Paycheck - 01/05/04

Written by: Philip K. Dick (short story), Dean Georgaris (script)

Starring: Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart, Uma Thurman, Paul Giamatti, Colm Feore

Official Site

If there are two things that people on this site should know, about me that is... is that Oingo Boingo is the best band ever, and that Philip K. Dick is the best science fiction writer, ever.

Those are just opinions, and expected to be debated... heh.

So, when I hear that there is a new P.K. Dick story coming down the pipe, being made into a motion picture... regardless of the director, star, writer, I make a point in seeing it.

The last one we were given was Spielberg's Minority Report, which I did not enjoy. I haven't been a fan of Spielberg's work lately... people get down on me about that... hey, they're just movie reviews, it's not like I've met the man and hate his guts... I just think he's going about things wrong... especially lately.

Scott Franks adapted Minority Report from the short story of the same name... and I pretty much think that Franks did an awful job. I've enjoyed his work in the past, including Out of Sight, Get Shorty and Dead Again... but I think his adaptation of Minority Report was weak.

Prior to that, we were given another short story made into a feature, Impostor. What this film did have going for it was the twists and turns that Dick was famous for. His altering of reality, especially when the audience (reader) was following along with the perspective of the main character (which was his M.O. for the majority of his work).

Probably the most loyal adaptation of a P.K. Dick work is Total Recall, directed by Paul Verhoeven, and adapted by Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon, Jon Povill and Gary Goldman. Shusett would go on to produce Minority Report, while O'Bannon would go on to write the script for Screamers, another P.K. Dick film.

The most famous of all P.K. Dick stories to get adapted came from his novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", turned into the movie Blade Runner. I don't consider this to be the most loyal adaptation... for those of you who might want to know why, I suggest reading the book.

After reading the short Paycheck, I can see how Woo, Georgaris and the producers determined the direction they wanted to go, with this feature. The short deals with a man, Jennings, who is an engineer. He sees his future, and helps himself by allocating any money he might have received, for seven trinkets. These trinkets go about helping him solve the clue of his future... from escaping the police, to finding himself face to face with his old boss... and blackmailing him.

The short was written in 1952, and first published in Imagination in 1953. Dick had this to say about the short:

"How much is a key to a bus locker worth? One day it's worth 25 cents, the next day thousands of dollars. In this story, I got to thinking that there are times in our lives when having a dime to make a phone call spells the difference between life and death. Keys, small change, maybe a theater ticket - how about a parking receipt for a Jaguar? All I had to do was link this idea up with time travel to see how the small and useless, under the wise eyes of a time traveler, might signify a great deal more. He would know when that dime might save your life. And, back in the past again, he might prefer that dime to any amount of money, no matter how large." (1976)

Pretty cool, huh?

What Dick did with this story was interesting... what Georgaris did with the script was take it to another level... albeit a kind of cliched level. Adding a full blown romance, a botched accidental killing, some car chases and assassination attempts, we get a watered down John Woo movie, and a pretty decent script from Georgaris.

He kept the suspense that is found in most speculative P.K. Dick material, and used all of the set ups very well. One of the things he did was increase the number of trinkets... and it was interesting to see the story unfold. It was less interesting to see the events unfold in the short... knowing the basic plot... and my hat is off to Georgaris for keeping a decent pace with the script, via the trinkets.

Ok... first off, someone needs to tell John Woo that the dove thing, and the mexican stand-off shots are done. I prefer watching The Killer, or Hard Boiled, Once a Thief, Bullet in the Head or any of the other Woo Hong Kong action films, than to his American work.

For my money, Hard Target is still the best work he's done in America, with Face/Off coming up a close second. His other work, including re-doing Once a Thief, Mission: Impossible II, Windtalkers and Broken Arrow (a terrible script by Graham Yost) are nothing compared to his earlier work. I'm not sure if it's the restrictions of the MPAA or whomever, but all of the Woo movies made in America don't come close to his Hong Kong action films.

Georgaris's first produced script was for the sequel to Lara Croft Tomb Raider. Not a great movie, but certainly an improvement over the original. He has since gotten the opportunity to write the re-make of The Manchurian Candidate for 2004, starring Denzel Washington, being directed by Jonathan Demme... should be good. He's also writing the next installment of Mission: Impossible, which is kind of in development hell right now. Originally, David Fincher was to direct, but now Joe Carnahan (who wrote/directed Narc) is up for the job. We shall see.

I dig Ben Affleck's work. I think, when the material is good, he can bring his great personality to the character, and make the movie fun and entertaining. In this film he was subject to two things. One, a decent script. Two, the antics of characters in an American John Woo film. Both of them kind of cancelled each other out, so we didn't get to see a great Affleck in this film. And he hasn't had a great year, what with Gigli and, earlier, Daredevil. I think his best work in the recent past was in The Sum of All Fears and Reindeer Games.

Uma Thurman looked awful. She didn't act bad... her character wasn't much of a stretch for any actress... but physically, she looked worn out. Her face looked older than I've seen her before... she wasn't as attractive as she usually is. I enjoyed her much more in Kill Bill because, again, this character didn't take much to act on...

Not a bad movie, but not a John Woo movie. The Arrow at JoBlo.com called this movie John Woo light. Well put.