Payback | 
 enlarge | Directors: John Myhre, Brian Helgeland
Actors: Mel Gibson, Gregg Henry, Maria Bello, David Paymer, Bill Duke
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $12.98
Buy Used: $3.97
You Save: $9.01 (69%)
New (6) Used (29) from $3.97
Rating:  159 reviews
Sales Rank: 16227
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 101
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: D336327D
ISBN: 0792156242
UPC: 097363363279
EAN: 9780792156246
ASIN: B00000JDIQ
Theatrical Release Date: February 5, 1999
Release Date: July 27, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
There were reasons writer-director Brian Helgeland's cut of Payback was dismissed by distributors Paramount and Warner Bros., then heavily re-shot and re-tooled by Mel Gibson's production company, Icon Entertainment. Those reasons are explained in detail by Gibson, Helgeland, and others in the special features of Payback: The Director's Cut (Special Collector's Edition). Among them: Helgeland's version was too dark. America wasn't ready in 1999 to see Gibson play an unapologetic, 1970s-style antihero who might not get exactly what he wants. Audiences didn't have the patience to wait for answers to their story questions. A dog dies. (A big no-no.) All of these comments make sound, practical sense. But here's the bottom line: Helgeland's cut, perhaps even a bit more disciplined and taut (according to Payback's editor, Kevin Stitt) than it was in 1999, is a serious movie with an organic tone and logic that makes the film look the way it was meant to look: as a neo-noir film for adults. The theatrical release of Payback, by contrast, was and is silly and vulgar, self-sabotaging, pointlessly vicious, and perversely jaunty. It is very much like--deliberately like--the Lethal Weapon series. The Director's Cut makes clear that's not at all what Helgeland had in mind.
Kudos to Gibson and Icon for giving Helgeland a chance to restore his film and get it out on this DVD. But a look at both versions (this disc does not include the theatrical cut) back-to-back can certainly make one's head spin. Icon's revisions in the original release show little faith in a contemporary audience's ability to discern much about a story or mood or character from spare but telling details. That film relies on crass swatches of voiceover narration, cute inserts, added scenes, and hipster tunes on the soundtrack. All of that was designed to tell an audience how to feel rather than encourage a cinematic experience encountered with an open heart and mind. Worst of all is a specious third act nakedly built around an obligatory Gibson-gets-tortured sequence, leading the film to a lazy, comforting conclusion. The Director's Cut eschews all of that. Gibson's character, Porter (based on the central character in the novel "The Hunter," written by Donald E. Westlake under the pseudonym Richard Stark), is a man returning from the brink of death with nothing but his identity and the memory of something (an almost-nominal amount of money) taken from him. His iron determination, his capacity for brutality and inducing fear, and his survival instinct make him anything but warm and cuddly. It's his few ties to the past--especially an interrupted relationship with a call girl (Maria Bello)--that humanize him. One doesn't have to like Porter; one just accepts him and follows his journey in an honest, unmitigated fashion. That's exactly what Helgeland does, and his cleaner, leaner, smarter cut is instantly rewarding for its uncompromising, undistracted toughness. Special features include a documentary about the film's history, and a wonderful interview with Westlake. --Tom Keogh
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| Customer Reviews: Read 154 more reviews...
 Worst Director's Cut Ever! July 15, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I loved the original theatrical release. I picked up this blu-ray figuring I would watch this over and over. I WILL NOT! Absolutely the worst "Director's Cut" ever. They completely changed the story line and eliminated several characters. The new version is awful! DO NOT BUY THIS BLU-RAY!!
 This is far better then the un"Director's cut". May 17, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This version of the film over the "Directors cut" is like talking about some idiot doing a Directors cut of Indiana Jones. The first one is far, far better then some ego manic, (Helgeland and Gibson) trying to pull a movie out of the water because they thought it may be a mar on their Resume.
The new DC is bad, and when I say Bad, I honestly mean, horrid! It is disjointed, there is little if any character development, let alone story line. All in all the Directors Cut is a Waste of your Money and Time. It isn't even worth the time you may spend watching it, because if you never saw the first one, you'll just sit there and scratch your head and wonder how this was ever released!
With all of the good things I have to say about the DC version, the original version is everything the opposite! The first one is dark, scary, and shows a side of old Mel that no one expects. Honestly, his first real stretch as a character. It is a decent movie, not great, but worth owning, and seeing!
If you are like me you get sick of seeing all of this Hollywood monkey men play the same role year after year; Mel, Tom Hanks, etc....Only to have them do a conceptually interesting movie and have Hollywood shoot it down, because America didn't accept it!
At least guys like Bruce Willis and Johnny Depp continue to take stretches in their roles, and interestingly enough, they continue to pay off. So if you want Vanilla, you know where it is, but if you want yours crunchy, look around, you'll find it!
All in all, Buy the first Version, not the Directors cut, at least with the first version, you will get to see what H-Wood could do, if they didn't try to pander to the masses.
Oh and by the way, the Directors cut gets a solid 1 Star rating.
Director Got It Right The First Time March 25, 2008
There are two versions of this film, the original, and the newly-released 'Director's Cut.' If you saw this movie before, in the theatre or on cable, and want it for your own, DO NOT BUY the Director's Cut. The plot is completely different, ends abruptly, and does not create the Porter character that was in the original. Kris Kristofferson, the boxing match, the kid in the limo, the toes, the blown-up apartment...none of that's in it. Here, the money arrives at a subway station in a back-pack, and Porter has a shoot-out with a twenty-something chick that had the voice of Kathleen Turner on an earlier phone call with Devane's character, when Porter 'meets' with him. That meeting is where it really runs off the rails.
Best Buy has pulled the original, not even listed in their stock anymore. Get the good version before all that's left is the second, anemic, 'Director's Cut' version.
 Completely superfluous January 2, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Okay, so I made a mistake.
I wanted a not so expensive blu-ray disc to test my PS3 capability. And since Payback is quite an excellent movie, I thought I'd try this one. Wrong.
This version is not better than the previous one. Its inserts make the main character slightly less likable. The ending sucks. And the format is not 16:9, which kinda defeats the whole purpose of up-scaling (since that apparently leads to down-sizing).
Big mistake.
This Version Is Not Good December 27, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
They destroyed the 1999 version, which is much better. I but director's cut thinking that I would get more, but I got less, it is like 11 minutes of less movies and change characters and removed interesting scenes.
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