Review of Max Payne (2008) by Ed Fucking H — 03 Jun 2011

I have no interest in video games so I can't comment on the source material here.Also movies based on video games have an even worse track record for me than horror remakes. So basically this movie would have to be nothing less than a masterpiece to get a passing grade from me.

It failed. Director John Moore seems to revel in making the kinds of movies I despise as he was also responsible for the Omen remake which I also hated. Not that there isn't anything to like here.

There are some good action sequences and I did like the post-noir style of the film. That being said I liked it even better when it was done for Sin City. The story is very difficult to follow and this feels like an exercise in style over substance, but from how I understood it the film follows a cold case detective investigating some bizarre murders connected with a new drug that causes people to hallucinate some weird demon angels of war or something.

Who cares. This film isn't really very story based at all and it really should have been to command the audiences attention. What we get instead is a highly stylized and polished, but wholly uninvolving excuse to show off what is currently possible with special effects.

Yawn. Mark Wahlberg can be a good actor when he wants to be, and I suppose that technically there's nothing wrong with his performance here. I still can't really find much that's good to say about this though.

Easily passable unless your a fan of the video game I guess.