Paycheck
Metascore
43 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 34 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 19 out of 34
  3. Negative: 8 out of 34
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    50
    Begins with a thought-provoking idea from Philip K. Dick, exploits it for its action and plot potential, but never really develops it.
  2. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    38
    With a script that waffles between being hilariously absurd and insultingly stupid, and action scenes that won't cause anyone's pulse to skip a beat, Paycheck is less appealing than a lump of coal in a Christmas stocking.
  3. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    40
    Affleck is no more convincing as a flesh-and-blood action than as a superbrain, Thurman is cruelly photographed and director Woo appears to be imitating his own worst work.
  4. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    25
    The title of this limp retread of "Minority Report" -- both films are based on stories by Philip K. Dick -- presumably refers to the reason the big names involved did this movie.
  5. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    Running mainly on adrenaline and a gimmick, it's different from other holiday movies in that it's not ambitious, earnest or overblown, and it obviously wasn't made with one eye on the Oscars.
  6. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    Woo's customary action-film pyrotechnics gather more substance than usual from the implausible but inventive plot, drawn from a Philip K. Dick story.
  7. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    58
    The amazing thing about John Woo's steely, impersonal adaptation of Philip K. Dick sci-fi story about a tech genius whose memory is erased...is how it vanishes in front of our eyes even as we watch it.
  8. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    20
    Maybe it’s time for Woo to finally make that musical he keeps talking about.
  9. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    50
    Maybe Affleck was drawn to this movie because it involves the loss of memory. Who wouldn't want to forget "Gigli," and now this?
  10. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    63
    There are chases that feel way too long, and dialogue that feels flat. Affleck and Thurman make a handsome duo, but there's no spark between the actors.
  11. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    63
    We're left with the painful reality that Paycheck might get Alfred Hitchcock, but it certainly doesn't know Philip K. Dick.
  12. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    50
    The silliness only slows down for a few hokey romantic interludes. But if you like to see stuff crash or blow up, this is your movie.
  13. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    38
    The story, adapted by Dean Georgaris, doesn't come within a light year of science-fiction plausibility, and after a while Woo gives up trying to sell it and reverts to the action choreography that made him a master of Hong Kong martial-arts movies.
  14. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    38
    Isn't a bad movie, until John Woo remembers that he's John Woo and we remember that Ben Affleck is Ben Affleck.
  15. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    67
    Affleck is in the middle, engaging in derring-do, pitching woo to Uma Thurman and making the whole thing come off as less exciting than it should have been.
  16. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    80
    John Woo's smart thriller Paycheck may not intend to be political, but it's marked as much by its era as post-Watergate thrillers like "The Parallax View" or "Three Days Of The Condor."
  17. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    50
    Surprisingly . . . ept given that it is basically a dumb movie about smart people. This smooth but bland thriller may be the best we could expect from such a collaboration.
  18. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    50
    Unfortunately, after watching Paycheck, you may wish you had the picture's gimmickry at your disposal, so you could erase your own memory of it.
  19. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    50
    The bogus Seattle setting creates an additional problem for local moviegoers. Because we know Seattle doesn't have a subway, giant FBI building or newspapers called Telegraph or Tribune, we're jarred out of the story so regularly that it leaves us slightly punch-drunk.
  20. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    63
    Slick and slight.
  21. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    70
    A nifty science-fiction twist on the old amnesia plot where a guy spends most of a movie trying to remember what he did and why everyone is after him.
  22. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    20
    Represents such a professional nadir for each of its principals that you wish better for them in the new year.
  23. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    50
    A fun if dumb movie.
  24. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    50
    Paycheck is one of those movies in which all the ingenuity went into the original idea and none into its execution.
  25. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Foreman
    50
    Woo has never been particularly good at human stuff, and to the extent that Paycheck is, or should be, a love story, it feels forced.
  26. Variety
    Reviewed by: Robert Koehler
    40
    Uninspired star turns from Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman suggest something less than full belief in this quickly forgettable thriller.
  27. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    30
    Paycheck is a terribly muddled mess, a Hitchcock homage (with generous, obvious nods to The Birds, Strangers on a Train and North by Northwest) by a great filmmaker trying to say a great deal with so very little.
  28. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    40
    The sort of noisy nonsense that Woo's earlier action movies made irrelevant, but alas not extinct.
  29. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Aaron Hillis
    38
    Paycheck is a bogus journey.
  30. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Mark Holcomb
    60
    Woo's film is in some ways closer to Dick's -- and his own -- pulp roots, and if he lazily quotes himself (and, inexplicably, Aldrich's "Kiss Me Deadly") once too often, he at least gets loose, spirited performances from his cast -- Uma's post-"Kill Bill" gravitas notwithstanding.
  31. Empire
    Reviewed by: Adam Smith
    60
    in the end, Paycheck never quite cashes out.
  32. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Jon Strickland
    50
    Paycheck is too smart for a mindless actioneer, and too slick to capture the full moral weight of Dick's dystopia.
  33. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: K.J. Doughton
    50
    Longtime fans of John Woo, who have come to accept operatic, lead-slinging death dances as an integral part of the director’s powerful aesthetic, will probably be unsatisfied with this neutered variation on his earlier, superior works.
  34. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Chris Barsanti
    70
    Quite honestly, if this had been a more violent film, it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.0 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 40 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 27
  3. Negative: 7 out of 27
  1. Oxcart
    8
    Paycheck is one of those movies that had the potential to be really, truly great, but due to a series of small problems, ended up as less than it could have been and largely ignored. In short (and you can get this from the trailer), Ben Affleck plays a gifted engineer whose particular talent lies in reverse-engineering a company's product so that a competitor can get a head-start to market. In order to maintain deniability, his memory of each job is wiped, leaving him with just a paycheck (hence the title). But after accepting a long-term job, he finds himself a wanted man with no clue why, just a lot of questions. An outstanding premise. It is made all the better by creative writing, particularly the inclusion of a MacGuyver-esque puzzle that wends its way through the entire plot of the film. Dialogue is generally well written, only rarely losing its real-world edge (which is forgivable). Outstanding performances are turned in by Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman, Paul Giamatti, Aaron Eckhart, Colm Feore, and Joe Morton -- who, although given a relatively thin part, managed to turn it into a major, dynamic element of the plot and really shines. John Powell's original score was outstanding and a perfect balance of driving action music and reflective melodies when appropriate. Really, the faults of the film lie with John Woo, whose now-trite directorial hallmarks end up making their appearances in the film self-ridicule rather than poignant moment. (John, if you're reading: get rid of the flying dove gimmick. It was ridiculous in Mission Impossible 2, and it was ridiculous here. It's a joke, not art.) Woo is still an excellent action director, and the car chases, fight sequences, and other action-driven sections of the film do well by him. But someone else needs to take over when the fists and tires aren't flying; it's only the innate acting ability of people like Affleck, Thurman, and others (did I mention Joe Morton did a great job?) that save some sections of the film. Casting was bang-on, though, and Paul Giamatti does an A+ perfect job as the Voice of Reason and comic relief -- one of those blessed times that you don't groan inwardly when the comic relief character shows up; Giamatti does an exemplary job. And even though the film is, as of this writing, nearly a decade old, it doesn't come off as stale sci-fi -- a rarity. It is definitely worth watching if you're any kind of sci-fi fan (it comes from the mind of Philip K Dick...check out how many of his stories became wildly popular films) -- find a copy and have fun.… Full Review »
  2. xahkdlys119
    10
    I think that this movie has many twists and turns that is enough to keep people on the edge of their seats. And it surely has something to tell. It mentioned that predicting the future is something that we should not try to do. After all, I think that this is a very nice movie.… Full Review »
  3. [Anonymous]
    6
    THe story has premise, but John Woo's excecution renders the movie mediocre. Even the action ain't all that great. There are moments when the brillinace of the sci-fi story does surface, particularly consequences of looking into the future, but it's not enough to save this film from being merely mediocre stuff.… Full Review »
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