DVD review: Pay Check (From Barry And District News)

DVD review: Pay Check

Affleck plays Michael Jennings, the best reverse-engineer in the business.

He is hired by clients to take apart new technology invented by rival companies and find out how it operates. His work is so sensitive that all memories of each project are erased from his brain on completion.

When he is hired to do a special job that will secure him the paycheck of all paychecks, he agrees to the contract .

The job will take a massive three years of his life. So far, memory erasing has only managed two months safely, but he is persuaded to go ahead.

When the work is completed, all memories are erased. But that includes the relationship with biologist Rachel (Thurman), leading to their engagement.

He is being hunted for something he has no recollection of doing and has only a little time to work it out. Now Jennings has to solve the puzzle of the 19 seemingly unconnected objects he sent himself before his memory was wiped. And time is running out very quickly.

This film is at times unoriginal, borrowing ideas from films like Memento and Minority Report. But Paycheck is redeemed by its chase scene into which John Woo (Mission Impossible II and Face/Off) crams cars, motorbikes, helicopters and a few well placed discarded pipes, topped off with a few explosions .