Paycheck

The brainy, paranoid science fiction of writer Philip K Dick has inspired one visionary classic (Blade Runner) and two above-average action movies (Total Recall and Minority Report). Paycheck aspires to follow in their footsteps: an engineer (Ben Affleck) routinely agrees to have his memory erased after every job so that he doesn't know what he's done. But after the biggest job of his life, he discovers that not only has he refused a 90 million-dollar paycheck, he's sent himself an envelope full of things he doesn't recognise--and he doesn't remember doing any of this. As he unravels the plot, he discovers he's also fallen in love (with Uma Thurman) and invented a dangerous device for his former boss (Aaron Eckhart). Affleck is bland, the script ruins a cunning idea and the direction--from the normally dynamic John Woo--plods along, aimless and bored. --Bret Fetzer