Payoff

Right from the git-go, "Payoff" is about 20 minutes too long. Keith Carradine's lovemaking with Kim Greist comes across as nothing more than an ego trip for Carradine. Harry Dean Stanton does not appear for the first two thirds of the movie, which is a shame, because he is the best thing "Payoff" has going for it. John Saxon is the bad guy and the plan to gain revenge by robbing his casino, while a good idea, takes way to much planning, with the actual robbery being rushed and extremely unbelievable. Gratuitous explosions, and an exploding model helicopter turn what could have been a tight caper into laughable action adventure. Recommended only for fans of the cast, because the muddled script drags the film down to mediocrity. - MERK

****SPOILERS***** Somewhat confusing casino caper that has so many sub-plots that they almost submerge the movie. After Peter "Mac" MacCallister's, Keith Carradine, parents, who were under police protection from the mob,were killed by a phony postal package that the mob gave little and unsuspecting Mac to deliver his life fell apart.

Holding himself responsible for his parents death Mac never got over it and it cost him his marriage as well as his job as a cop. One evening Mac spotted the person who had his parents killed SF mob boss Rafael Concion, John Saxson. Mac with the help of former cop and friend Benny Cowan, Robert Harper, set up a plan to and rip-off Concion's mob SF headquarters.

Not only getting mob boss Concion's daily cash payoffs Mac also finds a number of video tapes that reveal that Concion is somewhat of a sex freak with him on the tapes being tied-up and beaten by what looks like a six and a half foot tall drag queen. Mac sends a copy of the tapes to Concion's father-in-law and the top Mafioso of the state Don Anzia, Jeff Corey.

The Don shocked at the sight of his son-in-law being a closet degenerate he secretly plans to replace Rafael with his nebbish son Victor, Lawrence Monoson, who from watching him seems to have a number of strange hang up himself like his weirdo pop. The Don put young Victor in charge of the Golden Key Casino replacing his dad Rafael. The Golden Key is the Concion's major money maker as well as the place where the Concion Mob launders their ill gotten gains.

With all this happening Mac gets a job at the casino as a security guard establishing himself as the inside-man of a major robbery, with the help of some of his friends, of the joint.

"Payoff" is an exciting movie with a really good and innovated ending even though that are holes in the plot that you can drive a big Mack Truck through with lots of room to spear. Mac besides his friend Benny gets pretty US Treasury Agent Justine Bates, Kim Greist, who like Mac. Justine is also working undercover in the casino and Hook, Harry Dean Stanton, a former Concion mobster and helicopter pilot. All three work together to pull off the 20 million dollar casino rip-off.

As you would expect in a movie like this there are a number of surprises and double-crosses in the film between the robbers as well as the ones getting robbed. There's a very good ending sequence with two of the casino robbers having a falling out, literally, as they make their helicopter getaway with a high altitude battle as well as a spectacular mid-air explosion.

You have to watch "Payoff" without being too critical of it's plot that has a number of major as well as minor faults. The action is top-notch and the acting especially between father and son Concion is so hilarious and side-splitting that the movie is worth watching just for that alone.

I've always thought of him as a great actor, he's just brilliant in this movie even though the story is a little lame. If you are a KC fan, watch the movie, it's definitely getting a 10/10 from me just because KC looks so adorable in it! I loved the voice he did when he called the hotel pretending to be someone else! And then there was that jumping in the lake scene, cute! Short summary of the movie:

Mac is a limo driver. After watching his parents die when he was 11 and still blaming himself for it when someone paid him to take a package into his own house he has never forgiven himself, but he did see the killer. Now years later whilst driving he sees the killer and comes up with a plan to ruin the killer. He becomes a security guard at the killer's casino, but whilst Mac is planning to pull off a heist he gets involved with the casino banker, but even she isn't who she appears to be....

Nice combination. If you have the flu, a heart-break or a rainy day rent this film. It will cheer you up. Promise. No IQ above 100 required. Enjoy. One of the better TV films. My husband said this is a typical "women movie" but I don't agree. He watched it on TV, while looking it up on the IMDB, during commercials. That means he was interested. :-)

Not made for the "Big screen " and the script was written for cable TV production. Novel had class and taste little about this film matches the novel.