Max Payne

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... (11/15/2008)

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. (07/04/2009)

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)

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. (11/14/2008)

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. (11/04/2008)