The first person shooter game Max Payne is the latest video game to make it to the silver screen. I’ve never played it, but I didn’t see much that puts the film above any other action flick, unless you count the odd turn towards Norse mythology which seemed somewhat out of place. Max appears to have an identity crisis.
Detective Max Payne (Mark Wahlberg) has been in hiding since the murder of his wife and baby. It’s a self imposed exile since he’s transferred to the cold case unit and is obsessed with finding the third person who was at his wife’s murder scene, the one that got away.
He’s learned that some thugs in a subway station may have information relating to his wife’s murder and he confronts them. The only thing he gets out of one addict is mumbling about wings. He goes back to the snitch, Trevor (Andrew Friedman); he got the information from and finds that he’s having a big party at his apartment. That doesn’t stop the obsessed Payne from interrogating him for more information.
Natasha (Olga Kurylenko) takes an interest in Payne after having a fight with her sister Mona (Mila Kunis). She’s being eyed by the creepy Lupino (Amaury Nolasco) at the party and she leaves with Payne to go back to his place. When she makes some comments about him pining over some lost love and that he can have sex with her and call out the love’s name, it reminds him too much of his dead wife and he unceremoniously throws her out.
As she’s walking through a dark alley we see that Lupino is watching her, but some sort of creatures swoop down and kill her. The next day Max is approached by his old partner Alex (Donal Logue) because his wallet was found at Natasha’s murder scene. Alex doesn’t think that Max had anything to do with her death but he later discovers some new evidence in Max’s wife’s case, but is killed before he can tell Max what it is. Max discovers Alex’s body and is knocked unconscious.
He awakens in the hospital with his old friend B.B. Hensley (Beau Bridges) by his side. B.B. now does security services for the Aesir pharmaceutical corporation. Now Max has to track down the information that Alex stumbled across, avoid internal affairs officer Jim Bravura (Chris “Ludacris” Brides) who suspects Max of murder, and follow the trail to find out why people are dying now and why his wife and child were murdered.
Max Payne seems to be a somewhat schizophrenic film. On the one hand it tries to be a realistic cop drama and on the other hand we have a sci-fi drug story with some Norse mythology thrown in for good measure. The two halves seem to be uneasy with each other.
It’s seems even more forced and odd when Marky Mark shoots up with the drug, turns into super cop, and starts seeing visions that might be more at home in the film Constantine.
I did find it a decent cop drama, but it seemed strange to add in the winged creatures and mythology. Most people who liked the video game on which the film is based seemed to hate the movie though. I was never into the game, yet had heard the name, so that might be why it didn’t really offend me. It did seem like cop dramas that I’ve seen before (obsessed cop tracking down wife’s killer(s)) though.
Marky Mark’s pretty good in the role, but the any obsessed cop needs a good villain to play off of and both of them in the film are rather bland. The film is a strange mix, but your love of the game might flavor your opinion of what John Moore has done with it.
Max Payne is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. The disc presents both the theatrical version (100 minutes) and the uncut version (103 minutes).
Special features include a commentary with director John Moore, production designer Daniel Dorrance, and visual effects supervisor Everett Burrell. Next is the 29 minute making of “Picture.”
Oddly, it says it’s part one but I never saw a part two. You also get a graphic novel preview that is about Payne’s wife and runs for 13 minutes. Disc two features a digital copy that you can download to your PC or portable device.
Max Payne doesn’t really do anything new and its mixture of Norse mythology and sci-fi seems out of place. I’m not really too familiar with the game, besides knowing there was one called Max Payne, so that might be why the film didn’t offend me as it did some.
However, it really didn’t do much to excite me either. I was very disappointed in the lack of a good villain to go up against the scowling Wahlberg.
Max Payne is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a March 9th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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