Paycheck

Starring: Uma Thurman, Ben Affleck

RS: 1of 4 Stars

2003 Action

The title of this limp retread of Minority Report -- both films are based on stories by Philip K. Dick -- presumably refers to the reason the big names involved did this movie. Ben Affleck, as lumpish here as he was in Gigli, plays a scientist who gets his memory erased after inventing a machine that sees into the future. Uma Thurman, following her triumph in Kill Bill, is reduced to playing "the girl." Speaking of waste, the great John Woo directed and stumbles again, as he did with Windtalkers. A dove flies in to complete Woo's self-parody. Sad, sad.

PETER TRAVERS
(December 23, 2003)