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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 17.39%
Worth A Look: 50.43%
Average: 21.74%
Pretty Bad: 7.83%
Total Crap: 2.61%
7 reviews, 73 user ratings
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| Payback (1999) |
by Ryan Arthur
"It wouldn't be a Mel movie without a torture scene, now would it?"
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Solidly entertaining...until the end.Mel Gibson plays Porter, a thief who gets doublecrossed by his junkie wife (Deborah Kara Unger) and his sleazeball parter, Val (Gregg Henry). Porter & Val have just swiped a briefcase full of cash from a gang of Asians. Val needs the money to buy his way back into "The Syndicate," an organized crime venture. Porter just wants his cut, 50-50. The briefcase has $140K in it, and Porter wants his $70K. But hold on here, Val needs $130K just to get back into the syndicate. Porter, perhaps a little too late, finds he's been set up.
"Not many people know what their life's worth," Porter says. "I do. Seventy grand. That's what they took from me. And that's what I'm gonna get back." He wants his cut, no more, no less. And as he starts off after Val, Porter realizes he may just have to go through the entire syndicate.
And you know what? He just doesn't give a damn. It's about the principle, a fact lost on the characters Porter meets, who can't understand why he's going to such great lengths for seventy grand.
Payback is the directorial debut of Brian Helgeland, the writer of such flicks as L.A. Confidential and Gibson's own Conspiracy Theory. Helgeland has fashioned a cool looking movie. Set in a nameless city (it was actually filmed in Chicago, so one assumes that's where it happens), Payback has a sort of bluish-green tint to most of the scenes. It's actually quite cool and adds to a sort of noir feel, complete with a kickass soundtrack. It's also another retelling of author Richard Stark (a. k. a. Donald Westlake)'s novel The Hunter, and a pseudo-remake of the Lee Marvin flick Point Blank. The film also has something of a troubled prerelease hype involving Gibson being unhappy with the final cut and having portions reshot.
Porter's mean. He gets the job done, but he's a bad guy. Director (and writer) Helgeland wanted people to root for the bad guy, but not be put off by him. Apparently, Mel didn't like how the character turned out. Helgeland refused to make changes. Mel did anyway, 'cause he's Mel (this is all recounted in a feature article in Premiere magazine. Look for it; good readin'.)
So in this version, (SPOILER AHOY!)a major character lives(END SPOILER). Helgeland's version had a more ambiguous ending. I think I would have prefered the other. It's all too neat for me, and doesn't seem to fit the rest of the film.
Good performances from Gibson, Maria Bello (as Porter's friend Rosie) and James Coburn in a small role, while Henry very nearly steals the show (as does Lucy Alexis Liu as Val's other girl, this one with a thing for pain. A lot of it.). The look and feel of the film are top notch.Better than the Lethal Weapon movies. A pretty good flick.
link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=727&reviewer=7
originally posted: 02/12/99 02:09:34
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OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2006 Austin Film Festival For more in the 2006 Austin Film Festival series, click here.
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USA
05-Feb-1999 (R)
UK
N/A
Australia
04-Mar-1999 (MA)
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