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MAX PAYNE

 ABOUT THE MOVIE

Genre: Action/Thriller
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Chris O' Donnell, Beau Bridges, Ludacris, Mila Kunis, Donal Logue, Amaury Nolasco Director: John Moore
Rating: NC-16 (Some Violence and Some Coarse Language)
Year Made: 2008

 


 SPECIAL FEATURES

- Featurettes
Picture 1
Picture 2
-
Michelle Payne (Graphic Novel)

 


 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Languages: English/Spanish/
Thai/Portuguese
Subtitles: English/Spanish/
Thai/Portuguese/Cantonese/
Korean/Mandarin/Malay/
Indonesian
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 Widescreen
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Running Time: 1 hr 33 mins
Region Code: 3
Distributor: Alliance Entertainment
Official Website:
www.foxhome.com

 

 

SYNOPSIS: 

Mark Wahlberg delivers an explosive performance in this action-packed thriller based on the legendary, hard-hitting video game. Max Payne (Wahlberg) is a maverick cop with little regard for rules and nothing left to lose. Hell-bent on revenge, he's determined to track down those responsible for the brutal murder of his family, but his obsessive investigation takes him on a nightmarish journey where dark fantasy collides with stark reality. As the mystery deepens, Max is forced to battle enemies beyond the natural world... and face an unthinkable betrayal that will drive him to the edge of his own sanity.

MOVIE REVIEW:

This review contains mild spoilers, proceed with caution.

I got to blame the trailer for touting the wrong goods. To a non-gamer, the money shots of Mark Wahlberg brandishing guns surrounded by supernatural elements built up the anticipation that "Max Payne" might be something along the line of "Constantine". But alas the final product is nothing close to what you imagine.

Screenwriter Beau Thorne and director John Moore (Behind Enemy Lines) stripped down the basis of the popular videogame of the same name and gave it an unbelievable ill treatment. Even the ever reliable Mark Walberg is severely wasted right here.

Wahlberg plays the title character, a once shining detective whose depression and despondency gets him demoted to a file clerk after the tragic death of his newborn child and wife. This is where Wahlberg starts to act brooding and more brooding, his one-off expression lasting the whole running time. Consider the movie only lasts 100 minutes, for an hour or so, the pacing never really picks up. Shortly after numerous flashbacks of seeing Mrs Payne killed, Payne is entangled in the murder of a dead woman, Natasha (the latest Bond girl Olga Kurylenko in a 'this-helps-me-pay-the-bills' role) and the death of Max’s ex-partner who recently discovered that Mrs Payne’s death is more than meets the eyes. To make matters worse, Payne is being hunted by an internal affairs officer (Ludacris) for he is now the biggest suspect of all.

Now the main problem lies in the script. Plenty of screentime is devoted to the detective work by Payne and his newfound sidekick, Mona (Mila Kunis) the sister of Natasha to uncover the truth behind all the killings. However, it doesn’t require knowledge of rocket science to figure out the whole mess. The constant appearances of the angel-like creatures only serve to heighten audience’s hopes while Wahlberg’s constant brooding look is a pain in the ass to look at.

There just aren’t enough major action pieces to entertain the action fans beside the one shown briefly in the trailer consider it’s a videogame adaptation. By the time the movie kicks into full gear with a drug company employee Jason Colvin (Chris O’Donnell aka Robin) blabbering the whole truth behind Mrs Payne’s death, a drug called Valkyr and the 'bullet time' action piece, you know "Max Payne" is neither "Constantine" nor a decade late "The Matrix".

The only decent attempt by Moore is to give the movie a dark, arresting look. Visually it’s rich enough. But we are not watching a 5 minutes music video so Moore should consider paying more attention to the script next time. It’s another lame attempt to cash in on the popularity of videogames. This DVD contains the harder cut of the movie, an additional 3 minutes worth of material that contains nothing more except cranking up the violence factor.

SPECIAL FEATURES :

Entitled as Featurettes on the back cover of the DVD, it’s basically a behind-the-scenes segment that is spilt into Picture Part 1 and Part 2. Altogether it runs to almost an hour. John Moore comes across as arrogant and blessed with a foul mouth full of f***, he boasts that once "Max Payne" reaches more than hundred millions at the box-office, he will have those f***ing lawyers from Fox off his back. Apparently, his wish is too big for his own good. Compare to the movie, this documentary is far worth your time.

The Michelle Payne (Graphic Novel) which runs 13 minutes provides the back story on the Michelle Payne’s character of. A rather interesting way of presenting it as a graphic novel.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Visually the DVD transfer is excellent. Most of the scenes involving night and snowflakes are beautifully captured. Despite being a lame action movie, the channels come especially alive during the shootout, exploding glass and bullets can be heard clearly .

MOVIE RATING:



DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee 

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. Max Payne (Movie Review)

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. Babylon A.D.

. Journey to the Center of the Earth

. Desert Saints

. The Dark Knight

. Horton

. Right At Your Door

. Deception

. Doomsday


. Never Back Down

. Virgin Territory

. Shutter

. Little Fish

. Shanghai Kiss

 


This review is made possible with the kind support from
Alliance Entertainment

 



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