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While "Hell to Pay"
feels like a thirty minute movie stretched in to sixty, director Jay
Jennings has the right idea with a neo-noir crime thriller that manages
to entertain as a descent in to darkness for one man who takes what he
wants, no matter what. Director Jay Jennings focuses in on character
Teddy, a debt collector who goes around town taking his debts from thugs
and hookers for his boss, a vicious mobster who is very easy to turn on
folks he trusts.
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As you can
guess it with Teddy's luck completely in the dumps, he
manages to cross the wrong man and seeks an easy way out
from his life of crime and deception. Jay Jennings has a
clear and ambitious vision with "Hell to Pay" and it
manifests in to a pretty good movie that chronicles the
quick dive of a man's scruples in the face of lecherous
relatives and the life around him that's filled with
degenerates and crime that fills Teddy's world. Charles
Santore as Teddy is competent and gives a strong portrayal
as a man who embraces his dark side and takes great pains to
revel in the violence he inflicts on his victims.
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But his gradual
change of heart makes him a character that becomes easier and easier to
empathize with. Jennings confronts these dark alleyways and dregs of
humanity with a grit that's admirable and a focus that keeps "Hell to
Pay" a very desolate thriller that is worth the watch for fans of films
like "Bad Lieutenant" and "Scarface."
Jay Jennings' crime
thriller is at best a half hour crime thriller that feels aimlessly
stretched in to an hour long story with a narrative that tends to
meander from character to character. Each confrontation seems to be
drawing closer and closer to the actual point of Teddy's dissension from
his boss and then it merely just focuses on the staged fight at hand
while moving on to yet another segment that doesn't hold any actual
relevance to Teddy's conflict or change of heart. When the fights do
occur there's a lot to be desired especially in the editing which takes
unusual turns fast forwarding through a fight or slowing down a scene to
cover up the blemishes in the choreography. It's a noticeable ruse that
doesn't entirely pay off in the end.
While it's no
masterpiece with some sloppy editing and a meandering story that feels
stretched in to a one hour film, "Hell to Pay" is a classic crime
thriller in the tradition of "Scarface" and "Carlito's Way" where our
intrepid anti-hero seeks a better life and revels in his violent nature.
I had a good time with it.
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