Max Payne is the story of a troubled detective whose wife and baby were murdered and one of the killers was never caught. He dedicated his life to finding this person. It has ruined his personal and professional life. It’s based off the popular Rockstar video game of the same name. Mark Wahlberg plays Max Payne, Mila Kunis plays assassin Mona Sax, Ludacris plays a detective, and Beau Bridges plays Max’s friend BB who works for the big pharmaceutical company in the city. I was interested in this movie for 2 reasons. The 2nd Max Payne video game really had me hooked. I played it for the PC and loved it. It was the first game I played where you could manipulate the speed of the game to time your precise shots. The other reason that had me interested was Mark Wahlberg. I just enjoy the guy’s badass character that he has perfected. But when it all came down to the actual movie, it just wasn’t the Max Payne movie I was looking for.
The first hour of the movie cannot even be compared to the game. It’s just your stereotypical “whodunnit” cop movie. Max is finding clues from different leads, breaking rules, and being badass. Sure that happens in the game but nothing can be uniquely compared to it. It’s very run-of-the-mill. Not until the big finale did I feel like I was watching a Max Payne movie. Payne gets all fired up, some slow motion action is going on, and it seems like he is an unstoppable force taking out the bad guys. It was pretty cool. But not there was not enough of this to save the movie for me. In fact, I don’t think he even kills anyone until the final scene. Mila Kunis and Ludacris are barely used and Beau Bridges kinda just pops up every now and does a decent job. There’s a reveal in the end that isn’t shocking at all.
Another weird thing was the side story about drugs. There’s a new drug on the street that has people seeing demons. I don’t remember that from the game but maybe it’s in the first one which I didn’t play. It was just a weird plot point that never really went anywhere. Maybe that was the part that was supposed to make the movie unique. It just made it a little too out there for me. On a positive note, the movie was very beautifully stylized. Some scenes are just cool to look at. And Mark Wahlberg fit the role to a tee. He was the ultimate badass and that’s what Max Payne is supposed to be. He doesn’t listen to authority and just goes about his business being one tough asshole. I imagine that’s how Mark is in real life too which is why its the only character he can play well. So I had low expectations from the start and they were not proven wrong in the least. Call Mr. Montana because we need a WHACK.
IMDB – 5.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 18%
Movie Wiseguys – 5/10
