Final Payback Reviews

A "blue code of silence" picture that stalls in mid-story. Dissolute cop Joey Randall (Richard Grieco) decides to quit the force rather than rat out Captain Peter James (Martin Kove) and expose his extremist anti-crime campaign. But he continues his sordid affair with Sharon Moreno (Priscilla Barnes), the wife of Police Chief, George Moreno (John Saxon), and when Sharon turns up dead in her shower, Joey seems to have been fitted for a set-up. Joey enlists the help of his former main-squeeze, Gina Carrillo (Laura Harring), eludes Moreno's task force and seeks evidence that will indict the real killers. The ruthless James goes after Joey's best pal, Steve (Michael Bowen), a recovering junkie. Steve initially defies James, but reveals Joey's game-plan after James pumps drugs into his system. To stop Joey rooting around in his shady past, James turns up the heat on two ex-convicts, Tanya (Sherrie Rose) and Rivas (Manuel Sanchez), who are trying to go straight. Threatening legal and personal reprisals, James forces them to go looking Joey. After Joey and Gina sneak into Moreno's house to retrieve a security camera video, Rivas and Tanya kill Gina. Although the tape shows Sharon and her husband having a heated argument about getting a divorce, the real reason for Sharon's execution lies in her threats to expose James and his vigilante corps. With the entire police force seeking him, can Joey stay alive long enough to prove James's guilt? This plot-heavy clinker chokes on expository dialogue and extraneous scenes, notably some pointless flashbacks and repetitive scenes delineating Tanya and Rivas's motives.