Movie-A-Day #198: Payback

Brian in Mesa

Advocatus Diaboli
Super Moderator
Moderator
Supporting Member
Joined
May 13, 2002
Posts
73,951
Reaction score
26,377
Location
Killjoy Central
Payback

Cast: Mel Gibson, Gregg Henry, Maria Bello, David Paymer, Deborah Kara Unger, William Devane, Lucy Liu, Kris Kristofferson, James Coburn, etc.

Synopsis: What was supposed to be a routine robbery turns into a double cross leaving Porter near death. Things take a turn for the bizarre when Porter recuperates and comes looking for the money that was taken from him. He finds that the money is now in the hands of a crime organization. He's determined to get the money back and his many encounters include his less than likeable ex-partner, a sniveling crook, two corrupt cops, a brutal **********, and one very lethal crime boss.

Trivia:

Thirty percent of the film was re-shot when Brian Helgeland was replaced as director.

For release in Australia, the U.S. tagline "Get ready to root for the bad guy" was changed to "Get ready to CHEER for the bad guy" because, as Mel Gibson himself pointed out, in Australia "to root" is slang for "to have sexual intercourse".

Almost all of the telephones in the movie (even the one in the limousine) are rotary, not touch-tone.

One major addition to the movie after Brian Helgeland left included 'Kris Kristofferson' 's character of the main villain. The re-shoots resulted in a delay of almost one year, because Mel Gibson was committed to Lethal Weapon 4 (1998 ) right after principal photography ended.

While the identity of the person assigned to direct the re-shoots of the film following the departure of Brian Helgeland was originally unknown, Mel Gibson revealed in a Hong Kong newspaper interview that that person was production designer John Myhre.

------------------------------------------

Another movie which I know some people did not like at all. I like the style of the movie and the slickness of Porter. I thought it was okay when I first saw it and like it even more having seen it a few more times.

Apologies to Shane, but you gotta love the quote (voiceover): " Crooked cops. Do they come in any other way? If I'd been just a little dumber, I could have joined the force myself."
 

Attachments

  • payback.jpg
    payback.jpg
    23.9 KB · Views: 37

Brown_Blood

Seven.
Joined
Jan 13, 2005
Posts
388
Reaction score
1
Location
AZ
I loved Mel Gibson in this movie. Definitely different to see him as a bad guy, though his character did have a little flavor of "Riggs" from Lethal Weapon.
 

Staff online

Forum statistics

Threads
560,594
Posts
5,473,233
Members
6,337
Latest member
61_Shasta
Top