Payback (1999)
director: brian helgeland
cast: mel gibson, gregg henry, maria bello, david paymer, bill duke, deborah unger, john glover, william devane, lucy liu, jack conley, kris kristofferson, mark alfa, kwame amoaku, justin ashforth, len bajenski
Long-in-the-tooth
action star, Mel Gibson, takes a stab (no pun intended) at “A Clockwork Orange”
type of character. Are you ready for a little bit of the old ultra-violence?
Where “A Clockwork Orange” did have a point (or at least a question) about free
will, “Payback” is mindless exploitation but forgets that fact in mid-stream.
Towards the end of the movie, the audience is asked to root for bad-guy Mel
despite the fact that he’s one fucked-up nut with no redeeming virtue. He’s
only likable in comparison to the sadistic, toe-crushing enemies he’s up against.
A riff-off “Point Blank” (no pun intended, again), “Payback” follows double-crossed Mel as he goes after an elusive $70,000 that he helped steal from a gang in Chinatown (the geography of this film is a little hard to pin down – some scenes seem to take place in New York City and others in Chicago). Though, “Payback” has little resemblance to “Point Blank” it’s hard not to compare them. Lee Marvin in “Point Blank” is a man pathologically driven to get “his” money. The money, in itself, is of little importance. The woman he loved and a trusted friend have betrayed him and his pursuit of the cash seems to be a last grasp at meaning in a meaningless existence. To give up on the money would be to give up on life itself. Because of this, “Point Blank” takes on the feel of a living nightmare. You wouldn’t want to meet or know the character Lee Marvin plays yet he has a certain amount of pathos attached to him. In comparison, Mel Gibson comes across as simply smug and ruthless which would be fine if we (the audience) weren’t asked to pull for him to waltz away with the blood money and his prostitute/love interest before the credits roll (as if that makes all the killing before all right).
However,
“Payback” does have some entertaining elements. It’s best over-the-top character
is a Chinese dominatrix who is shacking up with a sadistic criminal who just
happens to be the same guy that stole Mel’s money and wife. When Mel busts in
on the couple in bed, she just can’t resist tweaking her sadomasochistic lover’s
nipples in anticipation of the impending blood letting. Besides that, she can
really take a good punch (in the “real” world, she would look more like Hedda
Nussbaum than Michele Yeoh) but she does dish it out as well as take it.
Another over-the-top character is Johnny, the privileged son of Kris Kristofferson. Kris is the head of a shadowy organized crime group known as “The Outfit”. Johnny and his ball-less friends are so goofy that they seem to be living in a Mentos commercial instead of an ultra-violent 90’s actioner – pretty funny or annoying depending on what your expectations are of a genre that has completely run out of gas. What was the last really good action film that you saw? If you answer “Die Hard” then you’re an action fan and if you answer “Rush Hour” then you just want to get out of the house. “Payback” is for those who just want to get out of the house. – Tom Graney
$3.16
© 1999 Hollywood Outsider™