Payback (1999)

reviewed by
David Sunga

PAYBACK (1999)

Rating: 2.5 stars (out of 4.0)
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Key to rating system:
2.0 stars - Debatable
2.5 stars - Some people may like it
3.0 stars - I liked it
3.5 stars - I am biased in favor of the movie
4.0 stars - I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out
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A Movie Review by David Sunga

Directed by: Brian Helgeland

Written by: Terry Hayes and Brian Helgeland, adapted from a Richard Stark novel

Starring:
Mel Gibson, Gregg Henry, Maria Bello, Kris Kristofferson

Synopsis: This is not a thriller so much as an action comedy. PAYBACK opens with a few narrated words from Porter (Mel Gibson), a smalltime con man and thief who seems to have all the bad luck in the world. In his loveless marriage his wife is a drug addicted loser; he has been defeated, betrayed, and robbed of $70,000, and; the woman he really loves (Maria Bello) is owned by the mob.

Understandably, Porter becomes slightly obsessed with getting his money back, and undertakes diabolical and risky adventures to retrieve his $70,000 from the syndicate. Can a smalltime fish like Porter save himself and his sweetie from a life of bad luck and crime?

Opinion: LETHAL WEAPON megastar Mel Gibson is a well known real-life practical joker as well as an actor with excellent comic timing. In PAYBACK his talents basically carry the show. It's Mel versus the mob, upping the ante and explosion level with each seesawing encounter, until Mel finally gets the last gloat.

Remember the old Roadrunner, Woody Woodpecker or Spy versus Spy cartoons, where over-the-top cartoon violence is played for laughs? It's the same principle in PAYBACK, only Woody Woodpecker's laughing victory gloat is repackaged as the mantra "Hubba hubba hubba."

A few times the escapist humor gets a little overdone and may even seem bizarre. For example, there are scenes where Lucy Liu plays a beautiful Asian woman who gets lip-smacking erotic thrills from being punched in the face (which somehow doesn't inspire too many belly laughs).

Taken as a whole, PAYBACK still manages to package all of the right buttons for action fans. It's got fisticuffs galore, explosions, action, trickery, a dame in distress, and a brave, goofy hero outsmarting the baddies. What more could action fans ask for?

Reviewed by David Sunga
February 5, 1999

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Payback (1999)

reviewed byDavid Sunga

reviewed by
David Sunga