29.99)
When I cracked open the Paycheck Blu-ray disc, I had no idea what I was in for. I saw Aaron Eckhart there on the cover. Ok, Two Face, I like him. Uma Thurman. Kill Bill is pretty cool. Ok. Paul Giamatti and Colm Feore? No way! Together? In the same movie? Those two are great! These stars should balance out the bland of The-Affleck, right? Good. So all of these actors I like a lot, in a film by John Woo (who, admittedly has had a rocky Hollywood career) based on a story by the late, great Philip K. Dick. Oh wow. Amazing. This just keeps getting better and better. And then I put the disc in and cried a little bit.
I think Paycheck wanted to be a lot more to a lot more people. And as a result, and is typical of such things, becomes very little to very few. It’s a smart story about smart people, the type that Dick wrote best. Sadly, it’s also one of those stories that found itself ground through the Hollywood meat-machine to become a soulless, gun-toting actioner that disappoints across the board. Ben Affleck plays a guy who just wants a big paycheck and is willing to have his mind wiped to get it. He reverse engineers his client’s competitor’s products and makes newer, better ones in exchange for ridiculous sums of money. But this time, his client’s are jerks and want to kill him. During the time stripped from his memory he was forced to do things that have made him a wanted man. With his clients and the cops on his tail, Ben finds clues that he left for himself, that are intended to lead him to safety.
Everything about this film leads us to believe we’re going to get another Blade Runner or Gattaca but, instead of something imaginative and futuristic, John Woo chose to ground the story in his version of “the world we live in” (read: everyone pulls a gun on everyone else while engaging in pretentious dialogue under a cloud of slow-motion doves). He isn’t interested in science fiction (this is stated directly in the special features) but was convinced to tackle the script by altering the details and bringing the story into the Woo-niverse. I ask you, why adapt a sci-fi story if you don’t care for sci-fi? The result feels hurried and cheap, like a patchwork of styles sewn haphazardly together. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise to learn that this film ostensibly ended Woo’s career in Hollywood.
Paycheck looks like a Canadian TV show – Due South, Forever Knight or Woo’s own Once a Thief. The sets feel cheap, photography uninspired. Not really par for the Woo-course. I wouldn’t say that the disc itself looks bad, quite often it’s fantastic with the occasional handful of soft shots which, I assume are inherent in the source print. But it’s impossible to tell. There was just nothing there on my screen to excite me. What a disappointment.
Despite the mediocre nature of the film, Paramount has put some care into this catalogue release giving us great picture and sound and porting over all the bonus features from the previously released DVD. There’s a surprising wealth of bonus features on the disc including a couple of commentary tracks (one by director, Woo and the other by screenwriter, Dean Georgaris), 2 EPK style featurettes and some deleted scenes.
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