Bullet Points: Payback (1990)
Before Richard Pepin and Joseph Merhi created PM Entertainment, they were partners with Ronald L. Gilchrist in City Lights Entertainment Group.
In this edition of Bullet Points, I will be reviewing a movie from Pepin and Merhi’s time at City Lights, 1990’s Payback…
- Attention Grabbers: Payback begins with a couple clad in bikini style swimwear enjoying some romantic time on the beach before their time is interrupted and Donna Nathan (Jean Carol, Vice Academy) is whisked away by helicopter so she can host a weapons demonstration for her father’s company, Nathan Weapons Industries. The demonstration of the new NWI assault rifle includes blowing up a car, which is met by a round of applause from the power brokers attending the demonstration. Donna then hops back in her helicopter and continues her day.
- NWI 4 Death: The NWI assault rifle is both good news and bad news for Nathan Weapons Industries… the interest in the product is sure to make them a fortune, if they can live to enjoy it. A right-wing radical group known as Strikeforce is looking to make the NWI assault rifle their own and they are killing any NWI employees who get in their way… one guy is set on fire and we see Strikeforce soldier Taylor (Deron McBee, T-Force) shoot a topless woman while she’s in bed… the owner of NWI, Senator Nathan, also receives a message from Strikeforce telling him to stop production of the NWI assault rifle or they will kill him! And if all that wasn’t enough… a key member of the NWI staff, Evelyn Reed, has gone missing!
- Who You Gonna Call?: Finding Evelyn Reed becomes the top priority for NWI, Donna suggests they call in Jason Shepherd (Roger Rodd, Chance)… it is made apparent that Donna has had a past with Jason and that this wouldn’t be the first time the NWI has used his services. Senator Nathan is not keen on the idea, but he apparently doesn’t want to argue with his daughter and sends his stooge, Roger Graylor, out to to track down Jason. Graylor finds Jason at a dive bar, stinking drunk and playing pinball and he makes it clear he has no interest in working for NWI after his last mission, so Graylor returns empty handed… Donna doesn’t want to take no for an answer and thanks to some goons, she gets a meeting with Jason. Donna tells him about Strikeforce taking out NWI employees. Shepherd is unphased. But when Donna mentions that Evelyn Reed has gone missing, that strikes a chord with Shepherd. Reed is the only reason he made it out of Cambodia during his last NWI assignment… but he still has no interest in helping Donna’s daddy again. So then Donna resorts to taking her robe off to entice Shepherd to say yes… it seems to work as Jason goes in for a kiss, things begin to escalate a bit but Jason stops and hits the line of the movie “Sorry sweetheart, your father already screwed me.”. Donna responds by calling Jason a bastard and I feared the movie had peaked early.
- Nobody Beats the Wiz: After his meeting with Donna, Jason pays his friend Wizard a visit. Wizard got his name because he is a computer whiz/hacker type, Jason asks him to see if he can find out anything about Evelyn Reed. Then Jason goes home and finds Evelyn Reed sleeping on his couch. Evelyn pleads for Shepherd to help NWI with their Strikeforce problem… he gives in, but they are going to do things his way. So Jason Shepherd cleans himself up, goes back to the NWI offices and lays out his demands… Word of Jason Shepherd working for NWI spreads quickly and that’s when we get our first look at the leader of Strikeforce, Stryker (Blake Bahner, Blackbelt II). He’s not worried about Shepherd, in fact he figures they can keep an eye on him so when he finds Reed, they’ll find Reed. This Strikeforce surveillance doesn’t turn out to be a good thing for Shepherd’s friends at the dive bar, Molly and Mojo, but more on that in a moment.
- Interesting Choice: Jason Shepherd goes back to his place and brings Evelyn a kitten that he found. The two have some dinner and then Evelyn gives Jason a little pussy too. What makes this whole scene really disturbing is the fact that the Jason/Evelyn love scene is interspersed with Stryker and his minions Taylor and Baker, raping Molly at the bar!… When Stryker is done, he has Molly call Jason. Molly asks Jason to “make them scream” when he kills the Strikeforce guys (which there are seemingly only three) right before Stryker kills her. Now things just got personal… The next day, Jason goes to the bar where he talks to Molly’s partner in the business, Mojo (who also served with Jason in Vietnam). Strikeforce’s own Baker shows up and attempts to take out Jason and ends up killing poor Mojo in the process. Now things just got even MORE personal.
- It’s Payback Time: Strikeforce capitalizes on their evil momentum by storming NWI headquarters and kidnapping Senator Nathan and Donna, they also track down Wizard and kill him but not before Wizard rats out where Evelyn Reed is, so they snatch up Evelyn too. But fear not, because Jason has loyal NWI employee Paul on his side (Paul also served with Jason in Vietnam) and that means it’s time to dance and it’s time to die… whatever that means. At this point, all roads lead to the NWI Combat Testing Center as Strikeforce has taken over and has Donna, Evelyn and the Senator locked up because there is a holding cell at the Combat Testing Center and dammit they may as well use it. We find out that the NWI stooge Roger Graylor is another member of Strikeforce. We get a Stryker vs. Shepherd knife fight. We get a beheading. And we get the big reveal that Senator Nathan is the leader of Strikeforce making so much of what happened prior to that reveal make absolutely no sense.
Payback was a showcase of the humble beginnings for Richard Pepin and Joseph Merhi. There was some good stuff sprinkled through out, but Payback was rough around the edges and at times rough to watch. After watching Payback, I do have a greater appreciation for some of the early PM Entertainment films I have watched. Early PM movies can’t touch the films they were producing in their prime, but if Payback is any indication, those early PM productions were a step up from Pepin and Merhi’s City Lights era.
Before I turn out the lights on this review, here are some Bonus Bullet Points…
- AKA: Payback is also known by the equally generic title of Revenge.
- In His Own Words: Jason Shepherd considers himself an adrenaline junkie who is in the killing business. The boredom killing business. I believe Evelyn Reed’s description of Jason Shepherd was more fitting… he’s no Rambo.
- The Name Game: Not to be confused with the Mel Gibson Payback from 1999… Or the 1995 Payback starring C. Thomas Howell and Joan Severance… Or 2007’s Payback starring Angie Everhart and Costas Mandylor… And especially not the OTHER 1990 version of Payback starring Michael Ironside and Don Swayze.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Deron McBee killed via crossbow, then Payback is the movie for you.
- Directed By: Addison Randall was the director of Payback. Randall would also move on from City Lights and make the jump to PM Entertainment where he directed such PM films as Shotgun, East L.A. Warriors and The Killing Zone.
- Familiar Face: I recognized Jeff Culver (aka James R. Sweeney), who played Senator Nathan in Payback, from his work in Hobgoblins. Culver’s security guard character in that film is the inspiration for one of my all-time favorite MST3K asides, “Sentence fragments. Just phrases!”
- Final Words: “A Lot of Years. A Lot of Bodies… Fuck It!”
