Cheap Payback (DVD) (Mel Gibson) (Brian Helgeland) Price

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Customer Reviews of Payback

Mel Gibson's Payback
"Payback" is a funny dark comedy and crime thriller at the same time. Mel Gibson plays Porter, a theif who has sworn vengence against his best friend (Gregg Henry) and his wife (Deborah Unger) for ripping off his share of heist money and leaving him for dead. He returns, enlists the aid of a hooker friend, and takes on the entire New York mob (called the Outfit). All of the men in the movie are bad guys, it's just that some are worst guys. Mel Gibson has never been funnier, even though he never cracks a smile through the whole movie. His delivery is dead pan, and that makes it so much funnier. Gibson's Porter (there is no first name) is tough. Porter has a kind of street smart that allows him to survive, much like a fox in the woods, always having the bad guys fall into their own traps. Lucy Liu is also pretty good as an extream S&M dominatrix. The three main bad guys are old hands at being bad. Kris Kristofferson is the head of the Outfit, Bronson. James Coburn is funny as the older man, Fairfax. And William Devane as Carter, a slimy day supervisor is funny at how casual he orders rather grisly murders. The violence is gruesome (though not exactly "Friday the 13th" level), but it is done in a "Three Stoges" extreamity that's kind of comic (although the torture scene at the end is not at all funny, I'll never look at Three Little Pigs the same way). I loved this movie, it has action, comedy, and a melodramatic scene that is out of this world. "Payback" is based on Richard Stark's "The Hunter", the first Parker novel. The movie has the correct feel that jibes with the book.

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Get Ready to Root for the Bad Guy
So said the tv spots for this Mel Gibson crime/caper flick. And make no doubt about it; Mel's a thieving, conniving, murderous thug, but what makes you root for him is his dogged determination to get what is rightfully his. This film is a throwback to the old gangster dramas, along the lines of old Cagney films, but it's much more brutal and vicious. It's full of great moments, and Mel never once steps out of character making his performance that much more believable. Even Kris Kristofferson's good in it, and that's sayin' somethin'! Throw in the luscious Lucy Liu and you've got a good flick. Still don't think Mel can pull off playing a scumbag? See this one and be proved wrong. As James Coburn states in the film, "Man, you're just mean!" My favorite part of the movie is the first ten minutes, as Mel goes from being bleeding and busted to having a good suit, a pocket full of money and a credit card, and it's all 'cause he's a slick S.O.B. Based on the book "The Hunter," by Richard Stark and directed by L.A. Confidential's Brian Helgeland.

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phrase on cover says it all.
"Get ready to root for the bad guy." I've been a Gibson fan for years. From the Lethal Weapon series, to Braveheart, to Hamlet. So, needless to say, I had to go after reading that Mel was playing a bad guy. It's a role he naturally roles into. It's against type Mel's usually good-duy role, so that makes it more fun.

It's very dark, and rather violent. Not a movie for the weak of heart.
(spoiler warning) spoiler warning

From the opening scene this movie doesn't relent. He takes change from a homeless man.Lift a guys wallet, and then assumes his identity whereupon he withdraws several hundred dollars, he buys a suit, he buys 3 expsensive watches, and immediately pawns them.

(spoiler over)

That said the movie is just too well acted for people to say anything negative against it.