Max Payne

Snowflakes, snowflakes, snowflakes.....Mark's furrowed brow, digital boogeymen.....and snowflakes again.....Well, I'm certainly not going to bemoan the fact that the movie version of Max Payne doesn't resemble the game (I've played both games), because they're two different worlds with different expressive language, and watching Payne mow down his opponents in slow motion from start to finish wouldn't be very entertaining either. Unfortunately, Moore's film is so narratively out of place, failing utterly to draw you into the plot, and the script was written using the tried and true crutch of "you can't think of anything you want to talk about, so throw a secret government project in there and wrap it in wadding, it'll work somehow," to the point where I felt sorry for Mark Wahlberg. I quite like him, but with his eternal boyish mug, he's absolutely wrong for the role of Max Payne, he lacks the necessary manly charisma and it doesn't help to frown and grit your teeth forever, Mark. So, what’s left? Not a fish, not a crayfish, not a dark bloody noir, not an action flick, just such a forgettable fart into the world of game film adaptations. (14.11.2008)

Probably the biggest disappointment of the year, Max Payne is a perfectly mishandled adaptation of the game. John Moore is exactly as I expected, the action is fantastic, raw, dynamic, and powerful. The atmosphere is not bad, either, though the snow is not quite what I imagined. What absolutely failed, however, is what the film actually wants to say. It starts off as a bloody noir ride (good) and a minute later we have The X-Files crossed with The Matrix (bad). Moore struggles with it and misses the concept of the game, and it raises the question of whether he even played it! The whole story is quite brutally messed up. As a passionate fan of the game, I appreciated the various details and references to it (Alex, the Ragnarock club, the scene with the family). On the other hand, unfortunately, they are just references that don't play a major role in the final composition. Ragnarock in particular remains shamefully underused, as well as the scenes at the end of the film taking place in a skyscraper, which is essentially the whole third part of the game. Some computer effects were unnecessary and didn't fit the film at all, and I missed the bullet time and Max's (unconvincing) dual Berettas. I still don't understand Olga Kurylenko's involvement, so what is the slightly below average rating for? For the aforementioned action that Moore can deliver! For the fact that it could have turned out much worse, for the fact that even though Moore didn't know what material he had the honor of working with, he handled it decently and at least included a few references in the film, and mainly, above all, for Mila Kunis and her Maserati. (10.01.2009)

First of all, this isn't the “Max Payne" as we know it, it's an average crime B-movie with a big budget for the scenes with the Valkyrie which aren’t even in the game! If I had to judge by what kind of movie it could have been, I'd have to trash it, but I tried to be unbiased, and this deserve those two stars. There are a few solidly filmed scenes (which you could count on the fingers of one hand) and the stylization, which goes completely outside the original noir atmosphere, is quite interesting. Wahlberg not only didn't fit into the role of Max but he seemed strangely fat throughout the movie (but ok, he was normal again in the post-credits scene) and his acting was uneven at best. This movie is just one big disappointment, and I can only hope that in a few years, when everyone forgets about this mess, someone with respect for the original game will make a reboot. (04.07.2009)

A grossly mishandled adaptation where the screenwriter threw out all the most interesting moments and was left with a routine crime-thriller that delivers a lot of pretty postcards with snow-covered skyscrapers, but without any functional interconnectedness. Every now and then I wondered how much substance was still lying on the cutting room floor. Never mind that the cast of characters is different than the video game player is used to (Lupino is annoying, that's a fact) because that's what happens to movie versions of cults that someone has to serve up with a PG-13 rating. One point for Mark, Olga, and the nice poster that the people in the movie theater didn't want to give me. PS: I call upon you movie deities to save Valve from selling the rights to their gem... (15.11.2008)

I love his desire for revenge, his weapons, his allies, and his enemies, and I love boundlessly every piece of this snowy New York, where behind every door hides a group of killers, much-needed painkillers, or a new set of bullets. But all of this disappears in the adaptation and a new Max comes along. Even this time, he is not afraid to pull out a weapon, but only as a last resort. And that's why I am delighted by B.B., Aesir, Roscoe Street Station, or Alex, but in the moment when I, full of joy from the action that finally arrived in full splendor, realized that the journey to the roof is a cleansing path to the conclusion, inevitably disappointment also arrived. I do not blame Moore for being late with the action, and I do not accuse Thorne of taking the script in a completely different direction. I am just disappointed because I wanted to see much more from the beloved video game than just the scenery. (04.11.2008)