Instead of Payback; this movie should have been called Moneyback. As in, "I want my..." To be fair, I have to confess up front that I left this movie in disgust about three fourths of the way into it. Of course, that ought to say something about the quality of this work given that I have *never* left a movie; no matter how bad (and I've seen some bad ones) without seeing the end. Even so, I'll have to admit the last quarter of Payback could've gotten much better, but it would've had to have reach Oscar material to make up for the first three fourths I did see. The catch phrase for this movie is "You'll root for the bad guy." When I heard that I thought they meant Mel Gibson's character in the movie. Silly me. Instead, now I know they meant the Producer, Director and/or Writer of this worthless piece of dreck. Only why I'd root for anyone who put out such a useless piece of garbage as this is way beyond me. The trailers were cut so as to make this seem like a comedy/adventure with Mel Gibson playing a tough, smart mouth character, the sort he does so well, this time as a bad guy going up against nastier bad guys who'd shot him, stole his share of a robbery and left him for dead. Based on those trailers this movie could be sued for violating the Truth In Advertising laws. Where there should've been humor we get a dreary, gloomy atmosphere that would depress anyone not on massive doses of Prozac. In the place of adventure we get unrelenting violence much of which is literally S&M and all of which is grotesque and offensive. And the worst thing is Payback had a dream cast for this sort of film. Mel Gibson, James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson and William Devane are all actors who excel at playing interesting, tough smart alecks and who could have made this into a really fun comedy/adventure. Instead, they got trapped in one of the Marquis De Sade's wet dreams. I guess it's true when they say Payback is...well, you know. What a waste.Average Grade: E-
