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)

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)

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)

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)

Mir hat es gefallen. Das Computerspiel gehört zu den wenigen Sachen, die ich wirklich bis zum Ende gespielt habe. Der Film hat ihm keine Schande gemacht. Mit Wahlberg in der Hauptrolle war ich mir anfangs nicht ganz sicher, meine Befürchtungen haben sich dann aber als überflüssig herausgestellt. Ich war auch der Meinung, dass die Stimmung nicht so sein kann, wie ich sie in Erinnerung behalten habe. Das war sie tatsächlich nicht, besser wäre es aber wahrscheinlich nicht gegangen. Ich habe mehr Schießereien erwartet. Damit kann man jetzt aber nichts mehr tun… Ich kann froh sein, dass die Filmemacher wenigstens keine Angst vor Blut hatten (wenn auf jemanden geschossen wird, sieht man keinen Staub, sondern eine effektvolle rote Wolke) und dass der Drehbuchautor die gute Idee mit Valkyr hatte, was der Stimmung auch nicht geschadet hat. Schöne Weiber (die kleine Rolle von Kurylenko hätte aber auch jemand anderes übernehmen können), eine gelungene Musik und eine Regie, die nicht nur bei den Actionszenen ziemlich gut ist. Dreieinhalb. (15.07.2010)

Ein riesiger Durchfaller. Mark Wahlberg gleitet mit einem einzige Gesichtsausdruck durch den ganzen Film, Olga Kurylenko wiederum hat in ihrem roten Kleidchen keine Chance, Mila Kunis sieht komisch aus, der gute alte Sucre wirkt als Bösewicht lächerlich, und Beau Bridges ohne Kommentar. Nelly Furtado hätte sich für ihre "Statistenrolle" auch etwas Besseres aussuchen können. Vielleicht kommt das daher, dass ich nie Computerspielen verfallen bin, vielleicht weil ich nie in der richtigen Stimmung für Actionfilme war oder dass Max Payne tatsächlich ein recht schwacher Film ist. (04.04.2009)

At the end of the week, a real disappointment, which I initially didn't want to believe. I like Mark Wahlberg and I wish him good and interesting movies. So far, he hasn't had many of them and he doesn't have enough space to show that he is really a good actor. Movies like "Fighter" or "Ted" turned out well for him, but there aren't that many. "Max Payne" is definitely one of the weakest. The film tries to pretend to be an A-movie by having well-known actors, besides Mark Wahlberg, there are also beauties Mila Kunis and Olga Kurylenko, and also Beau Bridges among the well-known faces. But actors are not everything. Sometimes they can lift an average script to the level of good, but when the script is bad, actors can't do much. Max Payne was originally a game, but if this was a promotional film for the game, I probably won't play it. Visually interesting, the dark angels are nice, but is it so hard to create at least some kind of story? It seems to me that this film doesn't have any. Something was tried, which has already been used elsewhere - a cop who has problems and wants to find out what actually happened to his wife - all of this was set in a matrix-like environment and supplemented with some horror elements from the film "Constantine". How can this work as a good film when it doesn't excel in anything? Perhaps only the digital effects are worth it, but there are already better mentioned PC and video games that are graphically very advanced, plus by controlling the character yourself, they immerse you much better into the action. "Max Payne" simply doesn't work. It reminded me a little of the failed film "11-11-11". Nothing more, nothing groundbreaking, even though it wants to pretend to be the hit of the year. Just another attempt to squeeze some money out of people. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2012/12/umirajici-zvire-4-vanoce-slunce-seno-2.html (03.03.2013)

Visually impressive, but everything else was dumped... Wahlberg is bland, Nelly Furtado doesn't impress either, only Ludacris shines a bit.) The pictures of the snow-covered city are nice to look at sometimes, but that's really the only major plus... Otherwise, in terms of direction and script, it's a bland piece of crap with a chaotic plot and unconvincing performances, if you can even call them that. (16.05.2009)