Michael Jennings is a genius who's hired – and paid handsomely – by high-tech firms to work on highly sensitive projects, after which his short-term memory is erased so he's incapable of breaching security. But at the end of a three-year job, he's told he isn't getting a paycheck and instead receives a mysterious envelope. In it are clues he must piece together to find out why he wasn't paid – and why he's now in hot water.
[Woo] still has pretty much of a tin ear for American performances, so he lets Affleck doze through the starring role. The film feels as if it has no center.
– Stephen Hunter,
Washington Post,
25 Dec 2003
rotten:
If a movie is going to flout, or at least bend, the laws of the universe, it at least ought to obey its own internal rules.
– Michael O'Sullivan,
Washington Post,
25 Dec 2003
fresh:
You may not buy everything about this movie, but you'll likely leave it with a smile.
– Bob Townsend,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
26 Dec 2003
rotten:
Without ever quite becoming boring, Paycheck seems to narrow into a routine pattern, and a plot that at first had nuance and the hint of a broader meaning degenerates into chases and standard action.
– Mick LaSalle,
San Francisco Chronicle,
26 Dec 2003
rotten:
There's a sense of treading water about this movie.