Max Payne (Blu-ray) (2008)

Reel.com 6 of 10
To paraphrase comedian/pundit Bill Maher, "New rule! Motion picture adaptations of successful video games must at least be as exciting and inventive as the product they are based on." Of course, Hollywood violates this mandate almost every time they take a game title and turn it into a film. With very few exceptions, the translation doesn't work. The latest victim of this mindless media re-imaging is Max Payne. While avoiding much of what made the third-person shooter a hit, it tries to turn its tale of a haunted policeman desperate for vengeance into something otherworldly and epic. Until the oddball finish, it's just a lot of slo-mo stiffness...Max Payne is an incredibly average action-oriented noir which tries to salvage some originality by going completely goofy at the end. For the first 70 minutes or so, we get the standard cop with a vendetta sweeping the streets clean of every idiosyncratic snitch in central casting. At irregular moments, a Russian hitwoman with the voice of Meg Griffin steps in and pouts. Friends turn out to be enemies, with professional rivals (or in this case, a rapper-turned-Internal Affairs investigator) coming around to our hero's way of thinking. Once the denouement is revealed, it's time for the final showdown, right? Well, sort of. Max Payne doesn't just deliver a last act firefight. Instead, the gunpowder ballet is accented by what appears to be the Rapture as envisioned by Norse mythology...Max Payne is nothing special. The finale doesn't salvage it all, but it does make up for some of the dullness delivered. - Bill Gibron
 
ReelViews 6 of 10
Max Payne follows the trajectory of an old-school video game adaptation, which is to say that it sacrifices plot and character development in favor of mindless action. This sort of thing can be enjoyable when there's an interactive element to it. Take away the buttons and knobs, however, and it quickly becomes repetitive. That's the problem with too many game-to-movie productions - they are constrained by a desire to remain "true" to the material from which they originate. Max Payne has a solid setup but fails to take it anywhere remotely interesting. We end up with a guy running around shooting things in the dark...The film's most interesting sequences are those in which we see through the eyes of the drug users. Their world is a grim, trippy place, inhabited by winged demons and other bizarre Ministers of Grace. The film could have done a lot with this imagery, such as implied that this "second world" is real but unseen by normal humans, but it's not that smart. Ultimately, these sequences end up as eye candy - ways to punctuate an overly familiar, stillborn story that wears out its welcome...I keep waiting for the first truly great video game movie and, with games becoming increasingly more complex, I approach each such motion picture with cautious optimism. It has to happen at some time, but Max Payne isn't it. Maybe fans of the game will be okay with the cinematic adaptation but for those who aren't new to Max and his world, this isn't an impressive introduction. Clunky action, chaotic plotting, and embarrassing dialogue are not ways to impress newcomers. There's plenty of Payne to be found here - in more ways than one. - James Berardinelli