Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

I had nothing to do on the way back from LA to Tokyo and sat through this movie. Typical Hollywood vomit. I haven't seen much John Woo stuff but this movie didn't motivate me any further to go rent out his stuff. It's set a bit in the future (no pun on the movie intended) where Ben Affleck is trying to discover his past. The one thing that moves this movie away from the standard formula of this genre is that Affleck literally pieces together his past through clues he sends himself in an envelope to trigger what he sees in the future for himself. The way he pieces together the clues is somewhat intriguing as well as the surrounding near-future scenes, such as the customized video wall sales people at the Gap, etc. However, this movie is basically John Woo masturbating in his self-glory of getting to direct another Hollywood pet in some meaningless action nose flick. Uma Thurman is Affleck's wife that is attempting to recapture her power from the Kill Bill series. It just doesn't work though as their relationship holds no emotion whatsoever. And her lines are delivered without emphasis. I think the thing that really irked me was that Ben Affleck is supposed to be a kickass genius. When are geniuses kickass? Geeks are a bunch of losers who look at computers all day long and either are fat and out of shape with no girlfriend (or someone that shares similar [physical] characteristics as them) or some scrawny Star Trek gawker. Affleck is someone who fights in this movie! He's a geek for god sakes! Outside of that fact and how he should've been killed at least a million times in his McGuiver-wannabe style portrait. Recommendation: use the toilet before seeing this drek.