Max Payne (2008)

"Visually compelling and with a cast willing to make the effort so that we'll take it seriously, this is a solid action film.  Daniel M. Kimmel, Worcester Telegram & Gazette
"...a junkyard dog of a film that is true to its video-game roots even as it transcends them.  David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer
"...violent and fun and since that's why I played the game, I left the theater satisfied.  Jenna Busch, UGO
"Your quintessential guy film. If you have any significant level of testosterone in your blood stream, you'll find something to enjoy about it.  Kevin Carr, 7M Pictures
"Take in the pleasure, because Max Payne is the most beautiful video game adaptation yet.  Mark Palermo, Coast

Editor's Note Based on the video game from Rockstar, MAX PAYNE stars Mark Wahlberg as a New York City cop out to avenge his slain wife and child, and heaven help anyone who gets in his blood-strewn way. The trail leads him into a network of shady characters mixed up with an experimental drug that causes super strength and fearlessness, as well as wild hallucinations of winged angels and demons. As Max gets closer and closer to the truth, he finds himself the target of a massive police manhunt, and in the crosshairs of the powerful kingpin behind the racket; soon enough, the angels and demons become downright deadly. Olga Kurylenko (QUANTUM OF SOLACE) is a beautiful Russian party girl who winds up dead after a late-night visit to Max's pad; her assassin sister (Mila Kunis) first goes after Max, then tries to help him get some answers. Rap star Ludacris (here credited as Chris Bridges) is a tough internal affairs cop investigating Payne's behavior. Shot in an impressively grungy palette of high-contrast grays and blacks, with snow and sheets of rain soaking the grim atmosphere, New York City is brilliantly morphed into something like Gotham City by way of Detroit, with a touch of X-FILES-style supernatural dread looming over everything. Director John Moore knows how to stage his action scenes: offices blow up, big chunks of rubble crush police cars, bodies and shattered glass suspend in mid-air for some of the slowest slow-mo moments in action film history. Fans of the video game and/or action movies in general should get a kick out of all the mega-loud insanity, stylish design, and Wahlberg, who never changes his mean expression, but still commands the screen.

	Mark Wahlberg
	Kate Burton
	Chris O'Donnell
	Mila Kunis
	Beau Bridges
	Donal Logue
	Amaury Nolasco
	Ludacris
	Olga Kurylenko
	Tom Karnowski - Executive Producer
	George Little - Costume Designer
	Rick Yorn - Executive Producer
	Jonathan Sela - Director of Photography
	Julie Yorn - Producer
	Beau Thorne - Screenwriter
	Dan Zimmerman - Editor
	John Moore - Producer
	Daniel T. Dorrance - Production Designer
	Karen Lauder - Executive Producer
	Buck Sanders - Composer
	Scott Faye - Producer
	Marco Beltrami - Composer
	John Moore - Director

Variety
"[The director] artfully blends vidgame and film-noir aesthetics....[With] a reasonably convincing and atmospheric simulacrum of the game's interactive environment..." 10/16/2008

Reel.com 6 of 10
To paraphrase comedian/pundit Bill Maher, "New rule! Motion picture adaptations of successful video games must at least be as exciting and inventive as the product they are based on." Of course, Hollywood violates this mandate almost every time they take a game title and turn it into a film. With very few exceptions, the translation doesn't work. The latest victim of this mindless media re-imaging is Max Payne. While avoiding much of what made the third-person shooter a hit, it tries to turn its tale of a haunted policeman desperate for vengeance into something otherworldly and epic. Until the oddball finish, it's just a lot of slo-mo stiffness...Max Payne is an incredibly average action-oriented noir which tries to salvage some originality by going completely goofy at the end. For the first 70 minutes or so, we get the standard cop with a vendetta sweeping the streets clean of every idiosyncratic snitch in central casting. At irregular moments, a Russian hitwoman with the voice of Meg Griffin steps in and pouts. Friends turn out to be enemies, with professional rivals (or in this case, a rapper-turned-Internal Affairs investigator) coming around to our hero's way of thinking. Once the denouement is revealed, it's time for the final showdown, right? Well, sort of. Max Payne doesn't just deliver a last act firefight. Instead, the gunpowder ballet is accented by what appears to be the Rapture as envisioned by Norse mythology...Max Payne is nothing special. The finale doesn't salvage it all, but it does make up for some of the dullness delivered. - Bill Gibron

ReelViews 6 of 10
Max Payne follows the trajectory of an old-school video game adaptation, which is to say that it sacrifices plot and character development in favor of mindless action. This sort of thing can be enjoyable when there's an interactive element to it. Take away the buttons and knobs, however, and it quickly becomes repetitive. That's the problem with too many game-to-movie productions - they are constrained by a desire to remain "true" to the material from which they originate. Max Payne has a solid setup but fails to take it anywhere remotely interesting. We end up with a guy running around shooting things in the dark...The film's most interesting sequences are those in which we see through the eyes of the drug users. Their world is a grim, trippy place, inhabited by winged demons and other bizarre Ministers of Grace. The film could have done a lot with this imagery, such as implied that this "second world" is real but unseen by normal humans, but it's not that smart. Ultimately, these sequences end up as eye candy - ways to punctuate an overly familiar, stillborn story that wears out its welcome...I keep waiting for the first truly great video game movie and, with games becoming increasingly more complex, I approach each such motion picture with cautious optimism. It has to happen at some time, but Max Payne isn't it. Maybe fans of the game will be okay with the cinematic adaptation but for those who aren't new to Max and his world, this isn't an impressive introduction. Clunky action, chaotic plotting, and embarrassing dialogue are not ways to impress newcomers. There's plenty of Payne to be found here - in more ways than one. - James Berardinelli