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fat cheque to direct this film.
For apart from his reputation in Hong Kong as a master of martial arts movies, he also directed Face/Off, one of the more intriguing and pulse quickening movies in Hollywood.
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Michael Jennings (Affleck) is a 'reverse engineer' who can disassemble high-tech equipment with seemingly impenetrable codes and turn it into a more advanced piece. He agrees to perform his reverse engineering for a
conglomerate run by billionaire entrepreneur Jimmy Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart).
In exchange, he wants a huge paycheque. He also wants his pal Shorty (Paul Giamatti) to erase his memory of the illicit work. The memory erasure is part of the deal. Jimmy's big job involves the retooling a machine that can see the future.
But when the project, which spans nearly three years, is over, Michael is stunned when he discovers that he agreed
to forfeit his $90 million paycheque in exchange for a handful of random objects in an envelope.
Worse, law enforcement agencies and Jimmy's thugs are after him.
Though Michael escapes being captured by the FBI, he knows his life is not safe till he solves the deadly mystery. He
also realises slowly that the random objects can help him figure out the truth.
Woo slowly lets us see Jimmy's secret plans and we also get to understand more of Michael's retooled invention
that could foretell the future.
As his problems increase, Michael decides he has to destroy his own machine before it could be used to create
more havoc. He also tries to reconnect with Rachel (Uma Thurman), the woman he has loved for the past three years,
but he is also wondering about what really happened between them.
Affleck is not the big disappointment here. He is not an actor we expect much from. It is Thurman that is disappointing. She enters the film when it is nearly halfway through. We feel she has invested quite a bit of her talent in Rachel, making her a strong character.
But after her riveting performance in Kill Bill, her work here is a bit of a letdown.
CREDITS
Cast: Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart, Uma Thurman, Paul Giamatti, Colm Feore
Director: John Woo
Writer: Dean Georgaris based on a story by Philip K. Dick
Running time: 2 hours
Rating: PG-13
Distributor: Paramount Pictures