payback ( m ) . ( warner bros/village roadshow ) director : brian helgeland stars : mel gibson , gregg henry , maria bello , kris kristofferson , james coburn ( uncredited ) , david paymer , bill duke , william devane , lucy liu , deborah kara unger running time : 104 minutes . brian helgeland , the guy who wrote la confidential and conspiracy theory , finally gets the chance to direct , with this unapologetically tough and amoral crime thriller . mel gibson is largely playing against type as the tough , repellent anti-hero porter , a small time criminal who specialises in payroll heists . during a payroll robbery , porter is double crossed by his wife and her lover and left for dead . the sleazy val ( gregg henry ) , who likes his kinky sex with a sadistic edge , owes money to a shadowy criminal syndicate , known only as the outfit . porter comes looking for vengeance , hoping to recover his half of the stolen money from val , who has managed to worm his way back in with the outfit . porter's quest eventually leads him into an escalating war with the outfit and its ultimate supremo bronson ( kris kristofferson , wonderful in a small role ) . but porter has his own moral code and is only interested in getting his $70 , 000 , whatever it takes . " you're doing this for a principle ? for $70 , 000 ? " asks an astonished james coburn . " hell , my suits cost more than that ! " also caught in the cross fire are the usual underworld low life denizens , some crooked cops , and stegman ( david paymer ) , a slimy taxi despatcher and small time drug dealer with ambitions to join the outfit . in porter's world there are no innocent bystanders . porter's only ally is rosie ( er's maria bello ) , a high priced call girl for whom he has a soft spot . payback is actually a remake of john boorman's tough and visually stylish 1967 crime thriller point blank , which featured lee marvin . that film was also again loosely remade in 1974 , as the outfit , with robert duvall playing the role of the vengeance seeking criminal . like its two predecessors , payback has been based on the hunter , a novel written by richard stark ( a pseudonym used by donald e westlake , when he wanted to break away from comic capers like the hot rock , etc , and write tough , violent , genre thrillers ) . and payback is certainly violent ! gone is the disposable comic book like violence of gibson's lethal weapon series , replaced with a more disconcerting , vicious , callous and gratuitous violence . helgeland's direction is certainly proficient and pacy , and he revels in the graphic blood letting . helgeland peppers the film with many noir like touches , and payback also has a deliberately old fashioned , '70's look about it . helgeland also adds a touch of dark humour to proceedings . he wastes few moments , and his crisp and stylish direction is the perfect cinematic equivalent of stark's terse prose . gibson was apparently unhappy with the tyro director's finished film , and reshot about 30% , including the final scenes , giving helgeland's original vision a darker tone . gibson also brought in kristofferson to play the mob boss . gibson brings a hard , unforgiving edge and weary quality to his performance as a ruthless criminal , although his unsympathetic choice of role here may come as something of a surprise to many of his fans . the performances of the supporting cast are solid , with kristofferson , an uncredited coburn , and william devane oozing smarmy sincerity as the triumvirate who rule the outfit . although a slickly produced crime thriller , payback is also very violent , and one of gibson's nastier and more disposable efforts . 
