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Payback

Payback stars Mel Gibson as Porter, Gregg Henry as Val, Maria Bello as Rosie, Deborah Unger as Lynn Porter, David Paymer as Stegman, Bill Duke as Detective Hicks, Jack Conley as Detective Leary, William Devane as Carter, Kris Kristofferson as Bronson, John Glover as Phil, and Lucy Alexis Liu as Pearl.

Payback is a movie that was going to have Mel Gibson play a seedy character. Something that was going to broaden his appeal. Not! The pretty boys in Hollywood have too much ego to actually dress down. That is where this movie goes bad, from the start.

The film starts with a operation to remove bullets from Porter's back. Of course the cleansing solution is whiskey and the anesthesia is whiskey. Next we seePorter taking money from a panhandler's hat. Now we know he is bad. Of course he does not stay true to a low-life. In a flashback we see Porter, along with his partner, rob a chinese drug lord. We then brought to the present, when his partner and girl friend double cross him by shooting him in the back.

Now Porter seeks his half of the money and only his half (he now has principles) from The Outfit. That is where his ex-partner has bought his way back into after falling into dis-favor, due to a loan for $130,000. Porter goes after each member in the Outfit hierarchy asking for his $70,000.

The dialog is full of quips, akin to the Lethal Weapon films, but is lost on the audience. I like Mel Gibson, but Mel take a chance play a real seedy character one so seedy we have to look through the dirt to find you. Other actors were successful actually playing the part, none of their careers suffered. We just got good films.