there is only so much star power that you can handle . several films base their success on their main star , thinking that they will be a big draw whether or not the film is any good . i think that this must have been what was on the minds of the people who created payback , a new mel gibson thriller that doesn’t really thrill . the public seems to trust mel when it comes to making good action movies , after this i wonder if anyone will . what starts out as an ultra-violent revenge movie ends as an ultra-violent revenge movie with not much difference in between . porter ( gibson , who’s right for the role but can’t pull it off ) was betrayed by his partner and his wife when they all stole $135 , 000 . they leave him for dead in a parking lot . but porter is alive and ( depending on your point of view ) well , he plans to seek them out , retrieve his $70 , 000 , and get some good old fashioned revenge . but in order to find the guy , who know works for a drug lord , he’ll have to kill a bunch of people and a bunch of people will have to seriously hurt him and all of them do it as if their having fun . somehow , ( i don’t really get this ) they must plan the ultimate plan to get away from the two corrupt cops that are following them and escape from an evil guy ( kris kristofferson ) who’s son they kidnap . will mel gibson die ? or will he overcome the bad guys ? seriously , does anyone not know the answer to those questions ? payback is an example of what is wrong with out culture . the film is extremely violent , but the thing that bothered me is that plenty of that violence didn’t seem to be occurring for a reason . another depressing factor of the film was that everything was shot when it was really cloudy or with no light , there isn’t one scene in the movie that has an lighting at all . plus lucy liu’s character , a hooker that’s into s&m isn’t interesting even though there’s several moments where she could be . she’s basically the only woman in this that kills a lot of people . i also see no reason why the female characters were in this film at all because they didn’t bare their chests , which in this type of movie , seems like the only important thing they could do . the film played to me as kind of an old detective story , you can kind of sense gibson doing a humphrey bogart thing as he narrates a lot of the story . but this film is way too much like twilight , starring paul newman , to be any good . female gibson fans will be treated to only a brief glimpse of his chest in the shower , this is definitely a guy movie . so , if your looking to see a bunch of people get killed , punched , have their feet hit with hammers and whips , spanked , and shot , see payback which gets * star . the young-uns : bloody and brutal violence and shooting accompany almost every scene . s&m sex scenes , heavy smoking , and language also occur . good age 17 & up a review by frankie paiva the 12 year-old movie reviewer e-mail me at <a href= " mailto : swpstke@aol . com " >swpstke@aol . com</a> visit my website at <a href= " http : //expage . com/page/teenagemoviecritic " >http : //expage . com/page/teenagemoviecritic</a> 
