Payoff (2003)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Memorable, crazy movie

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

In Marseille, the lazy and dirty police Detective Maxime "Max" Tavarès (Titoff) is assigned by Commissaire Cagnoty (Etienne Chicot) to work with Detective Carlos Gomez (Stomy Bugsy), who has just been transferred from Paris. Gomez has problem to accept the procedures of the corrupt Max and they investigate the apparent suicide of the accountant Lucino. The efficient Gomez finds a four leaf clover into Lucino's nose and they seek out his daughter, the stripper Paulina Lucino (Élodie Navarre), and who might be the killer. They stumble with two criminals in front of her building and they arrest them. When a hit-man posing of lawyer kills the two men in the district, Gomez and Max conclude that there is an informer in the precinct. Meanwhile they contact Paulina and she asks for protection and a painting of her mother that is on the wall of her father 's apartment. Meanwhile Max is pressed by the Internal Affairs to help in the investigation of his partner, who lives in a fancy and expensive house with his wife, two sons and his sister Gina (Noémie Lenoir) and is more corrupt then him. When they find an account book in Lucino's safe, Paulina is the only one that can decipher the document. However Max and Gomez decide to use the document to extort the powerful mobster lord Silvio Baginorelli (Philippe Lemaire) and raise money. Will they succeed in their intent?"Gomez & Tavarès" is a French film that does not work well, since the director is lost between crime and comedy genres, using the clichés of the genres. In addition, the unlikable characters that are amoral and dirty do not help to create empathy with any of them. The worst is that I saw this movie on VHS awfully dubbed in English. In the credits the viewer sees why Paulina was dying for having the painting. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Payoff – Acima da Lei" ("Payoff – Above Law")

For anyone who thinks that Mike and Marcus are too arrogant, too egotistical, too uncaring about the consequences of their actions, etc., well, you haven't seen nothing yet - Gomez and Tavarès make those "Bad Boys" look like model police officers! Our "heroes" in this movie are two obnoxious, chronically dirty cops, who try to solve their case not so much because they believe in "justice", but simply to make some (illegal) money, and avoid being sent to jail by the Internal Affairs guys by giving them bigger fish to fry. Some viewers may feel that the unlikability of the leads gives "Gomez & Tavarès" an edge over similar American films, while others may feel that it makes it harder to enjoy. In either case, this "action comedy" contains relatively little action and relatively little comedy. The production is slick and the climactic helicopter vs. speedboat chase is a decent set piece, but nothing you haven't seen many times before. It's the striking, sexy, green-eyed Noémie Lenoir who provides the film's brightest moments. (**)

There are some sparks in this action movie, with a story about corrupt cops and gangs inter-fighting set in Marseille. Certainly, it is not easy to do an action film with much of the time filled in with car chases, and other type of stunts, when you do not have the means or the experience of the American film-makers in this field. That's why the good parts of the film need to be looked for some place else - in the characters of the cops - maybe bad guys on the right side of the law, maybe corrupt (there seem to be no straight cop in this movie) but still likable and credible, maybe in the cynical approach of the script that seems to say that there are no really good fellas on any side, but that even the bad ones are not that bad if you care to hear them.The dialog between the cops and gangsters films made by American and French directors is not something new, it started in the 40s with the Bogart and E.G. Robinson films, was then taken over by the French in the 60s in films starring Alain Delon and Belmondo, and continues until nowadays, when borders are easily crossed and international casts are the norm. Here we have a touch of French humor, some bright dialogs that improve the quality of the film, and make it worth seeing after all.

Please, for your mental safety, stay far away from this awful movie! It's not even funny. Everything is failed. Director Gilles Paquet-Brenner tried to do like Michael Bay so he moved his camera at every image but he just managed to give us an headache. On stage, Titoff is not funny. On TV sets, he's just dumb. But on screen, it's catastrophic. He got dead cow eyes, he's unable to say a line with conviction,well i don't have enough words in English to tell you how Titoff is bad! The music is awful, the editing is terrible, the story has been written by a four years old kid,well, Gomez & Tavares, it's just a pain in the ass,the movie you don't want to see. Compare to it, VERCINGETORIX is a master piece!