Review: Payback

Posted by Andrew on 01/01/2004 @ 00:00 +1100

Mel Gibson stars as Generic Badass Man, who wants his money back.

Rating: 8 / 10

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The movie opens with Porter (Mel Gibson) lying nearly dead, face down on a table, explaining that a real doctor has to report a gun shot wound to the police. We then see a bullet removed from his back by a drunken man who is obviously rather nervous.

Just in case that scene leaves you with the misconception that he is a vigilante, out to do the right thing without drawing attention to himself, the next scene shows his re-entry into the world, leaving no question as to his motives.

This movie is basically just a bit of fun. A bit of very violent fun with lots of gunfire and explosions and beatings and, come to think of it, far too much clothing on Maria Bello, and far too little on Lucy Liu.

Porter (Mel Gibson) has cause to feel he is owed $70,000, and sets about retrieving it. He gets straight to it, but after a minor dead end he is quickly diverted to the company of his former workmate Rosie (Maria Bello), whose assistance becomes crucial to the eventuation of Porter's series of miniature plans.

His street smart character displays a fair bit of wile and a lot of toughness under any conditions, and has no hesitations about giving a smart response, even to a man holding a sledge hammer. Never has "This little piggy went to market" been less appropriate. :)

His no-mess, no-fuss approach to everything could be easily adapted to advertise almost any cleaning product on the market, as well as providing a need for it. (Did I say no-mess? Well, there's a bit of mess.)

All his cars are fast and loud, as they should be.

The bad guys (who are actually no more bad guys than he) are not incompetent in any obvious way, which again is how it should be.

The movie is only entertainingly unbelievable, with Porter having little or no ability to make intuitive leaps and only the fact that he's a toughguy as a cinematic advantage.

A very entertaining movie, with some sophisticated humour, some unsophisticated violence, and some neanderthal acting by Lucy Liu, who should be taken elsewhere and shot.

See it.

See her!