Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

PimpinAinttEasy I'm not a big fan of RIP TORN. I like identifiable actors who play themselves and show me a bit of myself in their performances rather than ones who are a bit too real.TORN plays Maury Dan, a real mean SOB country music singer. He is the sort of character whom podcasters like bill burr and joe rogan discuss with thinly masked reverence. He is a molester, murderer, hard drinker and does not care about anyone but himself.Cliff Emmich is his loyal driver/bodyguard who is even willing to go to jail for a murder committed by maury.Elayne Heilveil and Ahna Capri play the groupies who fight over him when he is on the road. In a really mean spirited but funny scene, TORN throws out capri out of his car for fighting with elayne. Then the car drives away, stops suddenly, reverses and torn throws out a wad of cash at Capri. Then the car drives away, only to stop again, reverse and this time torn steps out and retrieves the money from the ground and tells Capri - you didn't earn it. the scene might have inspired a similar one in THE DEER HUNTER.Apart from being a character study, PAYDAY is also a great road movie. This is a solid film with great shots of the outdoors and some powerful scenes. I really did not see the ending coming. It was quite spectacular. I suspect TORN is not too different in real life, compared to the character he played in this movie (watch his fight with Norman Mailer on Youtube).DARYL DUKE, the director, also made the fantastic THE SILENT PARTNER.

HardToFindMovies This is a mighty fine early 1970s film with Rip Torn as a forever touring hard-partying country and western singer....not only does Torn pull it off he does an outstanding job as the lead. Torn also does his own singing and it is not bad at all. The script is strong with good dialogue and the supporting cast shows top notch acting. As this is an early 1970s film viewers should expect some darkness and perhaps a certain fatalistic view on life. During the 1970s many people seemed to want to live fast-die hard-and leave a good looking corpse unfortunately. Still despite some rough edges PAYDAY is one outstanding film and considered a rare gem by many film fans. Anyone who takes the time to hunt down a copy of this timeless film which shows both the struggles of modest fame and touring will be glad they did so....this film is an easy, mostly fun watch and moves quickly...it even has a couple of clever plot twists...all in all one of Rip Torn's best films and one of the top 25 films of the entire 1970s! Tom Wilson (HardToFindMovies)New Jersey

bagreise Rip Torn steals the film and lifts it above its drive-in milieu. It played briefly in NYC and the cast works hard enough to make it a good rental. Many of the actors had only TV credits and this could have been a breakthrough film. It was marketed poorly. It also has a good 'road' feel to it. This road feel could have made it a nifty period piece. Why it never made a punch is hard to tell. However a preview audience in NYC found a lot to like about it, including the Torn character's disregard for the other characters. It's worth a look and should make a good double bill in a rep cinema with Coppola's "You're A Big Boy Now" where Torn and the Lovin' Spoonful soundtrack help to save that film. The film was also released at a time when everybody was trying to "recreate" Easy Rider, et al.

Miksa76 I saw this about 3 years ago - I got to admit I was slightly inebriated after a lot of alcohol, but still some of the scenes penetrated my mind clearly, with their pull-no-punches cynicism. Maury Dann (played by Rip Torn) was one of the most memorable crooks I've ever seen in film. This sombre character study from the 70's addresses the themes of power and using people, set in the world of country & western music. As Dann's world slowly but surely crumbles, we see glimpses of the past of this cynical singer star trying to hit it big and the bleak relationships around him.I agree with the previous writer, that the film is (sadly) largely unknown, despite a great script by the writer Don Carpenter and a staggering performance from Rip Torn.