fantastic movie that could lead to even better books!
Added 11/13/2009
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.
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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.
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Average action flick... nothing more
Added 9/4/2009
1. This is an average action type movie, however falls short due to... overly dramatized acting? I can't quite put my finger on it, but the overall premise, the acting--> it's just a little too phony vs over the top.
2. Anyway, I know it's a movie--> ie fantasy and thus it's not bad for pure entertainment, but nothing more.
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The original version hit theatres for a reason
Added 8/24/2009
While the editorial review on this film certainly argues the point that this version is less mainstream, it would only make one wonder why any review has to argue anything to get you to watch the movie.
This version is a very straight forward and realistic take on what would have happened in the film for sure, but personally I found it to be considerably less entertaining to watch. To be fair I personally like more main stream movies, and I would say that anyone that enjoyed the original version of the film as much as I did probably won't like the changes made in this.
While this is my personal opinion I would at least treat it as a warning to the "average" movie watcher that you're probably better off with the original version.
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Wait, WTF?
Added 8/17/2009
What exactly happened here? Where'd the cool movie go? I'm used to director's cuts, extended/unrated versions, etc., but this is just too much. It even has praise of the original on the jacket. But it's nowhere close. There's no voiceover. Kris Kristofferson doesn't show up, but we get an offscreen voice of a main character in the outfit. Everyone seems two-dimensional: Man with gun shoots people. How original. And remember how Blu-ray was supposed to make everything better, with unlimited storage? Why not give us both versions? Instead, it's like somebody took an "alternate ending" idea and applied it to the whole film.
Since prices have come down, it seems Hollywood has become its own worst enemy vis-a-vis Blu-ray. You can't get the movies that would most benefit (IMHO) from hi-def: Jurassic Park, Armageddon, Saving Private Ryan, etc. But hey, we can get movies that nobody wanted to see in the first place. And now this just seems like the result of movie studio politics. I'm sure some people will like it, but some people saw "Glitter" and "Gigli," right?
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fantastic movie that could lead to even better books!
Added 11/13/2009
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.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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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.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Average action flick... nothing more
Added 9/4/2009
1. This is an average action type movie, however falls short due to... overly dramatized acting? I can't quite put my finger on it, but the overall premise, the acting--> it's just a little too phony vs over the top.
2. Anyway, I know it's a movie--> ie fantasy and thus it's not bad for pure entertainment, but nothing more.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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