a5c7b9f00b Jennings, an engineer who has had part of his memory erased, struggles to to find clues to his whereabouts for the past two years. Turns out his employer did the evil deed as a security measure, leaving him only with a collection of random objects to help him reconstruct his past. 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. Although this had a promising premise (provided by Philip K. Dick) , the ultimate delivery proves to be a waste of good material.<br/><br/>The direction by John Woo suffers from overly choreographed action scenes, which in my view renders these pointless and the script is so so at best.<br/><br/>Add to this the film's insistence on the usual Hollywood essentials, i.e a romantic interest, the intermittent appearance of the awkward sidekick (Paul Giamatti) and dimwitted (and in part morally corrupt) FBI agents and you have a disappointing film that plays it purely by the numbers.<br/><br/>3/10 Really enjoyed this movie.<br/><br/>SPOILERS AHEAD OK, the premise that one can see into the future by seeing right around the Universe ("according to Einstein") is a bit sus, but, what the heck, Sci-Fi is all about "What IF..."<br/><br/>This is another of 5 stories by prolific sci-fi writer Phil K. Dick which has made it into a major movie (others include Blade Runner and Minority Report).<br/><br/>Jennings (Elton) is an elite industrial spy/reverse engineer who undertakes missions so sensitive he can only do so with the undertaking that his memory will be erased at the conclusion of each job. For example, at the beginning of the movie he does a job for an outfit interested in stealing another company's 3D holographic projector.<br/><br/>Then he is offered a really big job - so big he will never need to work again ("eight figures"). As expected, we see him entering the job then exiting it, virtually in the one scene. As intended, he is none the wiser, being hardly even aware of having started the job, let alone knowing what it is.<br/><br/>What he does know though, is his bank balance is now a staggering $90,000,000+! He hurries to the bank to make arrangements, to find much to his dismay that he signed away his entitlement to payment from this latest job, in return for a paper bag filled with enigmatic, seemingly worthless objects, a scrap of paper, a paperclip, a bullet, among a dozen or so others.<br/><br/>If that weren't life-shattering enough, he is also being hunted with deadly intent. Then comes the first clue that the bag and it's contents aren't so worthless after all: the scrap of paper contains all the numbers in order, of the latest grand lottery draw. <br/><br/>The movie moves into thriller mode - explosions, pursuit, an extended motorcycle chase (a welcome relief to the usual mandatory car chase), gunfire - at each step the bag's contents providing some crucial clue or help.<br/><br/>In the end it seems clear: The $90M was no good to him dead, what the bag and contents did was much more valuable, enabling him to survive. And yes, if you really could see the future, you could arrange after all that for a happy ending...<br/><br/>JR movie fiend The amazing thing about John Woo's steely, impersonal adaptation of Philip K. Dick sci-fi story about a tech genius whose memory is erased...is how it vanishes in front of our eyes even as we watch it. It is based on a short story Paycheck, written by Phillip K. Dick in the 1950s. There are several differences in the film and the original story (including the items Jennings gets from the envelope), but the basic premise is similar to the original. Notable features of the story that are different from the book are:<br/><br/>* Although the setting is 21-century America, it is a more dystopian future. A recent change in government has been referred to, the new government has a secret police force that supposedly never releases its detainees, the new government uses "credits" instead of "dollars", and individual citizens have significantly fewer rights than corporations do.<br/><br/>* Rethrick is a much older man and has no prior connection with Jennings.<br/><br/>* Although there is a potential love interest who works for the company named Kelly, she does not encounter Jennings until after the memory wipe and has a "surprise ending" secret that is not in the movie.<br/><br/>* Technology is significantly different. Erasing memory is a secret that most people do not know about (including the goverment agents who arrest Jennings). Rethrick's company still has significant manual labor. Cameras still require mechanical film. Rockets that transport people between cities are commonplace. And, the device that Jennings develops for Rethrick not only sees things but can also retrieve things.<br/><br/>* The plot features a lot more blackmail and threat of blackmail. Rethrick is generally unaware of Jennings' experiences after the memory wipe and it is Jennings who is looking for Rethrick, not the other way around.<br/><br/>* The climax of the short story is completely different from that of the movie. In the story, Jennings sneaks into the company alone, rather than with a partner as in the film (in the story he enlists Kelly's help, but simply asks her to keep whatever he finds safe so that it doesn't fall into the hands of the authorities) using a piece of cloth among his belongings that identifies him as a worker. He also had no interest in destroying the machine (identified as a "time scoop"), he simply wanted to photograph it (the device itself was illegal and the company was part of a resistance against an oppressive government). The film also adds in a climatic shootout that destroys most of the building, while in the original short story Jennings merely snuck out through a back door he had left himself a key to.<br/><br/>* The movie ends with Rethrick being killed while Jennings escapes and goes on to live with Rachel; the short story ends with Jennings successfully blackmailing Rethrick into making him a partner in the corporation, hinting at the possibility that he may eventually find a way to take over.
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