Payback / (Br)

In Payback, a crook named Porter ({|Mel Gibson|}) is pulled into a heist by his old friend, Val ({|Brian De Palma|} regular {|Gregg Henry|}). As they're stealing $130,000 in laundered drug money from Chinese Triads, no one is going to call the police. Everything goes smoothly until Porter's wife, Lynn ({|Deborah Kara Unger|}), shoots Porter in the back. After Val had shown Lynn a photo of Porter in the arms of another girl ({|Maria Bello|}), the two planned the double-cross together to pay off Val's mob debts so he could return to "The Syndicate." They didn't plan well enough, though, because five months later Porter's back, a complete sociopath who wants his $70,000. {|Brian Helgeland|}, the screenwriter for {|L.A. Confidential|} and {|Conspiracy Theory|}, makes his directing debut with this adaptation of the novel The Hunter by {|Donald E. Westlake|} writing under the pseudonym Richard Stark. The same novel served as the basis for {|John Boorman|}'s {|Point Blank|} starring {|Lee Marvin|}.