Payback - The Director's Cut (Special Collector's Edition)
by Brian Helgeland
List Price:
Our Price: $10.49
You Save: $4.49 (30%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $3.06 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Bill Duke, David Paymer, Gregg Henry, Maria Bello, Mel GibsonDirector: Brian Helgeland
Brand: Paramount
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Published)
Format: Color, NTSC, Surround Sound, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-04-10
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Paramount
DVD Reviews of Payback - The Director's Cut (Special Collector's Edition)
DVD Review: Director's Crap Cut...
Summary: 1 Stars
Payback (the theatrical edition) has been one of my favorite movies since the day I saw it. It was witty, cynical, and B.A.
This edition "the director's cut" is really a remake with a brand new ending and a lot of the best part removed from the middle. This edition is terrible. Like any pieced together film, it really doesn't even know what it is. Occasionally it's a mafia movie and occasionally it's the bitter drama of a murdered man.
Buy Payback (the theatrical edition)!
DVD Review: bad bad bad it sucked
Summary: 1 Stars
bad bad bad it sucked it was not good at all i liked the real one betterDVD Review: A Fair Cut of An Excellent Film
Summary: 3 Stars
After having seen many "Director's Cuts" of fondly-remembered films, I'm starting to believe that the producers actually know what they're doing. "Payback" is a good example. Paid reviewers often deride viewers as cultural cretins if they don't embrace the "director's vision," but that vision is often obviously flawed, and producers (and test audiences) see that.
Paid reviewers have put down the theatrical cut of this film as "vulgar." It's no more vulgar than the Director's Cut. The chief difference between the two versions - and they differ far more than other films' "D.C.s" - is the emotional tone. Whereas the theatrical cut puts a quirky comic edge on Porter's violent journey, the Director's Cut takes a sombre, self-important tack.
The score is markedly different; whereas the theatrical version has many '70's pieces which firmly (and humorously) place it in its time, the Director's Cut has grimly moody meandering pieces that does much to establish its darker approach. The brassy theme music from the theatrical cut is sorely missed, resulting in a duller experience.
Paid critics often have predictable tastes: their reaction to voice-overs is one of them. The absence of Gibson's voice-over in the Director's Cut predictably makes the critics curtsy. The film loses something in its absence though; Gibson's voice-over was well done, took nothing off his character's hard edge, and contributed some nice bits of humor.
The director cut out many of the most interesting character bits in the film, thereby lessening its appeal. His version culminates in a shoot-out which - while competently done - is actually more formulaic and less clever than the end of the theatrical cut. After his changes, an edgy crime film comedy has become a forgettable crime drama. No artistic "higher purpose" is served by that.
DVD Review: Wow, This Is A Tough Movie!
Summary: 4 Stars
A modern-day film noir, this is about as tough as it gets. Rough characters, rough violence and rough language all comprise this re-make of the 1967 film "Point Blank," which starred Lee Marvin.
Mel Gibson is the "good guy" here, taking Marvin's role, but I put that in quotes because he's not really "good," just a thief attempting to get his $70,000 back which was stolen from him by his partner and ex-wife in a former heist. He goes up the ladder, little guy to the top boss, to finally get his money.
Gibson gets beaten up several times and even gets tortured in one toes- crunching scene. The women are tough-looking, coarse and unappealing. I did like the metallic-blue hues in here, making this an interesting visual film. The city scenes are bleak, a la Tim Burton's "Batman."
I found the movie good enough to watch several times. Most people like a simple, revenge story which this really is, and there is dark humor in here, too. The other characters are interesting, particularly the one played by William Devane. I also liked the narration by Gibson, done in 1940s film noir style. The worst person in here was the sadistic "Val Resnick" (Gregg Henry). He was so bad, he was cartoon-ish, someone so bad he belonged in one of those Batman or Hellboy or Spiderman flicks.
I'd be curious to see what this film looks like on Blu-Ray.
DVD Review: Not as good as the real version
Summary: 1 Stars
For those who enjoy the movie Payback in its original form, this movie is a huge disappointment. Gone are the wisecrack remarks from Mel Gibson and jokes from Lucy Lu. The original movie did a good job of portraying porter as the good guy. This movie shows his dark side. For those who enjoyed Gibson's movies in the genre including Conspiracy Theory, you will wonder why they ever made this directors cut.
Description of Payback - The Director's Cut (Special Collector's Edition)
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/06/2008There 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
General DVDs
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Bestsellers in General DVDs
![The Dark Knight (+ Digital Copy and BD Live) [Blu-ray] Image](/images/The-Dark-Knight-Digital-Copy-and-BD-Live-Blu-ray-B001GZ6QEC-X.jpg)
The Dark Knight (+ Digital Copy and BD Live) [Blu-ray]Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-12-09; DVD
Best price: $17.69
Price in other shops:
Taken (Extended Cut)Release date: 2009-05-12; DVD
Best price: $16.99
Price in other shops:
Gran Torino (Widescreen Edition)Release date: 2009-06-09; DVD
Best price: $17.49
Price in other shops:
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)Twentieth Century Fox; Release date: 2009-04-07; DVD
Best price: $11.98
Price in other shops:
Bedtime StoriesRelease date: 2009-04-07; DVD
Best price: $7.89
Price in other shops:
AustraliaTwentieth Century Fox; Release date: 2009-03-03; DVD
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops:
The WrestlerTwentieth Century Fox; Release date: 2009-04-21; DVD
Best price: $11.49
Price in other shops:
Quantum of SolaceRelease date: 2009-03-24; DVD
Best price: $8.85
Price in other shops:
CapricaUniversal; Release date: 2009-04-21; DVD
Best price: $13.50
Price in other shops:
Twilight (Two-Disc Special Edition)Universal; Release date: 2009-03-21; DVD
Best price: $14.45
Price in other shops:
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
The Italian JobDVD
The Big Lebowski - 10th Anniversary EditionUniversal; Release date: 2008-09-09; DVD
Best price: $9.75
Price in other shops:
BeowulfPARAMOUNT PICTURES; Release date: 2008-02-26; DVD
Best price: $5.84
Price in other shops:
The Mummy (Widescreen Collector's Edition)Universal; Release date: 1999-09-28; DVD
Best price: $5.89
Price in other shops:
CasinoRelease date: 1998-02-24; DVD
Best price: $124.80
Top GunRelease date: 1998-10-21; DVD
Best price: $9.27
Price in other shops:
Shooter (Full Screen Edition)PARAMOUNT PICTURES; Release date: 2007-06-26; DVD
Best price: $11.98
Price in other shops:
Sleepy HollowDEPP,JOHNNY; Release date: 2000-05-23; DVD
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Face/ OffParamount; Release date: 1998-10-07; DVD
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
12 Monkeys (Special Edition)Universal; Release date: 2005-05-10; DVD
Best price: $5.37
Price in other shops: