Paycheck: Doug Curran

Paycheck

WHY WE CAN'T WAIT Another amnesia thriller? Yes, but the combination of action director extraordinaire John Woo (''Face/Off,'' ''Mission: Impossible 2'') and mind-twisting sci-fi author Philip K. Dick (whose stories inspired ''Blade Runner,'' ''Total Recall,'' and ''Minority Report'') could be unforgettable. Oh, yeah, that Ben Affleck guy's in it, too.

SOURCE MATERIAL The 1953 story by Dick

PLOT POINTS Affleck plays Michael Jennings, an engineer working on a top-secret project for mogul Aaron Eckhart (''The Core''), only to discover that three years of his memory have been erased. As he pieces together the mystery and romances scientist Rachel (Uma Thurman), he wonders what happened to him, and why are Eckhart's goons suddenly pursuing him?

BURNING QUESTION After ''Gigli'' and his offscreen overexposure as Mr. J. Lo, is the public sick of Affleck?

COME FOR The boffo stunts (like Affleck's head-on confrontation with a subway train)

STAY FOR The understated suspense -- Affleck says the film is ''more like a Hitchcock movie than a John Woo movie.''