I saw "Payback."
A tough-guy sort of hard-boiled flick, and I
give 'em credit for trying. But a tad cliched, a tad predictable,
and --most unforgiveably-- a tad anemic at times.
Gibson does a tough-guy deep gravelly
voice-over throughout the flick which seems a bit forced.
Action's pretty sparse-- which is odd, because given the cartoony
premise (it takes place in an unnamed city whose newspaper of
record is the "Metropolitan Tribune," where "The
Outfit" controls the rackets) you'd think that it would be a
non-stop John Woo splatterfest. There is some nasty over-the-top
violence, including torture, but we've seen it before.
Lots of over the hill actors. William Devane
actually turns in an odd and interesting performance as an
"Outfit" boss named "Carter." James Coburn
shows up as another boss named "Fairfax," and Kris
Kristopherson (who is NOT a good actor, no matter what anybody
says) plays the Overboss "Bronson" or something like
that. Obviously, this is not your typical big city crime family.
Sort of like the non-ethnic mobsters long favored by "TJ
Hooker" and "The Fall Guy" and other eighties cop
shows. Also, a cop shows up who looks an awful lot like Warren
Beatty, although with Garry Shandling's lips. Is this how Beatty
looks nowadays?
A passable effort. I rank it on the same level
as "Enemy of the State." It didn't insult your
intelligence, there was some good in it, but I was left
underwhelmed. In fact, although I saw it yesterday, I have more
or less completely forgotten about it already. Only the
"Movies" thread reminded me I had a review to post.
