"Confessions of a Pit Fighter" writer & director Art Camacho recycles every cliché in the book with this monotonous crime thriller about police corruption in Los Angeles. "Final Payback" qualifies as predictable from fade-in to fade-out, and a number of talented actors toil in this deplorable melodrama. Indeed, this atmospheric but ineffectual police potboiler draws its inspiration from the infamous Ramparts scandal in the Los Angeles Police Department. If you want to see a more compelling movie about this scandal, you should watch Chris Fisher's gritty "Dirty" with Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Former L.A.P.D. detective Joey Randall (Richard Grieco of "Mobsters" quits the force after he witnesses the brutal cold-blooded murder of a suspect by Captain Peter James (Martin Kove of "Rambo: First Blood, Part 2") who displays no qualms about abusing justice for his own gain. Moreover, when Randall takes his tale to Police Chief George Moreno (John Saxon of "Enter the Dragon"), Randall is warned that tattling on his fellow officers serves nobody's interests. Since this disillusioned policeman has nowhere to go, he becomes romantically involved with the police chief's ex-wife, Sharon Moreno (Priscilla Barnes of "License to Kill"), who shares none of his discretion with her familiarity of corruption within the ranks of the L.A.P.D. Finally, James decides to silence her permanently and frame Randall.
"Final Payback" opens with our addle-brained protagonist awakening in Sharon's luxurious house. When he discovers her bloody corpse in the shower, Randall staggers backwards in shock and conveniently plants his paw on the huge, blood-soaked knife used to slay her. Of course, in classic Hitchcock fashion, Randall picks up the knife long enough to get Sharon's blood on his hands and his DNA on the murder weapon. No sooner has Randall done this and realized the enormity of his predicament than a uniformed policeman enters the residence. Rather than give himself up, Randall flees the scene of the crime on his motorcycle with the uniformed cop hot on his heels. Although he manages to elude the patrolman, he cannot elude James' men. The cop in pursuit dies in a spectacular accident and Randall runs to an old flame, coffee shop waitress Gina Carrillo (Laura Harring of "Dead Women in Lingerie") who tries to help him. You'd think that somebody whose involved to be married to somebody else would wash her hands of this loser, but she lets him sack out in her apartment because his is too hot.
Meantime, Randall relies on former junkie Steve Ghallagher (Michael Bowen of "Jackie Brown") to help him out. It doesn't take James long to get to Ghallagher, and he manages to turn him against Randall. James achieves this by hooking Ghallagher back on drugs. If Randall doesn't have enough to worry about, he finds himself cornered by two ex-convicts out to do James' dirty work . The problem is that these two, a Hispanic boxer named Rivas (Manuel Sanchez of "All the Pretty Horses") and a coked-up female, Tanya (Sherrie Rose of "New Crime City") are terrible shots. They burst in on our hero at a restaurant and blast away at him from point blank range. They miss every shot they take! It does not help matter that our witless hero is just as rotten at close-range shooting, too. He misses them, too! Incredibly, two more gunmen plunge into the fray, blasting away at the two assassins and missing them, too! Okay, this may enhance the film's realism, but it puts a dent in the drama.
Ultimately, our hero finds himself between a rock and a hard place struggling to stay alive. Everybody who has the misfortune to come into contact with him winds up on a slam. Ex-girlfriend Gina puts her life on the line and dies from a bullet in the back of her head meant for Randall. Incredibly, she is shot and killed from long range by Tanya who is a better shot with an automatic rifle than a handgun. Eventually, Randall learns that James wants a surveillance video that contains an incriminating conversation between James and another murderous cop. They are taped discussing a plot to kill Sharon to shut her up. Caught in the middle is Police Chief Moreno who warns James that they are going to be in a lot of trouble.
Skip this shallow saga! The characters are not only idiotic, but they also lack any charisma. The leather-jacket clad hero doesn't have a clue. Wearing his hand long and in his face, Grieco looks like he is sleepwalking through this derivative pabulum, while Kove registers best as a hopelessly slimy villain. The last scene with Kove entering a jail cell only to find a tall, menacing African-American male slipping behind him is really unbelievable. After all the things that the Kove villain has done, he would turn the black convict into luncheon meat. John Saxon deserves better than "Final Payback." He is given little to do but walk around and wave his hands, while poor Corbin Bernsen shows up for two scenes as a mayor seeking re-election. They should have called this mess "Final Payback." There are no surprises in this potboiler, and Camacho scripts the thoroughly familiar action strictly by-the-numbers.
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