Critic Reviews
Payback (1999) Rank 2 Reviews
Expert Review Summary
based on (89) reviews
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LA Weekly (John Patterson)
Helgeland strips the material back to its pulp origins and overlays it with a patina of glib motifs familiar to devotees of Hollywood’s 1970s renaissance. ...read the complete Payback movie review at LA Weekly (John Patterson)
Washington Post (Michael O'Sullivan)
That script – co-written by Terry Hayes and director Brian Helgeland – is almost too noir for its own good at times, but Gibson somehow manages to pull its implausibility off. ...read the complete Payback movie review at Washington Post (Michael O'Sullivan)
Box Office Magazine
Newsweek (Jeff Giles)
Payback may not always be P.C., but it's not interested in making friends, anyway. Just killing enemies. ...read the complete Payback movie review at Newsweek (Jeff Giles)
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) (Liam Lacey)
In the last third, Payback turns into a joke. ...read the complete Payback movie review at The Globe and Mail (Toronto) (Liam Lacey)
Slate (David Edelstein)
The only moments of conviction come from an Asian-American dominatrix called Pearl (Lucy Liu), who brings far more glee to the task of beating people up than the picture's star or director. If the audience could have half as much fun as Pearl is having, ...read the complete Payback movie review at Slate (David Edelstein)
Variety (Emanuel Levy)
Not an embarrassment, but it's not distinguished, either. ...read the complete Payback movie review at Variety (Emanuel Levy)
Rolling Stone (Peter Travers)
Payback is a brutally entertaining crime drama that should have been a little more brutal and a little less entertaining. ...read the complete Payback movie review at Rolling Stone (Peter Travers)
Detroit News (Susan Stark)
Palo Alto Online (Leonard Schwarz)
IMDB.com
For one thing Mel Gibson's Porter character is mean, mean, and mean. The film's tagline, "Get Ready to Root For the Bad Guy" isn't even the half of it. The loose storyline is that Porter and his former partner Val(Gregg Henry) worked on a heist in which ...read the complete Payback movie review at IMDB.com
IMDB.com
And when they are dispatched, you'll probably grin or laugh. Yea, Payback is a movie for those people who get their entertainment from watching those police or secret surveillance programs that Fox airs.Payback is for those of us who slow down and gape ...read the complete Payback movie review at IMDB.com
Film Threat, Hollywood's Indie Voice
It's fitting that Paramount gave a watchable but, in the end, unexceptional DVD presentation to this watchable but unexceptional Mel Gibson thriller, which was released to disappointing theatrical grosses in February. Payback appears a lot clearer on ...read the complete Payback movie review at Film Threat, Hollywood's Indie Voice
The Onion (A.V. Club) (Keith Phipps)
Consider that in “Point Blank,” Lee Marvin walks through the film with the look of a man who's lost his soul. You can see it in his eyes. Look in Gibson's eyes in this one and you'll see soullessness, but it doesn't seem to come from anywhere ...read the complete Payback movie review at The Onion (A.V. Club) (Keith Phipps)
Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan)
Has the makings of that rarest of ventures, an adaptation that is true to the spirit of the original as well as its own time and place. But as Payback wends its way toward its conclusion, its promise dissipates and its pleasures wane. ...read the complete Payback movie review at Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan)
TV Guide (Maitland McDonagh)
It careens from coarse comedy to smart-ass stylization to vicious violence without ever becoming convincing on any level. ...read the complete Payback movie review at TV Guide (Maitland McDonagh)
Chicago Reader (Lisa Alspector)
The comic timing and Gibson's mugging are skillful, but the movie fulfills expectations of plot twists and ironic atmosphere only after having made clear that it won't be offering much else. ...read the complete Payback movie review at Chicago Reader (Lisa Alspector)
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