Payoff (2003)

Two dirty cops decide to extort a lord mobster using an account book they found during the investigation of a murder case.

Director:

Gilles Paquet-Brenner

Writers:

Renaud Bendavid, Gilles Paquet-Brenner

Stars:

Stomy Bugsy, Titoff, Élodie Navarre

Cast

Credited cast:
Stomy Bugsy	...	Lt. Carlos Gomez
Titoff	...	Lt. Maxime "Max" Tavarès
Élodie Navarre	...	Paulina
Jean Yanne	...	Tonton
Noémie Lenoir	...	Gina
Etienne Chicot	...	Commissaire Cagnoty
Daniel Duval	...	Izenberg
Philippe Lemaire	...	Silvio Baginorelli
Eléonora Donde	...	Catherine Gomez
Tony Amoni	...	St Jean, le Rasta
Guy Amram	...	Rocco
Moussa Maaskri	...	Marco
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Brahim Aimad	...	Francky (as Brabra)
Marc Andréoni	...	Nicolas Darochard
Tomasz Bialkowski

Storyline

In Marseille, the lazy and dirty police Detective Maxime "Max" Tavarès is assigned by Commissaire Cagnoty to work with Detective Carlos Gomez, 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, 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 and ...

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Plot Keywords:

character names as title | surnames as title | three word title | cell phone | bare chested male | 

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Comedy

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Details

Country:

France

Language:

French German

Release Date:

7 May 2003 (France)

Also Known As:

Payoff

Filming Locations:

Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$5,127,899

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hugo Films, Les Productions de la Guéville, M6 Métropole Télévision

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

On the news report on TV at the end, the French word "trafic" is written the English way in the middle of a sentence in French: "traffic de drogue".

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Connections

References The Cosby Show (1984)

User Reviews

"Bad Boys" in Marseille

I saw this movie at the German Fantasy Film Festival last year. The story starts with a typical buddy-movie setup: Tavares is a cop in Marseille. He is smart, somewhat good looking . and he is corrupt. Nevertheless nobody in the police department seems to care about his little misconducts. One day Tavares gets a new partner. Gomez is coming directly from Paris. He is one hundred per cent law-abiding and hates corruption. From the very first moment Tavares and Gomez are at each other's throats. But they have to work together. Investigating the murder of an accountant who was working for a drug cartel they have to protect his daughter who might be the key to bring down the syndicate. Eventually the mafia wants to eliminate the girl and the two cops. Let the havoc begin...

On the one hand `Payoff' reminded me of the light-hearted French action comedies of the Seventies I used to watch on TV when I was a kid (Belmondo's `L'Animal' comes to mind). On the other hand the movie clearly imitates modern American cop movies like `Bad Boys' or the `Lethal Weapon' series - especially when it comes to the visual style. Actually Marseille (the setting of the film) is presented as if it was Florida or California. The story might have its weak points and it also exploits a number of clichés, but there are lots of great action scenes and funny dialogues to keep you entertained.