Porter - Mel Gibson 
Val - Gregg Henry (Body Double )
Rosie - Maria Bello (TV's ER)
Fairfax - James Coburn
Stegman - David Paymer (Mr Saturday Night, City Slickers)
Porter's Wife - Deborah Unger (The Game, Crash, Keys To Tulsa)

This is a movie that does not want you to like it. It is filled with disturbing acts, by evil characters, intentionally obscure camera shots, and a tone reminiscent of shooting with a blue lens cap on. To say this movie is dark would be an understatement, but, there is something about this movie, despite cringing, scowling in contempt and gasping at the actions; it has a hard-to-place quality that makes it worth at least one viewing.

Payback hearkens back to those mid to late 70s TV Cop shows (Baretta, Rockford Files, Starsky and Hutch), but instead shows what was only hinted at in the one-hour Quinn/Martin productions. There is excessive, and senseless, violence (beware of hammers and heels), which usually occurred off screen before. The 70s theme continues with the use of cars from that era, dialing telephones (do they still make those??) and a soundtrack chock full of that "cop show" music, and other classics. This is probably the only time that you will hear Sinatra's Kick in the Head, and Hendrix Voodoo Chile in the same place. All of this sets the theme for a fairly simple story.

Porter (Gibson) and his partner Val (Henry) steal $140,000 from some Oriental heavies. They decided to split the money, or so it seemed. Gibson is double-crossed, and his partner keeps the entire amount. The plot is fairly non-existent here. Basically, it is a series of circumstances and situations, some believable, some outlandish, in Mel's attempt to get his half back. Confusion ensues when everyone assumes he wants the entire amount back, when he only really wants half (those who've seen the previews know about those scenes). The bit was funny the first couple of times, but after about the 8th time that Mel corrects the amount, it gets tiring. What holds this film together, and provides my entertainment, are the characters. They are well-written bad people. These are people that you wouldn't want to run into in a lighted alley, let alone a dark one. Director Brian Helgeland has crafted a nice screenplay for these characters. You don't care about them, but you are curious about what they do, and maybe even why they do it. Also, the second half of this movie is much better than the first, as it becomes smarter in slowly, but effectively tying up the story, and showing that Porter is not as dumb and gullible as others may think.

This is not a movie for those people who voted Mel "Sexiest Man Alive" either. He does not play the charming, likeable, slightly off kilter character he usually does (okay, so maybe he overemphasizes the off-kilter part), but rather a bad guy among worse ones. He steals, lies, cheats, stiffs on tips, and has no qualms about killing people, but somewhere, under all that darkness, lies a heart. You see a genuinely good purpose in his evil. He's almost like modern-day self serving Robin Hood. He steals from the rich and crooked, to give to himself and those around him. Does that make him a bad person, definitely, but in this movie, he's a hero still and Gibson plays him strongly. His humor and sarcasm, followed by gunplay and fisticuffs, seem to let Mel go and be his manic self with a darker side. Other supporting nods worth recognition, Gregg Henry, as Mel's sadistic, manic, greedy partner, and James Coburn, who has one of the movies best scenes (parts of which are shown in the previews). The rest are effective in what they are there to do, although the role of Porter's wife seemed a bit pointless to waste on Unger, who showed potential in The Game, but here, is reduced to heroin-addicted window dressing.