Payback - Straight Up - The Director's Cut [Blu-ray] | ![Payback - Straight Up - The Director's Cut [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zD-rWlO0L._SL500_.jpg) | Director: Brian Helgeland
Actors: Mel Gibson, Gregg Henry, Maria Bello, David Paymer, Bill Duke
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $11.96
as of 3/21/2010 16:36 EDT details
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New (31) Used (13) from $9.42
Seller: greatlakesmedia
Rating:  178 reviews
Sales Rank: 20779
Format: AC-3, Color, Director's Cut, Dolby, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: Blu-ray
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: BR119784
UPC: 097361197845
EAN: 0097361197845
ASIN: B000MTFFV8
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
Release Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Mel Gibson portrays Porter a career criminal bent on revenge after his partners in a street heist pump metal into him and take off with his $70000 cut. Bad move thugs. Because if you plan to double-cross Porter you'd better make sure he's dead. Porter resurfaces wading into a lurid urban underworld of syndicate kingpins cops on the take sniveling informants and deadly gangs. Porter wants his money back. And the way he sets out to get is assures that from beginning to heartpounding end Payback pays off big. System Requirements:Runtime: 90 MinsFormat: BLU-RAY DISC Genre: DRAMA Rating: UNRATED UPC: 097361197845 Manufacturer No: 119784
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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Showing reviews 1-5 of 178
 Not the original movie February 15, 2010
Shemp (California)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The original 1999 movie has been destroyed for this "directors cut" and they didnt even have the decency to include the original theatrical release in the same package. A complete rip off.
The original movie is great but you will only find it on dvd, not blu ray.
 Today Is A Good Day To Die, So Join Me... February 11, 2010
Bindy Sue Frønkünschtein (under the rubble)
When I watch PAYBACK, it reminds me of just how talented Mel Gibson really is. It makes me think of his first two MAD MAX films or BRAVEHEART. His Porter character is that same unstoppable hero / anti-hero that Gibson plays so effortlessly. The plot is fairly basic noir- Porter is double-crossed, shot, and left for dead. He refuses to expire, leading to his hunt for those who betrayed him THE END.- However, Gibson gives Porter a human quality that bleeds through his hardened, ruthless exterior. He is righteous in his quest, even when commiting cold-blooded murder. Of course, it helps that most of the badguys he's after are reprehensible in every way! Porter's universe is populated by thugs, junkies, whores, killers, corrupt cops, sadists, psychos, and a seemingly omnipotent crime syndicate... er, I mean outfit. Porter must slay his way through it's minions in order to receive satisfaction. He is absolutely driven and set on one goal. He is MAD MAX in a suit! PAYBACK is full of colorful dialogue and interesting, somewhat twisted characters. Maria Bello (THE DARK, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE) plays a high-priced call-girl and Porter's only friend, Lucy Liu (KILL BILL) is the hilariously wicked sado-masochistic dominatrix, and the outfit bosses are played by William Devane, James Coburn, and Kris Kristofferson (THE JACKET). Glorious stuff...
They Need To Pay ME Back... A Refund! January 31, 2010
D. CO
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The original was great. It was funny with good action. It had a great balance of both. Usually when you see directors cut its a few changes the ordinary viewer wouldn't notice or the movie could have done without. Either way it still stays true to the main movie you remember. But this movie sucked big time! I see why they cut this out and went with the one in thearters. It is almost a totally different movie. The end was AWFUL. To make matters worse, They changed the mian bad guy in the movie into a women it wasn't a good idea. You see her and your like WTF. This would have got a least 3-4 if they released this on Blu-Ray with original and this as the extra disc. I enjoyed the thearter version much more. I wish they would have warned me I would not have purchased this movie.
 Typical Mel ruthless to the bone November 22, 2009
bernie (Arlington, Texas)
Porter (Mel Gibson) common criminal is just doing his thing and rather flamboyantly. He pilfers from the bob and his cut is $70,000. He is double-crossed by his buddy and wife as he was left for dead. Well Porter may be a common criminal but he does have a sense of Justus and does whatever it takes to recover his $70,000. In the process, he is roughed up a few times and the perpetrators find themselves skillfully dispatched. The questions are will he get his money back before there is no one left to give it to him.
Yep it is formula; yep Mel has a tendency for over acting. We get the standard surprises. Lots of action.
Be sure to check the details out on the different packaging as there are variations on the story.
Hamlet ~ Mel Gibson
fantastic movie that could lead to even better books! November 13, 2009
the end (usa)
ok people, here's the deal. watch payback. if you really like it, then read richard stark's (donald e westlake) the hunter. THEN watch payback straight up. payback is fun and exciting and kind of funny. the hunter is the novel payback was based off of. very exciting, not fun, not funny. the chinese hit squad, bronson and his son scenario, the final explosion scene and the love connection with rosie are all absent from the book. bronson and his son and the explosion scene are absent from straight up. the ending is a lot more like the book and the absence of bronson and his son facilitate this alignment with the original literature. they left in the chinese hit squad for fun i'm guessing and rosie because she was in the book and it added a little bit of flavor as well as a way to make the ending a bit more believable (in the book he somehow gets them all!). payback is an amazing film, it introduced me to parker, i am now a parker novel maniac. because of this i wanted to see the somewhat more true to the book directors' cut (straight up) and was very pleased with its somewhat more accurate depiction. i love both films but the point is one will likely only like both if they read the book in between as most who don't think that straight up is to dark and disturbing but this is only because they don't really know parker;) enjoy.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 178
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