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/51kfyBylxnL._SL500_.jpg) | Director: Brian Helgeland
Actors: William Devane, Bill Duke, John Glover, Gregg Henry, Sally Kellerman
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $22.98
Buy New: $19.96
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Seller: supermoviedeals
Rating:  177 reviews
Sales Rank: 107085
Format: AC-3, Color, Director's Cut, Dolby, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: Unrated
Media: Blu-ray
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 7907268
UPC: 032429072689
EAN: 0032429072689
ASIN: B002EEY8KI
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
Release Date: July 21, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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 177
 They Need To Pay ME Back... A Refund! January 31, 2010
D. CO
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.
IKES!!! December 2, 2009
J. Clark (D'Iberville, MS)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Yeah, if you love the original release DO NOT BUY THIS BLU RAY!!! They changed half the movie, and in my opinion, ruined it.
 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.
 Horrible September 15, 2009
J. Weaver
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Blu-ray director's cut is horrible. The picture quality was very poor for Blu-ray and the additional scenes actually make the plot worse. Original DVD is much better. Sorry I wasted my money.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 177
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