Paycheck
Michael Jennings gets paid to forget what he reverse engineers but the chance of him remembering the device he builds is not worth the risk by the people who pay him.
Film making 20/25
Cinematography 21/25
Audio 22/25
Bonus Features 13/25
Total 76/100
Michael Jennings, played By Ben Affleck, is a reverse engineer who gets paid to figure out electronics and then have his memory erased so he does not even know what he did. A company hires him for a longer job than he is used to and when he has his memory erased he finds that he himself got rid of the paycheck he would have gotten.
He left himself clues in 20 items that were delivered to him after the memory wipe and uses these items to not only save himself but to find out what he built. While he was working for Allcom he falls in love with biologist Dr. Rachel Porter, played by Uma Thurman, and leaves a message for her before he leaves Allcom.
Leaving the millions of dollars in stocks from the company that hired him so he would concentrate on the clues he has to figure out why the company is trying to kill him. He also has to evade the FBI who is also trying to figure out why he is running around getting shot at and people are being killed that Jennings is getting framed for.
When Jennings meets with Dr. Porter Allcom first tries to send an imposter knowing that Jennings will not remember what she looks like. The real Dr. Porter interrupts the meeting and stops an Allcom assassin from killing Jennings and helps him escape.
They evade hired guns from Allcom and end up stopping the plot to run the world using the device that Jennings helped build but does not remember. The story is a good one and the acting is also well one but not quite up to great standards.
The action and the science fiction plot are well balanced and complement each other nicely with Ben Affleck doing a great job as the cocky and smooth engineer. Affleck plays the part of Jennings well with a casual calm demeanor and just enough of a panic at times to be believable and realistic.
Paycheck is based on Philip K. Dick’s short story and is solid as far as storyline and takes the idea of small almost useless items being lifesavers. The story is great and the film captures the stories mood and style very well for an overall well done movie experience.
The Blu-ray edition did very well with transferring the film to Blu-ray high definition with no problems in audio or video. For a movie that is pretty recent the film quality is great with little or no problems in video and color.
Brighter tones are well done and appear bright and colorful with flesh tones being realistic as well and no problems with any overall. Some of the scenes like the computer screens that Jennings works on or the computer circuit boards look really good and the colors really highlight the scientific nature of the moments.
The audio is likewise very good with Dolby TruHD 5.1 surround sound with good use of situational audio that is quite noticeable from time to time. They did a really good job of keeping things positioned well for voice and action scenes that get very noticeable a few times such as during the memory wipe where you hear the voices behind you instead of the front speakers like normal.
Overall both high definition audio and video are very good with really no major problems and the extra content is really the only thing that brought the films rating down much. There is a couple of audio commentary tracks from Director John Woo and Screenwriter Dean Georgaris as well as a couple of making of features and extended/deleted scenes.
The bonus content makes for some interesting behind the scene looks at the film and story but is about the bare minimum that I expect from Blu-ray now. The making of features are alright and give a quick look at the action and other stuff that went into the film but is not really worth more than a single viewing.
The film is great and getting the high definition quality is really well worth purchasing this movie on Blu-ray but the additional features do not really amount to a whole lot even though you do get a little extra content. Paycheck on Blu-ray is well worth the cost if you do not already own it as a great science fiction movie but if you already have it there is not enough here to warrant the purchase.