Despite the disastrous performance of his previous big budget film Windtalkers, John Woo must have taken home a
fat cheque to direct this film.

For apart from his reputation in Hong Kong as a master of martial arts movies, he also directed Face/Off, one of the more intriguing and pulse quickening movies in Hollywood.

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But there is no redemption for him in Paycheck, based on a well-known short story by Philip K Dick (Minority
Report).

Here, Woo is working with Ben Affleck, an actor of very limited range who has nevertheless acted in several hit movies (Pearl Harbor), and one spectacular flop (Gigli). The new film would have gained strength and credibility had there been a better actor in the lead.   

While Woo fills the film with plenty of action, including a chase through heavy traffic with Affleck and Uma Thurman
on a motorcycle, he fails to deal efficiently with the moral and ethical issues Dick raised in his books and stories.

Though the plot revolving around a man who has seen the future but cannot remember it is interesting to a certain degree, the convoluted script does not create real suspense and credibility. There is plenty of technology here, but the best special effects -- the facial expressions and haunting, poignant images -- are missing. Still, the not-so-demanding fans could get plenty of thrills from the movie. 

Michael Jennings (Affleck) is a 'reverse engineer' who can disassemble high-tech equipment with seemingly impenetrable codes and turn it into a more advanced piece. He agrees to perform his reverse engineering for a
conglomerate run by billionaire entrepreneur Jimmy Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart).

In exchange, he wants a huge paycheque. He also wants his pal Shorty (Paul Giamatti) to erase his memory of the illicit work. The memory erasure is part of the deal. Jimmy's big job involves the retooling a machine that can see the future.

But when the project, which spans nearly three years, is over, Michael is stunned when he discovers that he agreed
to forfeit his $90 million paycheque in exchange for a handful of random objects in an envelope.

Worse, law enforcement agencies and Jimmy's thugs are after him.

Though Michael escapes being captured by the FBI, he knows his life is not safe till he solves the deadly mystery. He
also realises slowly that the random objects can help him figure out the truth.

Woo slowly lets us see Jimmy's secret plans and we also get to understand more of Michael's retooled invention
that could foretell the future.

As his problems increase, Michael decides he has to destroy his own machine before it could be used to create
more havoc. He also tries to reconnect with Rachel (Uma Thurman), the woman he has loved for the past three years,
but he is also wondering about what really happened between them.

Rachael is a biologist and the first time we see her with Affleck, she listens to his small talk without rousing our suspicion. But soon we understand the small talk was anything but small. A major failure of the film is to explore well the relationship between Rachael and Michael. We don't really feel for what to happens to their emotional and love life because the script fails to develop an interesting chemistry between the two. 

Affleck is not the big disappointment here. He is not an actor we expect much from. It is Thurman that is disappointing. She enters the film when it is nearly halfway through. We feel she has invested quite a bit of her talent in Rachel, making her a strong character.

But after her riveting performance in Kill Bill, her work here is a bit of a letdown.

CREDITS
Cast: Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart, Uma Thurman, Paul Giamatti, Colm Feore
Director: John Woo
Writer: Dean Georgaris based on a story by Philip K. Dick
Running time: 2 hours
Rating: PG-13
Distributor: Paramount Pictures