Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6622 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-05-17
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 114 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The brainy, paranoid science fiction of writer Philip K Dick has inspired one visionary classic (Blade Runner) and two above-average action movies (Total Recall and Minority Report). Paycheck aspires to follow in their footsteps: an engineer (Ben Affleck) routinely agrees to have his memory erased after every job so that he doesn't know what he's done. But after the biggest job of his life, he discovers that not only has he refused a 90 million-dollar paycheck, he's sent himself an envelope full of things he doesn't recognise--and he doesn't remember doing any of this. As he unravels the plot, he discovers he's also fallen in love (with Uma Thurman) and invented a dangerous device for his former boss (Aaron Eckhart). Affleck is bland, the script ruins a cunning idea and the direction--from the normally dynamic John Woo--plods along, aimless and bored. --Bret Fetzer

DVD Description
From acclaimed director John Woo (Face/Off and Mission Impossible II) comes a futuristic thriller that combines spectacular action with a spellbinding mystery, guaranteed to keep you guessing from explosive beginning to breathtaking end.

Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) is a brilliant computer engineer hired for work on top secret projects. After each job, Jennings’ short-term memory is erased so he cannot recount any project information. Emerging from his latest assignment – a three-year contract with an eight-figure paycheck, given to him by an old friend (Aaron Eckhart) – Jennings is shocked to be told that agreed to forfeit all payment. It appears he is left with no comeback – until he receives a mysterious envelope containing clues to his forgotten past. With the help of a beautiful scientist (Uma Thurman), Jennings must race to solve the puzzle of his past … whilst avoiding a terrifying discovery which awaits him in the future.

Special Features

• Director commentary
  
• Screenwriter commentary
  
• Tempting Fate: The Stunts Of Paycheck featurette
  
• Designing The Future featurette
  
• Deleted and extended scenes
  
• Alternate ending

DVD Technical Information:

• Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 2.35:1 Anamorphic
  
• Language: English
  
• Subtitles: English for The Deaf and Hard of Hearing
  
• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
  
• Region Code: 2

Customer Reviews

Solid sci-fi actioner from John Woo
Sci-fi actioner directed by John Woo in which square-jawed Ben Affleck pays Michael Jennings, a gifted computer engineer who takes on secretive computer projects for corporations for large sums of cash with one catch: the corporations insist that after completing each assignment he must have his short-term memory wiped so that he remembers nothing of the work that he has done. Each assignment thus far has been short-term, lasting no more than eight weeks, so each time Jennings has had his memory wiped after completing an assignment he has lost no more than eight weeks of his life. But this time he has been offered an assignment by a company called Allcom for which he will be paid $92 million on its completion, enough to set him up for life. The problem? It is a long-term assignment, lasting three years, which means that he will have to lose three years worth of memories upon completion of the assignment. Jennings weighs up this cost but the money is just too much of an incentive and he agrees to do the assignment. However after completing the mystery assignment and having his last three years of memory wiped Jennings finds out that four weeks before his memory was wiped he sold his stock options in Allcom - meaning that he will not get any of the $92 million he was promised - and on top of that he is a wanted man: his former bosses at Allcom want him dead. But Jennings does not know why, as he has no memory of the past three years. With his life in the balance and with an envelope of clues and useful items that he left for himself four weeks before his memory was wiped Jennings manages to locate some allies: his friend Shorty (played by Paul Giamatti) and love interest and employee of Allcom Dr Rachel (played by Uma Thurman), and with their help sets out to uncover just what he was doing over the last three years - including why he gave up the $92 million - all the while trying to avoid assassination by hit men working for his former bosses at Allcom. What he discovers is that during his three missing years he built a machine that could very well mean the end of the world, a machine that must be destroyed at any cost. I found this to be a good sci-fi film from John Woo, with a strong plot and predictably good action and fight sequences. John Woo certainly knows how to put together a good movie, and the clues that Jennings has to decipher throughout the movie are very enjoyable, although I felt there could have been more of the theoretical physics behind the machine that Jennings builds addressed in the film. My only other complaint is that the climax to the movie does not quite have enough impact (although it almost does). Nonetheless this is a very good movie, so I give it 4 stars.

intriguing and brilliant
This film is good on so many levels. The acting is top-notch, if a little boring from Ben Affleck, but that doesn't matter. The effects are really good and the chase scene is great.

It is a greatly intriguing film and that increases my liking of it. There are some unlikely and unrealistic bits in the chase especially, but they wouldn't have bothered me if i hadn't watched it with two people who cannot sit through a film silently, without picking out the bad points.

It was really good, but i can only stand so long of Ben Affleck because i find his performance boring and he is quite expressionless. Watch this film, it is strongly recommended.

Paycheck
This movie is amazing. I'm really not normally into this kind of film, and i hated the 'Bourne' series. This film was edge-of-the-seat excitment. I have to agree with other reviews that the movie was slightly too long, but if you want to see a gripping action adventure movie, that keeps you guessing, get Paycheck.

seriously, it's worth it.