Shawn's Max Payne Review

2008 Movie #131 - Max Payne

I think I played the original Max Payne game once for about 10 minutes like 7 or 8 years ago. That's the extent of my experience with the games. Therefore I had no expectations when it came to the movie adaptation.I would have no idea whether it was being faithful to the games or not. From what I hear, it wasn't faithful at all. I had no way of knowing that however, and actually didn't mind the movie.

I'm guessing those who are loyal fans of the game didn't like this one, but as someone who has never really played them much, I thought it wasn't half bad. The problem is that it's really just painfully average. It doesn't do anything particularily well, it just does alright at pretty much everything.

The movie is actually a lot more focused on story than I thought it would be. The action really doesn't show up until around the last half hour. The problem here of course is, the storyline isn't all that great. It's pretty generic cop stuff, except with the occasional trip out Norse mythology sequence. It's just interesting enough to keep your attention for the full running time, but it's hard to not find 8 movies with the exact same plot on TV at any given time.

When there is action, it too, is merely ok. There is one hilariously over the top bit near the end that is a great example of "what the fuck were they thinking with that one", but most of it is the usual slow motion shootouts you see all the time. I hate to always go back to the Shoot 'Em Up well, but god damn it's too awesome for me not to reference it 1000 times. I don't think that movie resorted to slow motion at all, or at least if it did it was very rare. It's possible to do a great shootout in normal speed, more movies need to realize that.

The acting is good, with Marky Mark playing the same tough guy role as in a lot of his movies. It's a huge step up from The Happening, but few things wouldn't be. If Marky Mark spent the whole movie sleeping it would already be a much better performance than The Happening. Mila Kunis doesn't have a whole lot to do but my GOD is she ever looking good in this one. The whole movie really should have been about her in a bikini shooting people. Movie would have made $100 million in it's first hour of release if that had been the case.

Overall it's a very average movie that I couldn't hate or love. It passed the time and did a decent job of that. The look of the movie is pretty cool but reminded me a bit too much of Sin City. The acting is pretty good, while the storyline, the action and just about everything else in the movie are merely adequate. It's worth a rental, unless you're a huge fan of the games in which case I hear you'll hate it.

** 1/2 / 5