Uma Thurman Movie:

		List Price: $29.99		Label: Paramount Salesrank: 25818 Released: May 19, 2009
		Our Price: $15.82
		Used Price: $15.69
		MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
In a futuristic but familiar world, a high-tech engineer whose memory has been partially erased must use a group of unrelated objects, including a wire, a ticket stub and a bus token as clues to discover the truth about his previous identity, and collect a paycheck he had been awaiting. Based on the short story by science fiction author Phillip K. Dick.

Paycheck [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Exceptional Movie
2009-06-26 - This film has to be one of Ben Affleck's best movies, his acting in this film is basically brilliant, the co-stars are perfectly matched and the film as a whole highly instense and very entertaining. This film will satisfy both the science fiction affectionado as well as the serious drama fan.

Blu-ray: Enjoyable John Woo action film but unfortunately, marred by Ben Affleck's sub-par performance
2009-05-19 - In 2003, popular director John Woo would return with a sci-fi thriller adapted from a short story titled "PAYCHECK" written by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick (known for popular novels such as "Blade Runner", "Total Recall", "Minority Report", "Screamers" and "Next", etc.) and a screenplay written by Dean Georgaris ("The Manchurian Candidate" (2006) and "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life").

It would bring together well-known talents such as Ben Affleck ("Daredevil", "Sum of All Fears", "Pearl Harbor", etc.), Uma Thurman ("Kill Bill", "The Avengers", "Pulp Fiction", etc.), Aaron Eckhart ("The Dark Knight", "The Wicker Man"), Colm Feore ("24, "The Chronicles of Riddick", "Changeling", etc.) and Paul Giamatti ("Sideways", "Cinderella Man", "Shoot `Em Up", etc.).

The film cost about $60 million to make and grossed over $96 million in the box office. While Director John Woo received praise for his work on the film from several critics, unfortunately Ben Affleck was not so lucky as he received the worst reviews for his performance for the film, earning him the "Worst Actor" award for the Golden Raspberry Awards.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

"PAYCHECK" features a 1080p High Definition transfer. There are times where picture quality is good but surprisingly, there are quite a bit of dust and scratches that show up throughout the film. Because the film utilizes a lot of blacks, you can often see the white speckles showing up and for a 2003 film, I didn't think I would see so much.

What works in the favor for "PAYCHECK" is John Woo's way of directing. John Woo is one of the few men who edits as he shoots and has the film already preconceived in his mind and knows what shots he wants. Joining him for the ride are talented cinematographers Jeffrey L. Kimball ("Star Trek: Nemesis", "Hostage", "Mission Impossible II", etc.) and Steadicam operator Gregory Lundsgaard ("The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift", "The Spirit", "Gridiron Gang").

The shots that Woo chooses and the visuals are amazing and during the indoor scenes, you get quite a bit of darkness and the outdoor scenes, the transfer looks good. But again, not great. The dust particles of course are not going to deter anyone's enjoyment of the film, but for those expecting the best transfer on Blu-ray, this is one film that needs some cleaning up.

As for audio, fortunately the audio was great. The film is presented in English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD (and French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital) and because of the many action scenes, you get great utilization of audio coming from all channels and even low frequency bass coming from the subwoofer. I notice some scenes with a crowd, you will be able to hear the crowds through your rears. Music taking advantage of bass but most of all chase scenes, crashes, explosions and bullet sounds directed through the various speaker channels quite nicely. The audio was a major plus for this Blu-ray release.

As for subtitles, subtitles are featured in English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The "PAYCHECK" Blu-ray Disc release includes the following special features:

* Commentary by Director John Woo - This film features on John Woo talking about the cast and the various shots and what he wanted to get. Woo talks about the various revisions done on the film and more.
* Commentary by Screenwriter Dean Georgaris - Similar to Woo, Georgaris talks about the storyline and the scenes incorporated from the short story to film. Also, the revisions made to the screenplay.
* Paycheck: Designing the Future - (18:14) Featuring interviews with Director John Woo, Producer Terence Chang, Production Designer William Sandell, Visual Effects Supervisor Gregory L. McMurry and the cast. How John Woo took the role and his style of directing. Both Affleck and Thurman are big fans of John Woo, so for them, it was a great experience to work with him. Also, learning about the talents and how they prepared for the role and John Woo talks about why he enjoyed working with the cast. From the making of the film to storyboards, set design and visual effects, this is covered in the featurette.
* Tempting Fate: The Stunts of Paycheck - (16:48) Interview with Gregg Smrz (Stunt Coordinator) and John Woo about the stunts in the film. From the motorcycle chase scene, to the building of the construction sites, how Ben Affleck wanted to do his own stunts, no CG used for the fight scenes. Things were pre-planned. Why they chose to go for no martial arts and more of a rugged, football/brawling fight moves and more.
* Extended/Deleted Scenes - (12:37) Featuring seven deleted and extended scenes. For example, Dr. Porter talking to her friend during the party about Jennings and trying to learn more about him.

JUDGMENT CALL:

"PAYCHECK" is actually a film that had a lot of potential. I really enjoyed the storyline of reverse engineering but also having the opportunity of seeing into the future and the ramifications if one had that technology. Philip K. Dick's sci-fi stories from "Total Recall" and "Blade Runner" are sci-fi classics that you know that you are going to get a storyline that sci-fi geeks (like myself) can go nuts over.

Having John Woo as a director is like the icing on the cake. His camera shots, the way the film is cut, the use of his trademark dove, if there was a director that could make this film a fun, entertaining action film, John Woo is a perfect choice.

With that being said, unfortunately, the screenplay by Dean Georgaris and Woo's main focus on the action took what could have been an intellectual thriller, to a film that features mostly all acting and no substance for the characters of Michael Jennings and Dr. Porter. One is an engineer and one is a scientist, but they ended up being more superhero-like that somehow, due to the lack of any character development to make us really care for these two characters, the storyline and even the acting just falls a bit flat.

The film is entertaining but somehow, Ben Affleck doesn't come alive as an engineer and action star for this film, John Woo wanted Matt Damon originally (especially since he's shown what he brought to the Bourne trilogies). Uma Thurman, great to see her doing more action since her "Kill Bill" films but her character was not exactly used efficiently. Paul Giamatti was like the comic relief of the film and Aaron Eckhart did an OK job but again, his character was not used efficiently.

As for the Blu-ray release, I was a bit surprised by how much dust was evident throughout the film and that is something I really don't like to see for any film when transferred on Blu-ray. The audio was well done but you want the picture quality to match the audio quality in HD goodness and unfortunately, it doesn't happen for this release. Also, you are not getting anything new from the original DVD release, so if you own the DVD and wonder if it's worth double dipping, unfortunately I have to say no.

"PAYCHECK" was indeed a film with a lot of potential but for Philip K. Dick stories, you want to have a smart, sci-fi thriller in combination with the action but most of all, good character development. Unfortunately, the film did not meet that potential.

For those who want a straight-up action film, you will definitely be entertained by "PAYCHECK" but for those who want a storyline much deeper, unfortunately "PAYCHECK" suffers from lack of strong character development, not-so-effective acting and a compromised adaptation from short story to film.

Movie: 3.5/5 Picture Quality: 3.5~4.5/5 Sound Quality: 4/5 Extras: 2.5/5
2009-05-10 - Version: U.S.A / Paramount / Region Free
MPEG-4 AVC BD-50 / AACS / High Profile 4.1
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Running time: 1:58:46
Movie size: 36,473,991,168 bytes (36,47 GB)
Disc size: 41,207,911,968 bytes (41,20 GB)
Total bit rate: 40.95 Mbps
Average video bit rate: 31.91 Mbps

Dolby TrueHD Audio English 3578 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3578 kbps / 24-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)
Dolby Digital Audio French 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 224 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 224 kbps / Dolby Surround
Dolby Digital Audio English 224 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 224 kbps / Dolby Surround

Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Number of chapters: 22

# Audio Commentary with director
# Audio Commentary with screenwriter
# Designing the Future (SD - 18 minutes)
# Tempting Fate: The Stunts of Paycheck (SD - 16 minutes)
# 6 Extended/Deleted Scenes