A man in search of revenge goes up against a secretive criminal syndicate operating out of a hotel in order to get his due. John Wick? No, Payback [1999] starring Mel Gibson.

Payback [1999] was directed by Brian Helgeland (42, A Knight’s Tale, The Order), better known for his numerous writing credits on Legend, Green Zone, The Taking of Pelham 123, Man on Fire, Mystic River, L.A. confidential, and features notably Gregg Henry (Guardians of the Galaxy, Slither, and multiple TV credits), Maria Bello (A History of Violence, Coyote ugly), Lucy Liu (Kill Bill, Charlie’s Angels, Chicago) and others (notably Bill Duke, Kris Kritofferson, David Paymer).Payback is the story of a thief and former marine called Porter (no first name is ever given) who, after being double-crossed by his partners during a heist, sets out to get even after barely surviving their betrayal.This movie borrows from the film noir genre and heavily features Mel Gibson’s narration as Porter, the “bad guy” hero of this movie. Although by today’s standards the action is nothing special, the stylish minimalism of the movie (reminiscent of Melville’s Le Samouraï) has allowed this 1h 40 min revenge flick to age like fine wine and become a great embodiment of late 90s action movies.Of note for today’s viewers is how close John Wick resembles it in terms of story beats and world building. Payback could easily be presented as a prequel to the John Wick movies with little to no caveats. Both movies seemingly sharing a common cinematic universe decades apart. I won’t go so far as to claim that Wick and Porter could be somehow related (although the timeline would work), but it’s interesting to note the similarities between both characters’ skills, temperament and ordeals.Another interesting aspect of this movie is Mel Gibson’s involvement as a producer. Gibson significantly changed the story and flexed his stardom vis-à-vis then junior screenwriter and director Brian Helgeland to have entire scenes, added, removed or changed, and implement tweaks to some of the key stylistic elements of the movie (the narration notably) as well as the casting. Almost 15 minutes were added as a result.In addition to his standout performance (he carries the movie), this movie is a lesser-known showcase of Gibson’s talents behind the camera and came right between his first success as director in the form of Braveheart (1995) and his controversial Passion of the Christ (2004). Most of his changes (listed on the movie’s IMDB page) are right on the money and provided some of the best scenes of the movie.For anyone looking for a quick and easy action movie in the same vein as Man on Fire and John Wick (with a just as capable lead as both of those), I strongly recommend Payback. via /r/movies https://ift.tt/3sVnfOk