Synopsis
Michael Jennings is a genius who's hired – and paid handsomely – by high-tech firms to work on highly sensitive projects, after which his short-term memory is erased so he's incapable of breaching security. But at the end of a three-year job, he's told he isn't getting a paycheck and instead receives a mysterious envelope. In it are clues he must piece together to find out why he wasn't paid – and why he's now in hot water.
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Cast
- Ben AffleckMichael Jennings
- Uma ThurmanRachel Porter
- Aaron EckhartJames Rethrick
- Paul GiamattiShorty
- Colm FeoreJohn Wolfe
- Joe MortonAgent Dodge
- Michael C. HallAgent Klein
- Kathryn MorrisRita Dunne
- Claudette MinkSara Rethrick
- Peter FriedmanAttorney General Brown
Recommendations
- 70
The Hollywood Reporter
A nifty science-fiction twist on the old amnesia plot where a guy spends most of a movie trying to remember what he did and why everyone is after him. - 60
Village Voice
Woo's film is in some ways closer to Dick's -- and his own -- pulp roots, and if he lazily quotes himself (and, inexplicably, Aldrich's "Kiss Me Deadly") once too often, he at least gets loose, spirited performances from his cast -- Uma's post-"Kill Bill" gravitas notwithstanding. - 58
Entertainment Weekly
The amazing thing about John Woo's steely, impersonal adaptation of Philip K. Dick sci-fi story about a tech genius whose memory is erased...is how it vanishes in front of our eyes even as we watch it. - 50
Chicago Tribune
Unfortunately, after watching Paycheck, you may wish you had the picture's gimmickry at your disposal, so you could erase your own memory of it. - 50
New York Post
Woo has never been particularly good at human stuff, and to the extent that Paycheck is, or should be, a love story, it feels forced. - 40
Variety
Uninspired star turns from Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman suggest something less than full belief in this quickly forgettable thriller. - 40
Los Angeles Times
The sort of noisy nonsense that Woo's earlier action movies made irrelevant, but alas not extinct. - 38
ReelViews
With a script that waffles between being hilariously absurd and insultingly stupid, and action scenes that won't cause anyone's pulse to skip a beat, Paycheck is less appealing than a lump of coal in a Christmas stocking.
