Paycheck
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: December 25, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
19
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
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." Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
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. Read full review
70
Film ThreatChris Barsanti
Quite honestly, if this had been a more violent film, it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
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. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Slick and slight. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
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. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
We're left with the painful reality that Paycheck might get Alfred Hitchcock, but it certainly doesn't know Philip K. Dick. Read full review
60
Village VoiceMark Holcomb
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. Read full review
60
EmpireAdam Smith
in the end, Paycheck never quite cashes out. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
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. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
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. Read full review
50
New York PostJonathan Foreman
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. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Maybe Affleck was drawn to this movie because it involves the loss of memory. Who wouldn't want to forget "Gigli," and now this? Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
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. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Begins with a thought-provoking idea from Philip K. Dick, exploits it for its action and plot potential, but never really develops it. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
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. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyJon Strickland
Paycheck is too smart for a mindless actioneer, and too slick to capture the full moral weight of Dick's dystopia. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
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. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
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. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Paycheck is one of those movies in which all the ingenuity went into the original idea and none into its execution. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
A fun if dumb movie. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Woo's customary action-film pyrotechnics gather more substance than usual from the implausible but inventive plot, drawn from a Philip K. Dick story. Read full review
50
Film ThreatK.J. Doughton
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. Read full review
40
VarietyRobert Koehler
Uninspired star turns from Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman suggest something less than full belief in this quickly forgettable thriller. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
The sort of noisy nonsense that Woo's earlier action movies made irrelevant, but alas not extinct. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
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. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
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. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
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. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Isn't a bad movie, until John Woo remembers that he's John Woo and we remember that Ben Affleck is Ben Affleck. Read full review
38
PremiereAaron Hillis
Paycheck is a bogus journey. Read full review
30
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
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. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter Travers
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. Read full review
20
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Represents such a professional nadir for each of its principals that you wish better for them in the new year. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Maybe it’s time for Woo to finally make that musical he keeps talking about. Read full review
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