Payback
Starring Mel Gibson, Maria Bello and Kris Kristofferson Directed By Brian Helgeland Running Time: 1 hour 50 minutes
(Warner Brothers)
A 'sort of' remake of the Lee Marvin classic Point Blank, Payback is an overly violent, egotistical vehicle for Mel Gibson. Although the movie offers some laughs, this film is too hit and miss to be truly enjoyable. Gibson plays Porter, a 'nice guy' who losers $70,000 to both his wife (Deborah Unger) and his partner in crime Val (Gregg Henry.) Mr Nice Guy soon becomes Mr Bad Guy, as Porter deals with the 'Outfit' to get his money back, meeting a variety of characters along the way.
Payback is a well made enough thriller, with good action and some nice jokes. Although the film tends to use over the top violence to achieve it's laughs, this is a enjoyable enough ride. Mel dominates the whole proceedings, and while he carries the film enough, he's never believable enough to make a truly bad guy. His 'hard assed' face is all very good, but when he speaks it's comes off as a low mumble which is irritating. Also, someone decided a voice over would be a good idea, but it turns out to be the worst voice over since Bladerunner (1982) with annoying muttering by Gibson over the proceedings. The rest of the cast fare somewhat better: Bello is fun as a stereotypical call girl, the only 'good guy' in the movie. Familiar to viewers of T.V's E.R, Bello is fine on television but fails to make an impression on the big screen. More fun Lucy Alexis Lu as a terrifying S &M girl, and Gregg Henry as Mel's psychotic ex-partner. Kris Kristofferson, a victim of Paybacks infamous re-shoots, is nice and intense, if underwritten. Finally, William Devane turns in an excellent performance as Carter, a super slimy crime boss, and James Coburn is fun as a sharp dressing villain.
The direction by L.A Confidential writer Brian Helgeland is nice, the action especially done well. Sadly, the 'talky' scenes are boring and long winded, which slows down the film. This film should be more of an action movie than the drama it's obviously trying to be. The film is shot in a grainy blue colour which adds to the gritty feel of it all in an effective way. And it's also nice to root for the bad guy, although Porters charisma doesn't come apparent to the last 30-40 minutes of the film, making it somewhat hard to root for him at the start. In fact, I warmed to the 'proper' bad guys before Porter. The violence quota is also high, although the very violent scenes usually use implied, rather than explicit, violence.
There's a cool soundtrack running throughout, and the come uppance of all the bad guys are enjoyable enough. The last twenty minutes are hugely enjoyable, a great cat and mouse chase which has an upbeat pace missing from the rest of the film. And here lies the main problem with Payback: the pacing is off. This film should be a fast moving, pacy, violent epic, which instead gets itself bogged down in 'character developing' scenes it doesn't need. When the violence arrives, it's a breath of relief, and enjoyable. But then the drama comes back, and so does the boredom.
Payback, therefore, is a worthwhile film, although flawed enough to not make this a classic. Gibson fans will enjoy it, as there is a _lot_ of Gibson, and for the rest of us: Payback is a slow thriller which delivers the goods a little too late. A shame.
RATING=**1/2 OUT OF *****
A David Wilcock Review ©1999
DAVID WILCOCK david.wilcock@btinternet.com Visit the Wilcock Movie Page! http://www.wilcock54.freeserve.co.uk
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