Paycheck

This film is a must for those with a need for something thought provoking.

The premise is simple, with Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck), an engineer earning himself lots of money by reverse engineering other companies products and then having his memory of the work he's done 'removed'.

He's offered a two to three year contract, but his friend, Shorty (Paul Giamatti - Saving Private Ryan, The Truman Show) tells him that it's dangerous. No-one has ever done more than eight weeks. Removing that much memory could prove fatal, but the money - some $90,000,000 proves too much for him to pass up and he goes to see billionaire James Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart - Erin Brockovich, The Dark Knight) and meets biochemist Rachel Porter (Uma Thurman) to accept the job.

The next thing we see is him coming round after the memory wipe and he goes to the bank to take out some of the $90,000,000 only to find that he's signed the money away and left himself an envelope with 19 seemingly unrelated items. If that isn't bad enough, he's picked up by two FBI agents Dodge (Joe Morton - Henry Deacon, A Town Called Eureka) and Klein (Michael C Hall - Dexter Morgan, Dexter), who accuse him of treason.

To add insult to injury, Rethrick's men are after him.

He has little time to find out what's going on and what the significance of the envelope full of stuff is, while trying to stay one step ahead of Rethrick's men and the FBI.

We weren't going to watch this film, but within moments, we wanted to know what was going on. The fact that it jumps three years and we, the audience have no knowledge whatsoever of what occurred during that time is part of it, but the way the story unfolds is masterful.

I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone with a couple of free hours and the need for an adrenalin overdose.