Payback [1999]

Adventure, Thriller, Crime, Action

Mel Gibson	Porter
Gregg Henry	Val Resnick
Maria Bello	Rosie
David Paymer	Arthur Stegman
Bill Duke	Detective Hicks
Deborah Unger	Mrs. Lynn Porter
John Glover	Phil
William Devane	Carter
Lucy Liu	Pearl
Jack Conley	Detective Leary

Director	John Myhre; Brian Helgeland; Ken Cameron
Producer	Bruce Davey; Terry Hayes
Writer	Donald E. Westlake; Brian Helgeland

If it weren't for the fact that John Boorman's Point Blank was already a definitive take on Richard Stark's novel The Hunter (reissued under the title Payback), Payback would be a well-above-average 90s action movie. The original toughness is diluted: Mel Gibson's Porter, replacing Lee Marvin's Walker and Stark's Parker, comes on like a hardnut but turns into a softie when he hooks up with call-girl Maria Bello (and he even likes dogs). Double-crossed and wounded after shifty Gregg Henry dupes Porter's wife (Deborah Kara Unger) into betraying him, Porter sets out to get back the $70,000 share of a heist that he feels he is owed. Because Henry has used the money to buy his way into "the Outfit", he has to deal not only with the squirming scumbag but a hierarchy of corporate mobsters (William Devane, James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson) for whom it would be bad business practice to hand over even the trivial sum. Director-writer Brian Helgeland gives it a steely-blue look and gets good performances all round (with room for Lucy Liu as an amusing dominatrix) while constructing a story in which everything fits. But it's just a good thriller, since the masterpiece potential has already been staked out. --Kim Newman