Review of Payback (1999) by Steven M — 22 Jun 2013

There are two DVD versions of "Payback". One is pretty good and the other is pretty bad. Let me explain.

When "Payback" was being made and the project nearing completion, studio executives decided that director Brian Helgeland's movie was too dark for a mass audience. So they removed him and finished the project to appeal a focus-grouped audience. Fast-forward several years and Helgeland assembles a director's cut reflecting his original vision. Thus the two DVD versions: "Payback", the studio release and "Payback: Straight Up", which is Helgeland's director's cut. The studio version is terrible. The director's cut is much better.

Only die-hard Kris Kristofferson fans need bother with the bloated studio version. The much-leaner director's cut excises a superfluous subplot (added by studio execs after the fact?) involving a criminal kingpin, played by Kristofferson, and the kingpin's spoiled son. Everybody else, don't bother with the studio version. Get the leaner and darker director's cut. (My three-star rating above is based on the director's cut, not the studio release which I would give only two stars.).

By the way neither version of "Payback" is nearly so lean nor so dark, and not nearly so good, as "Point Blank", the 1967 original, directed by John Boorman with Lee Marvin in the role played by Mel Gibson in "Payback".