For those who haven't seen the advertisements, Payback is an action flick
staring Mel Gibson. In this role, Mel plays a thief named Porter who gets
robbed out of $70,000 and come hell or high water, he is going to get it
back. Mel doesn't play a normal thief though. He is not very sneaky and he's
extremely tough, which makes him a bit interesting.
The nice thing about this flick is that it doesn't rely so much on 'big'
action with explosions all over the place and long drawn out fighting
scenes. The movie is pretty low key compared to the normal action flick.
They try to get it done using Mel Gibson's screen presence and clever
writing. Mel Gibson won't win any awards for his acting job, as he pretty
much plays the normal guy, with the normal tough guy bit mixed in. I don't
see him straining to do this role as it was far easier than Ransom.
That said, he does a believable job playing the character.
The writing is clever in places, but it is also cliche in others. Throughout
the film, there is a wild mix-match of different factors meddling in
Porter's quest for his money. For the first half this is all done quite cleverly, the
second half relies too much on coincidence. It's like the writers just ran
out of ideas and then began to finish the story however they could.
The movie is very forgettable. I'd be surprised if I remember it in a few
months. But overall, the film is entertaining and very funny. There is a lot
of comedy, despite the gritty people and situations. The comedy saves the
film and makes it worth seeing. If you can see it at the matinee, then do so
as there are no major special effects that require the big screen. But if
you're dying to go out and see a movie one evening, go ahead and see this
one as it's probably the best action flick in the theaters right now.