Payback
Directed and Co-Written by Brian Helgeland
starring Mel Gibson, Maria Bello, James Coburn, William Devane, Gregg Henry
and Kris Kristofferson
playing at theaters accessible to all - ie - multiplexes
*  *  *    (three stars)
no time to read the whole review?
THE JIST of MY PROSE
Good, solid American fun : Mel Gibson kicks the crap out of everybody and, in turn, everybody allows him to do so. Fun to watch - easy to forget - it's junk food, pure and unadulterated - begging you to see it on a Friday night. Are you going to turn it down?

'Payback' would be a good way to describe where films have ended up. It’s a sadistic and
ultra-violent film, never forgiving, chock full of cliches, inconsistencies, jump-cuts and
cools shots of Mel Gibson smoking a cigarette with style that makes Bogart look like
Urkel (WOO-HOO! I’ve committed blasphemy!). On a Friday night, this film holds its
own. You’ve spent the week taking it in the chest and now you’re ready to unwind and be
entertained. I don’t run around and pretend that entertainment isn’t violent, folks : it is. I
didn’t for a moment believe a single thing in the film and I loved it. When filmmakers
and actors get together and say, let’s just have fun and make a really cool, enjoyable
picture, I don’t get angry. I don’t even worry about it. There’s a place for these films. As
long as you understand that 'Payback' is American dribble and that Mel Gibson is the anti-hero
without actually being the “anti-hero”, you will have a blast. If you’re a film snob (as I
clearly am) here’s a film that could break your cherry and teach you how to turn off that
art-movie radar and just cool out like all your friends do.

“Why can’t I enjoy crap?”
Here you go.

 'Payback' has a voice-over narration so telling that its obviously been
manufactured to be idiot-proof. In the vast sea of films that have complex plots, this one
was a cinch to put together. Porter (Gibson), in on a robbery with Val Resnick (Gregg
Henry), is double-crossed. Now, alive and angry, he’s out for: eh-hem, well, you know
what he’s out for (as accentuated in the trailer by the James Brown song of the same
name). He ends up having to deal with the chain of command in a branch of organized
crime known only as “the syndicate”. He shacks up with a former partner (Maria Bello,
beautiful and world-weary at the same time) and begins his rampage. The film
consistently maintains that ultracool atmosphere whenever Gibson is onscreen, which is
nearly every scene. Gibson is a treat to watch and the film plays this fact up every chance
it gets..

But don't discount the supporting characters. At the bottom is Resnick,
the best character in the movie, white-haired with a bondage fetish, this guy is a walking
disaster. When he smiles at Chinese school children and five minutes later, repeatedly
beats a dead Chinaman, he shines with a wicked charisma (surely worth more than the
crappy films he has made prior to this). Coburn and Devane inhabit the next two rungs on
the ladder, Coburn laid-back and confident; Devane articulating like a mad scientist and
slinking like a snake (Using these veteran actors, Devane in particular, was a masterful
plan to achieve the faded feel of old men running crime like it was their daddy’s
business).  Finally, we have Kristofferson, offering first a tidbit of aggression and finally,
a nihilistic amount, torturing Gibson in a really disturbing manner.

Though the film may look and feel like it’s well-plotted with quality, its nothing
more than a cartoon which casts tough guys in the key roles. The real pleasure is
watching them scheme, fight and divide like a cat and mouse, playing a tense game of
mano a mano. And looking badass whilst doing it.
 

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