Ben Affleck has really gone downhill. So, for that matter, has director John Woo, and even author Philip K. Dick, despite being dead for over 20 years. Their new collaboration, Paycheck, is a silly, derivative and disposable action film that lacks the punch of their previous work. Affleck is poorly cast as Michael Jennings, a computer engineer who works on projects so secret that he has his memory wiped when he's done. His latest job is for Allcom, a company run by his old friend Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart). After three years of work, he's got no memory but is expecting a $93 million paycheck. Instead he finds he's given up the money for a packet of 19 seemingly random items.
Michael uses the items to elude both the FBI and Allcom's goons, after him because of what he worked on in his missing time: a machine that can predict the future. Dick's intriguing, philosophical science fiction has inspired movies like Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report, and the concept behind Paycheck is interesting, with potential to explore questions about fate and memory. But Woo, who's made great action movies like Face/Off and Mission: Impossible 2, turns the story into a simplistic, pulpy chase movie. It's campy, but not campy enough to be entertaining. Affleck's acting is wooden, his facial expressions laughable, and the story is nonsensical instead of challenging. This is one Affleck misstep you can't blame on J. Lo.