Payback

Helgeland managed a fairly decent mix of the gritty dude, Lethal Weapon, and the Tarantino crude gangster poetics, in which brutality is sort of danced, humorous, casual. Payback is no directorial opus magni - it is a rather routine film, which owes most of its great moments to the script and to the excellent Mel Gibson, who capitalized on his many years of experience in detective Riggs' skin, only to stand on the opposite side of the barricade. Thanks to him the incredibly stubborn thief Porter becomes a character almost humorously dangerous, who, with raw willfulness, walks through the reinforced concrete barricade for the smallest thing. The central character is the central value of Payback. We otherwise do not find anything particularly original or memorable here, everything works for the benefit of the whole and the result is a quality gangster film from the rough school that delights even with its decent ending. (29/11/2005)

A brilliantly built-up thriller with a pace that is simply unreal in the second half. And yet so little is enough... Just steal $140,000 (no, sorry, just $70,000) from Mel Gibson and you'll unleash the kind of carousel of murders, shootouts and badass one-liners that we only remember from the first Die Hard. Gibson shines in his role and enjoys it to the fullest, but the supporting characters are also given a memorable portrayal by the actors, whether I'm thinking of the bad guys Henry, Kristofferson and Coburn or the pretty sharp hooker Lucy Liu. Simple, straightforward, harsh – just the way it should be. (23/07/2012)

A rakish, hardheaded gangster played by Mel Gibson, the pretty blonde he cares about, a couple of dumb corrupt cops, a pile of violence, some sado-masochism and, mainly, a dozen goons whose “coolness” increases as they gradually get to know each other, from the biggest bungler to the biggest, toughest and most uncompromising boss. And all of this wrapped up in nostalgic, grey-blue camera filters and hellishly black humour. A delicious treat! (10/08/2002)

Genre-wise Payback is essentially an unclassifiable film. It doesn't have a classic plot, it doesn't distinguish between good and evil, and it also doesn't map out the actions of the main characters. Mel Gibson is a man of moral principles and that's where it ends, he can't be called either “good” or “bad”, and perhaps that's exactly what makes Payback such a stylish ride. Of course there is also a polished formal side (filters, sets, cinematography) and a few gems (sadomasochism, a parade of bosses, corrupt cops, etc.) that cannot be overlooked and are captivating matter what you think of them. The plot is basically banal, but everything works like a well-oiled machine. Brian Helgeland is damn well aware of the squalor of the material and doesn't give the viewer a chance to realize this fact, bombarding them with one stylized shot after another and with main characters so interesting that it's hard to believe. (09/03/2007)

The brutality suits the noir-themed crime stories well. On the journey for revenge, Gibson, as a tough guy with a steel gaze, loves a beautiful prostitute, seeks out a traitor, and encounters - uh - a sadistic dominatrix leading an Asian gang. I can't remember the last time I used that word, but Payback is a cool movie, with a perfect cold look, and some scenes are amazingly uncompromising in their brutality, but unfortunately, everything is always just tough, and throughout the whole time, I didn't experience any significant twist that would have affected me in any way. Helgeland relies on stylish form, but the essence constantly eludes him. (11/06/2007)