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	Movie Review - Paycheck     (What this rating means)       Director: John Woo Starring: Benaffleck, Uma Thurman, Aaron Eckhart Rated: PG-13 for intense action violence and brief language Length: 119 minutes Genre: Action, Thriller, Sci-fi Website: Paycheck PLOT Benaffleck stars as Michael Jennings, a top-notch reverse engineer who has memory wipes instead of non-disclosure agreements. His next project is his biggest and will take him 3 years, at the end of which he receives $92 million in stock options. The problems start when he goes to pick up his money and he finds out that he has forfeited the stock options. Instead of the money, he now has 19 items that he has sent himself. He has to use these items to figure out why he relinquished the money and what he was working on. Benaffleck looking into the future ensues. MR. SHADE'S TAKE Benaffleck plays a reverse engineer-turned-super secret agent and takes up most of the screen time. Uma Thurman plays his girlfriend and is basically eye candy in the movie. Aaron Eckhart plays your typical corporate bad guy - cold-blooded and only out for himself. The cast does a decent job, but this movie is definitely not about acting or character development. The 19 items seem to set up a mystery that we are to unravel as we go along. The trailer and some of the posters show jigsaw puzzle pieces, implying that these items are part of the puzzle. Unfortunately, this is not how the movie plays out. It should be pretty obvious from the trailer that Benaffleck built a time machine. This one is limited however; it only allows you to see into the future, not actually travel there. So the 19 items are just things he will need at certain times to escape bad situations. For instance, he might get chased to the end of a street and the only way out is a manhole, so one of his items would be a manhole cover remover. This isn't actually one of the items, but you get the idea. The items are just plot contrivances to get us from one scene to the next. We end up with no mystery to solve, as there is no way to predict when, where, or how the items are to be used. Fortunately the movie ends up being a decent action flick to make up for the lost mystery. There are some average fight scenes and motorcycle chases - fortunately it's no "Torque." The action is a little cheesy as people make dead-on shots from moving cars and Benaffleck's engineer character is taking out people left and right with his fists and machine guns. The movie makes a half-hearted attempt to explain this by showing Benaffleck training with a jo staff (think of a broom handle) in the beginning of the movie. I believe they took the scene out of Daredevil. The movie basically feels like an Arnold Schwarzeneggar flick. The plot sounds interesting but basically is just enough to feed the action. The film tries to make things more seriously at the end by showing the results of having a machine that can predict the future, but it just feels like it was tacked on. Don't expect any moving moments in the film. MAMA'S APPROVAL The PG-13 rating is a good indicator. There's plenty of bloodless violence and a few curse words thrown in. There are also a couple of casual sex scenes but no nudity. This movie could easily be shown on network TV. TRAILER COMPARISON Other than implying there is a puzzle to solve, the movie is what you would expect from the trailer. Lots of action and lots of Benaffleck. THE GIST Overall this movie is just slightly above average. It's formulaic and goes with the typical Hollywood ending. This is definitely a popcorn flick. If you're a Benaffleck mark or you just love movies then go see it in theaters, otherwise wait until it hits DVD.	RETURN TO HOME PAGE The Dark Knight Journey to the Center of the Earth Hancock Get Smart The Incredible Hulk The Strangers Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Young at Heart Iron Man Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed Weekend Results: 1. The Dark Knight($158,411,483) 2. Mamma Mia!($27,751,240) 3. Hancock($14,040,178) 4. Journey to the Center of the Earth($12,340,435) 5. Hellboy 2($10,117,815)

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