Film Review - Max Payne

Let's get one thing straight. There has never been a good movie adaptation of a videogame. From Resident Evil through to Silent Hill and Tomb Raider, while the atmospherics are fairly straightforward to nail, the lack of audience interactivity leads to abject failure via paper-thin plotting and airy substance.

Still, audiences keep paying to watch them and the bottom line is enough motivation for the studios. Unfortunately Max Payne does nothing to break free of genre expectations. As a character, Payne is an almost laughably tough nut. While haunted by a periodic, sepia-toned flashback of his family's murder, he spends his downtime cleaning his guns and blows doors open with his cannon-sized six-shooter when he's chasing a villain. Although Mark Wahlberg does Repressed and Angry very well, probe a layer or two below his limited repertoire of scowls and furrowed brows and you'll be left wanting.

The support cast offers little back-up. Mila Kunis is essentially a poor man's Trinity, who has little to play with and has nothing to offer besides some extra firepower and a handy foil when the audience needs some laborious exposition. Then there's current Bond girl Olga Kurylenko who suffers the indignity of a slink-on, slink-off part in which she loses her clothes and then falls victim to one of the most embarrassing death scenes of the year.

Director John Moore (Behind Enemy Lines, the remake of The Omen) has a history of providing flashy visuals in place of any real substance, and he tries to pull the same trick here. Occasionally diverting action scenes will keep the teens happy but they're ultimately far too Matrix-lite to be truly effective. Of more interest is the look of the city itself, a frozen and barren New York which manages to make an impression throughout, while a series of impressive set-pieces marking the finale will produce an involuntary nod of satisfaction. Would've made a good ten-minute music video, perhaps... You'll find yourself wishing they'd paid as much attention to the screenplay.

First published on InTheNews in November 2008.