One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Blistering performances.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Payback is cool, smart, stylized, and a badass action revenge flick with a terrific cast led by Mel. You know, I was planning here on being all cutesy to just talk about Lucy Liu the whole time but, I'm watching Payback now, and I see Lucy, and I'm watching, waiting for crazy sexy Lucy to take the hotel elevator up to the right room so she can inspire me with her dominatrix sexiness, aaaaand she walks right in and smacks the freaking crap out of that dude, and now, I feel different. She slapped the cute right out of me I think. I felt it. Ouch, uuggghh, my gut. I can't breathe. I never fully realized this about a woman before, but I would totally, totally love Lucy beating me up like that, in a sexual manner. Aahhh, okay, I got my breath back. Oh myyyyy! I love it! Lucy flaunts her butt so nice in Payback, I don't think a lot of people realize how nice it is! I'm a freak for Lucy Alexis Liu. Uugghh. Thank you Lucy, I'll have another please.

For most of his career, Melt Gibson has taken flight with mainly dramatic roles and has gone on to stir up a few Oscar nominated roles but at the same time made a name for himself as an action hero beginning in the late 70s starring in the titular role in 'Mad Max'. Following the sequels, Gibson made a highly praised debut in 'Lethal Weapon' franchise starring opposite Danny Glover. Fresh out of his wonder years as the gun-totting L.A police detective, Gibson makes once again another appearance as a trigger happy protagonist in this revenge thriller directed by Brian Helgeland. Gibson plays Porter, a merciless, bad-to- the-bone thief who makes no way to make a living than to rob and pick-pocket innocent neighbors of their money and worse of all, the criminals in his neighborhood that surround are certainly no better. After a half-successful robbery from an Asian street gang known as "The Outfit", Porter is betrayed by his partner Val Resnick (played by Gregg Henry) and wife Lynn Porter (played by Deborah Kara Unger) who shoot in cold blood and leave him for dead. However, when Porter miraculously survives he seeks assistance from his ex- lover and former partner Rosie (played by Maria Bello) to deliver vengeance and claim back his money while making his way through a world of vicious drug dealers, prostitutes, and corrupt law officials. Mel Gibson has sported many clever and memorable during his year, arguably his most memorable in 'Lethal Weapon' series or as the British warrior in war epic 'Braveheart'. His role as the protagonist in this film is certainly not as memorable and definitely not as appealing as many of the heroic characters he's known for. While he gives a performance that allows him to suit well in this role, he doesn't quite bring the same sort of charisma he had in his role in Lethal Weapon. Fortunately, he still manages to entertain during gunfight sequences. Watching Gibson mow down the bad guys in a bloody, bullet-blazing frenzy is fun to watch, at least for a little while. But the rest of the time, the film is a bit tedious. From the opening scene, the plot starts off with a promise and progresses into something bigger, and it works at least the first hour. But towards the final stretch, the story falls a bit clumsy and becomes less engaging. On the bright side, the supporting cast does manage to spit out some entertaining performances along the way packing in some dark humor that works at least part of the time, particularly Gregg Henry as Mel Gibson's partner with a hidden agenda on his hands. His performance isn't quite strong, but it holds up. One of the biggest surprises comes Lucy Liu who plays a prostitute of the Asian street gang, quite a questionable role for her.Payback is not your average Mel Gibson actioner and probably sits the lower ladder of Gibson's filmopgraphy. Nonetheless, it is still entertaining on some level and has its moments of spectacle in the midst of its subpar script and plot. This revenge flick is one that will please some but definitely not all, particularly those who go in expecting something on the level of Lethal Weapon.

I can't help it, I really like Mel Gibson. He might be an asshole (or maybe just have some anger issues), but damn it, he has a screen presence that I enjoy.Mel Gibsons character in Payback doesn't beat around the bush. He gets stuff done, he doesn't just talk-talk-talk, he acts. Violently. That's kind of refreshing. Payback is pretty brutal at times, but doesn't make a huge point out of it, either.Another thing with Payback, is the acting. I enjoy the acting of several of the characters here. Greg Henry stands out, especially in some scenes. He is just so believable, at the same time sort of a caricature. I like that. Seems like Brian Helgeland knows what he wants from his actors.There's some stuff about the plot here that might be hard to swallow for some people, some coincidences you kind of have to suspend your disbelief to accept, but I usually don't care much about stuff like that. There is a lot of smoking in this movie, and that's good to see! I miss the days where pretty much every protagonist and antagonist smoked their ass off in almost every scene. Haha. Interestingly, even with the brutality of this movie, it also has quite a lot of humor mixed in. Some of it I don't know if was meant to be humor, but I found it to be a nice touch anyhow. A couple of humorous things are just plain weird, too. Anyhow, Payback is an entertaining, rather dark revenge-flick. I likey.

Mel Gibson is at the top of his form playing a nasty, sociopathic, violent, but exceptionally witty career criminal. Disturbingly, I am pretty certain that this role isn't much of a stretch for him, which is why he so easily wears it like a second skin. You know how you always think of the perfect thing to say ten minutes too late, well, in this flick Mel never misses a beat, and it's quite entertaining. The violence is pretty much non-stop from beginning to end, but it is non-stop with very high production values and mostly not excessively graphic, much of it actually played for sick humor. There's a complete lack of characters with any redeeming traits at all in this movie. There is not one single person that you would like to have anything to do with in real life. It is just degrees from really, really bad to completely, utterly horrible, which is why you wind up rooting for Mel--he's just the best looking and least reprehensible out of a despicable line-up. With all that said, this film grabs your attention at the beginning and never lets go. The script is particularly clever, and there are no bad performances (although, obviously, Kris Kristofferson's serious acting career is more expired than year-old warm milk). Therefore, I must do two things. First, I have to give this film full marks, because it perfectly accomplished everything it set out to do. Second, I have to take a shower, because I feel kind of dirty.