Paycheck

Paycheck (2003)

Runtime: 119 minutes

Directed by: John Woo

Starring: Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart, Uma Thurman, Paul Giamatti, Colm Feore

From: Paramount/Dreamworks

Or: why are there many movies now on Amazon Prime streaming mislabeled as “UHD”?

That was one reason why I decided at the last minute to check out this motion picture for the first time. The other was a common trope: discussion on a messageboard. After it was brought up a few days ago, last night two people were watching it at the same time and offered various pithy comments about it. It only felt natural... but yes, if you are a Prime member and haven't noticed, for some reason there are many free for Prime member titles that are listed as UHD but actually aren't 4K at all. Heck, I found a horror obscurity labeled as such that was actually standard definition. While not 100 percent the case, typically you can either look to see if the movie can be rented at 4K or if “HDR” is also listed as being available. The whole thing is just bizarre; thankfully I've never noticed any issues with Netflix or Disney + with content labeled as 4K Dolby Vision.

As for Paycheck, John Woo wished for this to be a Hitchcockian mystery of old, and this story loosely based on a short tale written by Philip K. Dick could have been one of those. Instead, the end result was sci-fi nonsense which eventually had some of the expected Woo flourishes. The beginning itself is a sign of trouble: a goofy segment involving a 3D computer monitor and an obviously dubbed Krista Allen. Ben Affleck plays a reverse engineer who is able to rip off products and not have his employers get sued because... they wipe part of his memory each time!? I am rather skeptical of this but perhaps I'm wrong. His boss Aaron Eckhart asks him to do a special 3 year mission and once that ends in the far-flung look of '07, things go wrong and using innocuous clues, attempts to put the puzzle back together.

The movie it utter nonsense and you don't want to scrutinize the plot; the key plot point revolves around technology that is not only absurd, there is no real in-depth discussion of how it works. I don't need Neil deGrasse Tyson to explain why it is scientifically dubious. Affleck didn't seem to be the best person for the role and Uma Thurman, it was not a career highlight. Then again I don't blame her for the PAYCHECK role or not a tip-top performance as this was right after the Kill Bill films, where it was a long shoot and oh yeah, she was seriously hurt in a car crash which never should have happened. Better in their roles were Eckhart and Paul Giamatti.

The criticisms noted, the movie wasn't horrible or a miserable painful 2 hour experience. Paycheck was never boring so it was an easy watch. It was disposable entertainment that isn't good enough to me not to forget (and don't do a drinking game based off of phrases related to “don't you remember” or “I don't remember”) yet isn't bad enough to be a memorable disaster either. The score from John Powell is deserving of a better picture. The overall film is trash which at least inspired laughs; still, I wish Hollywood used Woo better and he would have been able to make an actual Hitchcockian tale. Three last points:

The movie was obviously DNR'ed for Blu release. It probably would look a lot more appealing in an actual 4K transfer... but who the hell is clamoring for that to happen?

After watching this, I had the urge to rewatch such things as T2, Total Recall, North by Northwest and Minority Report.

Another sign I would be in trouble early on: a newspaper headline is shown and in a mistake I see all the time online, “it's” was used instead of “its”. That made me shake my head.