Payback (1999)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1999
	Director: Brian Helgeland (A Knight's Tale, screenplay writer for L.A. Confidential, Mystic River, Man of Fire, Green Zone)
	Actors: Mel Gibson (Braveheart), Gregg Henry (Super), Maria Bello (A History of Violence), Bill Duke (Predator), Deborah Kara Unger (Crash, Highlander 3), Lucy Liu (Kill Bill)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 31.08.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Porter (Gibson) was set up and left for dead by his wife and partner after a robbery. He is back with a vengeance and a fixed idea: getting his money back.
Review: I thought I had never seen this movie but actually I may have. It vaguely reminded something to me, but for sure if I saw it I was too young to appreciate it like I did this time. The movie shows a Mel Gibson at his best as it was produced between Lethal Weapon 4, What Women Want and Signs. We haven't seen him much since. He is great in this role of the most stubborn man ever. His character is good at what he is doing (stealing), not overly good but it helps him to be stubborn and have no limits to the violence he can use. Gibson plays very well a guy that could look simple, so that people are not suspicious and eventually take him for a fool and try to abuse him (like the dirty cops do). Be he is much more clever than that and in the end he gets what he wants. The other characters are also pleasant to follow because well written and played by many known faces, although one could criticize that they are too caricatured. A good movie and rather original. I have watched the Director's cut version that is so different from the theatrical one (and even 15 minutes shorter) that it has its own IMDb page, under the title Straight up (2006 director's cut). Now I am curious about the original release and I don't know if maybe I should watch it, or just a documentary about the changed operated by the director...
Rating: 7 /10