Paycheck (2003)

Réalisateur:

John Woo

Scénaristes (WGA):

Philip K. Dick (short story)
Dean Georgaris (screenplay)

Date de sortie:

25 décembre 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Science-Fiction | Thriller | Action | Mystère

Accroche:

Remember the future.

Intrigue:

What seemed like a breezy idea for an engineer to net him millions of dollars, leaves him on the run for his life and piecing together why he's being chased.

Plot Keywords:

Engineer | Computer Engineer | FBI | Destiny | Amnesia

Récompenses:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Avis des utilisateurs:

Better than expected action / sci fi flick

Ensemble

Ben Affleck	...	Jennings
Aaron Eckhart	...	Rethrick
Uma Thurman	...	Rachel
Paul Giamatti	...	Shorty
Colm Feore	...	Wolfe
Joe Morton	...	Agent Dodge
Michael C. Hall	...	Agent Klein
Peter Friedman	...	Attorney General Brown
Kathryn Morris	...	Rita Dunne
Ivana Milicevic	...	Maya-Rachel
Christopher Kennedy	...	Stevens
Fulvio Cecere	...	Agent Fuman
John Cassini	...	Agent Mitchell
Callum Keith Rennie	...	Jude - Guard
Michelle Harrison	...	Jane

Autre(s) titre(s):

La paye (Canada: French title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for intense action violence and brief language.

Durée:

119 min

Pays:

USA | Canada

Langue:

Anglais

Couleur:

Couleur

Rapport de forme:

2,35 : 1

Son:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Classification:

Switzerland:14 (canton of Zurich) | Iceland:14 | Malaysia:18SG | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:14 | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Finland:K-15 | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Ireland:15 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of the Grisons) | UK:12A (original rating) | UK:12 (video rating) (2004) | USA:PG-13

Lieux de tournage:

Burrard SkyTrain Station, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Société:

DreamWorks SKG

Anecdotes:

Among one of the items in the envelope is Michael's ID card from Alcom Corporation. In an FBI office scene there is a close shot of the card with a UPC bar-code 071486036043. This code corresponds to Premiere Magazine published by Curtis Circulation Company.

Goofs:

Erreurs factuelles: When footage of the nuclear explosion is shown, the mushroom cloud appears, fully formed, immediately following the flash. Mushroom clouds, which are caused by debris being sucked into the powerful vacuum created by the blast, take several seconds to form.

Guillemet:

[first lines]
Holographic Woman: It's time to wake up... and get a life. We live in a 3-dimensional world. Until now, the world of computing has been a flat world, consisting of 2-dimensional imagery. Now, through the use of exclusive breakthrough technology, ARC has made it possible for you to get a life. A-Life, where we can work and play in a lifelike world of 3-dimensional reality. A-Life, the living monitor.

Connexions De Film:

Références Psycho (1960)

Bande son:

Dream a Little Dream of Me

Better than expected action / sci fi flick

Philip K Dick wrote many stories which seemed to have great film potential. I never thought of this as one of them.

I have seen Ben Affleck in a number of films, and felt that he was good in a few, OK in most, and positively annoying in some.

I saw the horrible, misleading trailers.

The soundtrack was simply bad.

So, needless to say, I went into Paycheck with very low expectations.... and I was pleasantly surprised.

Affleck plays a talented reverse-engineer, who sees the possibilities in new technology, and is able to carry it through to fruition. He takes on top-secret jobs and has his memory erased upon the completion of each. He decides to take on a project big and profitable enough to allow him to retire comfortably for the rest of his life. He completes the project, goes through the memory erasure, and then starts to discover what he has done, and, pursued by corporate hit men and the police, tries to recover his memory. Uma Thurmond, a biologist he had fallen in love with, is one of the memories he wants to recover, and also a target.

Paycheck is more of an action film than a sci fi flick. The plot serves the action, as do the somewhat one-dimensional characters. And there is so little chemistry between Affleck and Thurmond that the romantic subplot is almost just a distraction. Despite these flaws, I spent an evening being thoroughly entertained by this rehashing of the usual technology-run-amok / knowledge-is-power story. This film is very Hollywood, and uses a lot of slick and clichéd camera-work, but nevertheless tells a good story and does it well enough.