The Pay Day

A supremely well-shot entertainer, The Pay Day is a perfectly pleasant film for those looking for a heist film, even though there are some stilted dialogues and scenes that drag.

The film follows a frustrated and recently-fired IT technician (Kyla Frye) who is charged by a crime boss (Simon Callow) to embark on a one-woman heist to steal valuable data worth $500 million on the black market. Like all good heist films, it's about people who feel neglected in society. Frye's character is being evicted, and she feels that the whole world is against her. This opportunity to steal data is her chance to make it big. When a suave conman (Sam Benjamin) interrupts her mission to steal the loot for himself, matters grow even more complicated.

The cinematography in The Pay Day as well as the casting are two of the high points. Frye's portrayal of a harried, desperate programmer looking for a way to make some cash is equally stirring and entertaining... though the film does focus on the latter more, due to the writing. This heist film sometimes wants to be a comedy and other times a romantic film, which makes it feel a little disjointed and somewhat like a series of sketches. For example, random flirting between Benjamin and Frye occupies 20 minutes of the film while Frye tries to extract files from a computer - whose, we don't know yet. Speaking of random things, there are a bunch of odd elements in the film that seem either implausible or infantile to the point of being ridiculous, like a scene where a character survives a shot to the heart and another with a stilted and suggestive exchange about pomegranates. It's largely the writing that makes the first half of the film drag, save for some scenes that really hit it out of the park. There are also tons of stereotypes thrown in, and some will make you cringe. For example a crime boss lounging with his cronies in a dimly lit bar; Pink Panther-esque background music; the typical green zeroes and ones speeding across the screen of a computer being hacked; and a scene where the protagonist sprints through sterile white walkways of every generic office complex.

The Pay Day promotes resourcefulness and resilience. There are some sexually suggestive scenes and discussions of smoking and alcohol.

I give The Pay Day 4 stars out of 5 and recommend it for ages 12 to 18, plus adults. By Eshaan M., KIDS FIRST!

This movie started on the right note. A silly crime caper about getting files worth $500 Million from a company and putting them on a thumb drive. The woman will get 1% of the take, which she desperately needs. And then the move starts to drag. And drag. And drag some more. Dead space between lines of dialog. The pacing so slow that your mind goes numb. A story that just disintegrates and nothing of any importance is said or done in the last hour.

I watched it to the end and can't even tell you who got the thumb drive or what they even did with it. I know it was a Mcguffin, but the interplay between the two leading actors was juvenile at best.

Avoid this movie like the plague.

Or watch it, if you need something to put you to sleep.

How did this crap even get made? Maybe I don't understand british humor, or slang, but that shouldn't be a requirement to watch a movie. Usually, with the aid of captions, I can suss out what the slang means even if I can't understand the accent. I managed to watch about 40 minutes of this before angrily shutting it off. Wooden lines being delivered by robotic actors. Stultifyingly boring. I'm sure there's a whisper of a plot in there somewhere but since it took 40 minutes for the macguffin flashy drive to make its appearance and disappearance, I couldn't believe that there was anything worthwhile coming down the pike. I doubt the script ran longer than 50 pages, as the one-line-at-a-time dialog from the 1st eight characters barely account for three typewritten pages. Boring. Lackluster. Waste of time. Made me wish I could punch both Jenn & George & stuff a sock in Simon Callow's posh mouth.

Really enjoyed this, the main characters are well matched in this little rom-com from London. Soundtrack is very groovy and I was left wanting more! Bring on Number 2!

Especially loved Simon Callow's work as the big baddy.

The chemistry between Kyla Frye and Sam Benjamin is a breath of fresh air and I for one cannot wait to see what they'll do next!

The film has great pace, albeit a slightly slow start but the film gets into it's groove once the 20 min mark is reached.

I especially liked the police officer characters, very funny and stole every scene they popped up in.

I think there's a lot more to come from this group of filmmakers and am looking forward to it.

A couple of moody film buffs that think they know the ins and outs of filmmaking seem to want to put this movie down but I'm all here for this type of film, especially after delving into what I could find online to learn about the team behind The Pay Day.

The plot doesn't reinvent the wheel but the talent on display in this from start to finish shine brightly and that isn't just the cast I'm talking about.

Real effort has gone into this and it's easy to tear down something that tries to be different from the hum drum of typical football firm/london gangster type movies coming out today.

Turn this on, have fun and mark my words, we'll see a sequel to this.