Granted the acting isn't brilliant, I loved the story, ideas and film as a whole... it will get you thinking a bit so there's less passive viewing which is always a bonus!

john woo good action director but this film is absolute pants the story well there is no story the acting is cardboard this should have never been given the green light from the studio

Ben Affleck is said to be embarrassed by this film, but there's no need. It's a perfectly fine 'brain at the door' couple of hours, very much in the vein of Total Recall (another Philip K. Dick story).

What's good: the film never drags, the supporting actors are great, and the ending isn't a cop-out.

What's not good: the supporting actors should've had more screen-time (Joe Morton, Michael C. Hall, Paul Giamatti - come on!), Uma Thurman's character is too wet to be believable, and director John Woo believes that Ben Affleck's distractingly chunky face has to fill 50% of the screen, 50% of the time.

But it was fun, and sometimes that's all you want.

John "the action master" Woo spat out "Paycheck" in 2003, based on a short story by Philip K. Dick. Fans of Woo are sure to be disappointed as "Paycheck" doesn't live up to Woo's masterpiece (and my personal favourite of his) "Hard Boiled", it doesn't even have the absurd fun feel found in his brilliant "Face/Off". Instead the film has a pretty poor plot, bad acting and action sequences that aren't spectacular.

To get the negative out of the way, Ben Affleck is purely Ben Affleck in this film, he is flat and the poor characterisation in the script doesn't help him! Uma Thurman is the films saving grace, but unfortunately she is under-used and when onscreen struggles, again because of the poor script. The villian Aaron Eckhart is also quite under-used but is mildly entertaining in his role.

All the Woo trademarks are in place, slow motion, mexican stand-offs and even the dove! The action sequences are enjoyable enough but nothing spectacular and sometimes they feel a bit superflous, basically the attitude seems that the bigger the explosion the more exciting it is... unfortunately not!

Overall the film is enjoyable enough but be wary of slow moments and poor characterisation. If you like John Woo this is unfortunately one of his poorest efforts but his stamp is all over it! A better script and leading man could have done this film wonders!

Remember the future