Max Payne

Video game movies have never been great. They are often predictable and don't usually translate well into film. Max Payne is no exception. Let me just get the pun out of the way and mention it is Payneful to watch. I'm not trying to be cute, it really is painful to watch. For being based off of a M-rated action video game, there is surprisingly little gunplay until almost the last 10 or so minutes of this tame PG-13 film. The plot is completely predicatable, cliched, and does not explain several of whom you might think are key characters. The acting was overall pretty poor. Even Mark Wahlberg was stiff and non-convincing. Even more out of place than the poorly developed character of Mila Kunis, is Ludacris, unbelievable as an Internal Affairs cop. The signature gameplay of bullet time from the video games is only slightly transparent in this movie in 3 brief shots, one where he dives through a door, another where he dives backwards and shoots a bad guy above and behind him, and a slo-mo shot from his pistol. The only thing that saves this movie from a total fail, is the visual style, while often inconsistent, it blended decently to detract from the god-awful plot and even worse acting.



My rating: D