Max Payne DVD Review

"Max Payne" reviews

DVD

Max Payne

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2009-04-06 14:09:04

Rating

1/5

Provider

DVD Review

The startling fact before inflicting "Max Payne" upon myself was that John Moore's computer game adaptation came in ninth in a rundown of the biggest opening weekends for game-to-films at the US Box Office. Ninth?! A sad indictment indeed considering the higher echelons of said chart is partly made up of the Paul W.S. Anderson double-header that is "Mortal Kombat" and "Resident Evil". So can "Max Payne" be that rarest of film commodities - a decent game adaptation? And can 'Markey' Mark Wahlberg rid himself of his recent funk otherwise known as "The Happening"? Conveniently the answer to both of these questions is no.

"Max Payne" has no excuses. 2001's gritty, and often brilliant, Cop-High-On-Revenge bullet saga made for an electrifying gaming experience. It was even audacious to the point of cinematic at a time well before "Halo". So here we have a computer game designed like a film now put through the mix and churned in to a film that feels like a video game! Or at least the acting is just as bad! Mark Wahlberg is of course the aggrieved detective broken by the violent murder of his wife and child. So cut up is Max he goes on a junkie-hunting spree, convinced his wife's demise has something to do with a new drug being peddled on the mean streets. Well, of course it does and it's not long before Payne's rampage leads him to Valkyr, the new hallucinogenic doing the rounds.

To say Wahlberg's performance is bad would be terribly unfair to the word 'bad'. Wahlberg is so distraught I imagine by this material that he just reduces himself to screaming his way through the final third of the film. It's possible to garner more character insight and pathos from the game and in that we only see the back of Payne's head! In fairness Wahlberg is not helped by the rest of the cast either. Mila Kunis ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall") plays the least threatening hitman ever. Beau Bridges has the displeasure of being Max' best friend and the protector of the weakest MacGuffin in film history. The high points really are few and far between, odd considering the film is littered with junkies tripping out of their respective boxes. A pre-Bond Olga Kurylenko brings the Sexy all too briefly before getting the chop (literally) and it's always nice to see Chris O'Donnell back and getting work.

John Moore is clearly not a fan of the game and I suspect he even dislikes it so much as to wantonly inflict this upon the world. His 'neo-noir' creation is all flashing neon lights and not a flash of genius in sight. He only ever cuts loose with a little bullet-time and CGI tomfoolery with the winged demon types to make up, or at least attempt to, for all that has gone before. This is the film after all that has Mark Wahlberg linking multiple homicides to a logo on a paper file. Enough said.

Copyright © 2009.