44 out of 44 people found the following review helpful:

come on John, you are supposed to make movie here

Picktokyo from from London, England, 20th October, 2008

If you have played Max Payne game, you will agree with me that Mark Wahlberg doesn't really suits the image of a Max Payne, but that is just one of a series of a whole poor misdirection in the movie. The story is mainly based on the original video game which is popular around 4 to 5 years ago. I have to admit the setting is a whole wonderful art direction set of New York City in a middle of harsh winter and rain. It is noir and I love it. It is just about the whole action that doesnt make sense. It is like a dark rambo, with many direction flaw. For instance, many of the movie scene you will see Wahlberg shooting at the bad guys and in return the bad guys will shoot EVERYTHING with rifles which is like 3 meters away from Wahlberg (in slow motion so you can notice how far they missed), and sometimes you will see Max shooting 4 bad guys at the same time with a machine gun effect - and how weird to see Max actually holding a shotgun NOT a machine gun. And limitless ammo also applies in the movie. And moreover you will see Max being shot again and again, and he doesn't even bleed - just like the video game. Should we actually remind John Moore that actually he is making a movie not a video-game-movie? and if it is a video game it is in an 'Easy Mode'. I am totally disappointed. The best part of the movie is Olga Kurylenko.

17 out of 17 people found the following review helpful:

*Spoilers* This is rubbish

A Customer from London, 27th April, 2009

Gosh, where to start? This was on a par with Constantine, it was that dire. Firstly, and this is probably the main point where this film falls down, the main character in films like this is meant to be a real badass, who can handle himself in a fight or shootout in an impressive manner. In Max Payne, Marky Mark just spends most of his time trying to look menacing, whilst running away from people shooting at him, getting beaten up by drug-enhanced bad guys and not actually doing much ass-kicking until the last 10 minutes, when he shoots a few people...then has a bit of a breakdown before shooting a defenceless middle-aged man. The head drug-enhanced bad guy is quite an interesting character, who could be great in a final showdown, but gets shot by the middle-aged man instead. The main bad guy (so completely obvious, it was hardly worth attempting to make his identity a secret at all) is not particularly intimidating. In fact, he is the middle-aged man. All in all, Max Payne doesn't really do much to warrant a film being made about the character. Secondly, what the hell is going on with the drug, and why do the characters take it? The general idea was that a very small percentage of the people who take the drug become strong. The rest go mental and start seeing Valkyrie demons, who seem to take great pleasure in killing the druggies in gruesome ways. So people take the drug, which seems to give them no discernible pleasure and sends them crazy so that they can see demons that try to kill them. Why? Also, what is the significance of the tattoos that the druggies have? Is it meant to protect them from the demons, or show allegiance to the demons? Because they seem to get killed by them either way. And are the demons meant to be real or hallucinations? I would say that they were meant to be figments of the druggies' imaginations, except that they look the same in everyone's minds and they kill Olga (by far the best thing about the film and she dies right at the beginning. Idiots!) and pull some guy out of a window. And how come, if they're meant to be protective spirits that take warriors to heaven when they die on the battle field, they appear to be hellish demons who actively seek out people to kill? Plenty more to say about why this is rubbish and very little positive to say about it, but you get the idea.

11 out of 11 people found the following review helpful:

Entertaining but nowt special

A Customer from Cheltenham, 16th November, 2008

The film as a whole is a watchable, dark, anti-hero type film and having not played the game I thought it was ok. Mark Whalberg is so moody in this film it's actually quite funny.

However

You're left at the end of the film asking yourself lots of questions;

Why the hell did it end there?
Is that it?
What the hell?
etc etc

I thought it could've been done much better. Looking at the posters for it I thought this was similar to the likes of Constantine. How wrong was I!

Not bad tho, as usual the special effects are up to scratch, even if it does leave you thinking wtf?

2/5

8 out of 10 people found the following review helpful:

Closer to a cop film than the game

Chantal from , 20th October, 2008

Starts slow with a lot of plot and get action at the end, QUite uneven.

7 out of 7 people found the following review helpful:

Max Pain To watch

A Customer from Wigan, 19th November, 2008

Only reason why I giving this 1 star is being the sets looked very good and close to game, but that where it ends. The story is not as gripping as the game, the film is boring to watch as not really much happens. They don't even use the comic book style appeal of the game. I also don't think they used the slow motion effect to full advantage either.

5 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Goodish film

MrLanigan from , 15th April, 2009

Starts off a bit slow but soon gets into the action same story line as the game but the game was better if you like cops film where the cops are out for revenge you'll like this movies it could off been better. 3/5 for me :)

3 out of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Wow!

A Customer from Leeds, 26th May, 2009

I was looking forward to this as was not disappointed at all. It was action packed and the acting was fantastic. Will be buying this film. The main review was only 3 stars but that is way too low!!

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Max Payne - the Game without the Player

A Customer from Dundee, 4th December, 2008

God, how many times have I wrote this review and failed? Let's start with the fact Max Payne is one of the games I have played to death (then resurrected it and played it to death again!) so I have the entire story imprinted on my brain. But, I must admit, after a lot of debate my brain came to the conclusion this is one of the best game adaptations it has ever seen. It is so good in fact, I wonder if game adaptations are actually necessary. This was the main problem as I watched it. It was perfect in many ways, it even had Roscoe Street station at the beginning! (that's up there with Starscream flying away at the end of Transformers............... well...... not quite that awesome............... (god that was awesome)) I found myself questioning the fact that wouldn't I rather be playing the game again, rather than watching it played out exactly the same way but without my personal input? In the end I must view it as a film.. and as a film I have to say it is incredibly shallow. Even if I didn't know exactly what each character was going to do... I saw through it. The guy who is Max's friend, even though he does nothing to help, nooooothing... it highly (bloody obviously) dubious. Also, one thing I cannot shake even if it is quite geeky of me, the drug Valkyr is not blue! It is green! And you don't DRINK it! I was cringing as everyone, gangsters, hookers, cultists were gulping down the stuff like a shot of slushie! The graffiti is true to the game; V for Valkyr with a syringe. So a 15 rated film can blast away bad guys (and good guys) but can't have syringes being used? Oh... and bullet time was wasted. Yes... I said it. The bullet time here was subpar; really just used for the sake of it, not because it suited the situation. The bit in the trailer though (in the office block) was awesome. Also, Mark Wahlberg did well as Max Payne, even though the character's backstory was skewed from the original game concept... for the worst. Worth seeing as it is the best games adaptation yet, even if it is completely predictable.

max payne

metaljim from , 9th November, 2009

mad as a hatter film crap..

An enjoyable 1h40

3Dsmoke from , 6th November, 2009

Ok, as far as plot line, it's a little thin - But what do you expect with a title like 'Max Payne'? Surely you expect something that's through and through action, violence, and a few hot women? Well I was pleased that on those three fronts it delivers. The special effects weren't quite up to watchmen standard, but they were very good. And I was particularly pleased to see that the supernatural elements of the plot were explained in a way which didn't violate any scientific common sense even if the physics are a little off, such as large men being hit by Max's shotgun go flying when max barely twitches from the recoil - think conservation of momentum, people! Ultimately, no, it will not enrich you mentally, and it is certainly not one of the best films I've seen. But I did enjoy it, and ultimatly, that's what movies are for. I recommend it.