Film: Mel misses his money
Payback. A nice blunt title for a nice blunt film. The slangy juxtaposition of the two words is like the lead and his two syllable name 'Porter'. No pretensions of grandeur. No apologies for killing lots of people. No conscience wracking "I am in blood steeped so deep" speeches. No traumatic past as an estate agent in Surrey to explain his life of crime.
This film is as smooth and black as the barrel of a gun. Mel Gibson plays the very hard guy who wants his money back, and the role is nicely tailored for him. Despite the fact that he keeps shooting people, you can't help wanting to be him, except in the bits when he's being attacked and tortured.
The other characters would probably blur a little, so they're all sadists, prostitutes, junkies and businessmen, and even clever combinations of these roles. This isn't a big problem though. The underworld, as we all know, is made up of sadist prostitutes, junkie bent cops and Chinese people who can do those high kicks.
The script is pretty sharp. The Great Gibson soliloquises just enough for us not to understand him. In fact the film hinges on this. Stitched up by his friend and his wife, who then, to add to his troubles, shoot him in the back; he spends a few months having his back stitched up, and goes after his money. This involves single-handedly the massive crime corporation controlling half the city. No one does this for a mere seventy grand. But it's his money that he's asking for. He's entitled to it, having gone to the trouble of stealing it in the first place.
It all adds up to a very enjoyable film, the moral of which is you shouldn't let people get the better of you just because they've got more power and money. It's bad to shoot people, but they all deserved it. It's a dog eat dog world, where the dogs all have big guns.
That's all I'm saying.
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