“Paycheck” is a sci-fi action thriller starring Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart and Uma Thurman.

Directed by John Woo, who delivered such action blockbusters like “Mission Impossible 2,” this movie is based on a short story written by the late Philip K. Dick, who inspired sci-fi hits such as “Minority Report.” Michael Jennings (Affleck) is an electrical engineer who takes certain products and by working backwards uncovers their secrets through “reverse engineering.” Jennings changes and improves upon the technology and then sells the products to competing companies.

Since his work is illegal, as a security precaution he has the memory of his projects erased. After all, he cannot get in trouble if there is no memory of the crime. And after every memory wipe he receives his “paycheck.” Jimmy Rethrick (Eckhart) is the CEO of a major corporation whom Jennings has worked for in the past. Rethrick convinces Jennings to work on a project that will take three years. Even though this is much longer than the usual two months, Rethrick promises Jennings a paycheck that will set him up to be wealthy for the rest of his life. However, after his latest memory erasure, when he goes to collect his paycheck he learns that he forfeited his payment for a bag of random objects. He also discovers that his latest project has the FBI after him and the company that employed him decides the memory wipe was not enough and now they want him dead. To help him piece together the last three years of his life is his girlfriend, Rachel Porter (Thurman), whom he also cannot remember. He has to rely on her and the 19 clues he left himself to remember what happened and figure out what to do next without being captured or killed. Potential audience members should give this film a chance regardless of whether or not they like Affleck. After last fall’s box-office bomb, “Gigli,” Affleck does redeem himself with this picture. The cast does a worthwhile job of bringing this story to life and Woo demonstrates why he is the action-genre master.

This is a good movie full of suspense and mystery that will keep the audience on the edge of their seat. This is a perplexing story with twists and turns in an exciting adventure that will keep everyone guessing till the very end.

Audiences will get interested in the story, seek the truth along with the main character, and thus be satisfied with the end results. “Paycheck” is definitely worth seeing.