MAX Payne Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
Coming together to solve a series of murders in New York City are a DEA agent whose family was slain as part of a conspiracy and an assassin out to avenge her sister's death. The duo will be hunted by the police, the mob, and a ruthless corporation.
| Mark Wahlberg | Max Payne |
| Mila Kunis | Mona Sax |
| Beau Bridges | BB Hensley |
| Ludacris | Jim Bravura |
| Donal Logue | Alex Balder |
| Chris O'Donnell | Jason Colvin |
| Joel Gordon | Owen Green |
| Rico Simonini | Detective Amerini |
| Kate Burton | Nicole Horne |
| Ted Atherton | Detective |
| Sam Lake | Judas |
| Bill Boyd | Bravura's driver |
| Kevin Corrigan | Joe Sallem |
| Amaury Nolasco | Lupino |
| Nelly Furtado | Christa Balder |
| John Moore |
6.00 out of 10 (10290 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Why such a bad rap?
posted on 30 Aug 2009Why does everyone pan this film so hard? The special effects were really well done. The atmosphere and imagery of the film was sensational. Wahlberg did a really good job and the action scenes (although they weren't as plentiful as they should have been) were unique and impressive. The mixture of paranormal and terrestrial action was as well balanced as the game.Admittedly, the story line was somewhat predictable and a little forced, but it what can you really expect for an action flick based on a video game?! CAVEAT: Mila Kunis was abominably bad. Despicable casting and acting. Shame is warranted all round.
Ignore the game, enjoy the movie.
posted on 30 Aug 2009Max Payne tells the story of a former New York City homicide detective whose wife and baby daughter were killed by a gang of drug addicts. He now works a desk job in the cold case department, hoping to uncover a lead that might lead him to catch his family's killers. Without the knowledge of his superiors, he goes out every night tracking leads and interrogating suspects. His investigation leads him to an underground drug circle that is using a new drug called Valkyr that gives its users frightening hallucinations, sometimes driving them to suicide. He discovers the drug may have something to do with his family's death and he begins tracing it to the source, uncovering a conspiracy in a corporation his wife used to work for.If you played the Max Payne video game and thought the story and action sequences were amazing, and you now want to see this movie in hopes of getting a similar story, you're going to be disappointed, that's a fact. The way I was able to enjoy this film was by not comparing it to the game, and just viewing it as a fun cop movie staring Mark Whalberg. I know that can be hard because there's certain things from the game you want to see translated, and when they're missing you get a little annoyed. I just reminded myself, "This isn't the game. This is a movie." I felt there was enough of the game in this film to keep me from being turned off. The tone of the game was well portrayed in the tone of the film. The darkness, both figuratively and literally, the constant blizzard, a lot of the characters. The settings in the film were almost dead on, which was impressive. A few bullet time sequences were even put in, one being the very cool scene shown in the trailer where Max Payne fires a shotgun while diving backwards. I was also glad that the trailer mislead us into thinking the Valkyries in the film were real and then surprised us by revealing them to be hallucination.I mostly enjoyed this film as a fun action film that I could enjoy on a Friday night. The performances in the film are good, and so are the visuals. The dialogue and the story aren't as good as they could have been, and that was slightly disappointing, so that keeps this from being a great film noir cop movie. However, in an age where video game movies can't even get the basics right, and are basically God awful, this can claim to be one of the better video game adaptations. This film is flawed, but if you don't try to compare it to the game it can be an enjoyable watch.7/10
The Fall of John Moore
posted on 30 Aug 2009Phew, what a nightmare! In my dream, I saw "Max Payne" and it was a slow, sad, bloodless, directionless and liveless shadow of films like "Sin City" and "300", both of which inferior to the original game.The game was a straightforward but witty crossover of John Woo and film-noir, executed with precision and passion that made it a masterpiece. But this film has none of it. Bullet-time is supposed to show you both the hero and the enemy and how their guns and bullets are pointed at each other. Cutting between slow motion shots of each person firing, probably in different studios at different times, is simply a misunderstanding.It's a good thing this was only an awful dream... wasn't it?
Good movie, wrong title
posted on 30 Aug 2009I'll say that's it's an enjoyable shooter with pretty special effects, to which I would ordinarily give an 8 or 9 easily. However, they decided to call it Max Payne. I have guesses for how the script was written. The writer was given a two-paragraph summary of the game, he crossed out one, changed the other, and added paragraph of his own. And probably saw a screenshot or two to get the mood. Wait, wait, I know - the writer was just shown the retail box the game came in, they usually have a little concept art, a couple screenshots, a short intro to the plot and game features. That must be it, because the only things linking the movie to the games are the character and place names, death of Max's family, shots of snowy Manhattan, and the drug. Sadly, this is yet another utterly failed attempt at a video-game-based-movie. In my opinion it is due to completely discarding often brilliant story lines, which besides obvious damage to the movie also alienates the fans who should be the main target audience. I understand there needs to be some major cutting and writers just love reworking things, but it should be done on the scale it was done in Lord Of The Rings, not like this. If I merely recorded actual gameplay and then cut it as a movie it would be more pleasant to watch. Now I'm sure there will be many people reading this that are unfamiliar with the Max Payne franchise, in that case if you like good action movies - go see this one, you'll enjoy it. As a Max Payne fan though I can't give this movie above a 6. I think the point that killed it was when I realized that they combined Vlad and Mona into one character. Ugh. One last thing - the amount of slow-motion scenes, the games' signature feature, can be counted on fingers of one hand.
Max Payne (this really was painful to watch)
posted on 28 Aug 2009This is the worst action movie I had chance to see in the last few years. It's maybe because I expected so much and ended up with nothing. There is no emotions, no suspense... hell, there isn't too much action either. And yes, it has a truly beautiful visual effects, but very often they don't make any sense. All those flying demons and other unnecessary scenes...I know that drug has a big role in Max Payne, but in the first place should be Payne's personal war against the mob - not these flying demons. I mean, how stupid they think we are? We should be happy if they make a few scenes just like the ones in the game? It would be better if Moore followed step by step the game plot. Yes, it would be just a copy, but at least it would made some sense because this is supposed to be an action movie full of emotions and suspense. Not some fantasy garbage. And Wahlberg, what the hell are you doing here? How much money they gave you to act in this? I hope one day you'll see it just wasn't worth it.
Every cliché you can imagine in an action movie... yet somehow no blood and less swears
posted on 28 Aug 2009Well I do know that Max Payne is a video game, I've never played it, sorry to say, I've never even heard of it until the movie. But from what I hear, it's a very violent video game, so I was expecting an all out action packed movie. Now I had heard very bad things about the movie, but I was still curious to see what it was about, plus I love both Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis. While I started to watch it, the beginning was actually decent, I was thinking "why all the bad reviews? this isn't so bad" but then as it moved on, I can see why. First off, now I'm not trying to sound like this blood thirsty fan, but there are people getting shot left and right... but there is absolutely no blood, like they get shot and there's no blood? Not to mention, Mila Kunis's character just disappears at the end... maybe she felt it was so bad she just walked off, lol. The story stopped making sense, Mark Wahlberg kept the same face the whole time as well as the story stopped making sense.Max Payne has had a hard life, he had a beautiful child and wife who were just taken away from him, they were both brutally murdered and his life feels empty now. He is trying to find out who or what killed them, so he investigates to find out that anyone who has a certain tattoo is affiliated with a cult is mysteriously being killed off. He meets a woman who he wants information from, she has the same tattoo, but she is killed, now her sister, Mona Sax is looking to see what killed her, so she investigates with Max who finds out that he can't trust just anyone.Max Payne is just an alright film, pretty much it's forgettable. It could have had so much potential to be a great action film. I did enjoy the atmosphere though, I felt that it was a great feel to the film, it had a very film noir feel. Just the story fell short and the script was a little silly with some of the over the top trying to be like Terminator lines. Mark seemed like a great choice for an action hero, but he looks constipated throughout the film, lol. I think Jason Statham would have been a better choice maybe, but it's the script that needs work. Sorry to the video game fans, I know this was the ultimate let down for them, hopefully if they do a sequel they'll get it right next time.4/10
Looks great, but that's all that's great.
posted on 26 Aug 2009I was excited for this movie, but with Fox behind the release, you know something is going to be screwed up.I tried to watch this movie and separate it from the game, but I was unable to do so. It's alright if they keep the tone of the game, and keep the general plot of the game in the movie. First thing messed up, the rating. How can you take a Mature rated game, with a subject matter such as revenge, and bring it down to a PG-13? If you've played the Max Payne game, I bet you were also worried about the PG-13. Acting, no one was great. Mark Wahlberg, as much as I like him, did not serve justice for Max. Mila Kunis did pretty well for Mona Sax, but Mona wasn't in the game very much at all, so not really a lot to compare the two. Bridges and Ludicrous were decent, but nothing special. I will say Ludicrous is getting pretty good and is one of the better rapper-turned-actors. Story, if they would have kept the story from the game as close as they could, it would have been a great one to tell. But here, they take the basics from the game: Max loses his wife and child and is seeking revenge; They're linked to this drug Valkyr... that's pretty much it. Everything else is changed and brought down to clichéd crime stories. It was neither deep nor gripping. About half way through I just wanted to see stuff blow up or people get killed.Speaking of which, there wasn't a lot of either. Through half the movie, nothing really happens. By the time something does happen, I was going "finally, some action." But, the action wasn't really what I hoped for. The game had such great action scenes, they could have taken any scene from the gameplay and easily made it into a movie. But, some of the best parts of the action in the game, they leave out. They did the bullet time a few times, but it seemed like they put them in the wrong places. And one bullet time was slowed down so much it seemed like it was kind of making fun of bullet time. Unnecessary and ridiculous. There were things I did enjoy in the movie. First off, cinematography. It was very dark and gritty. It had a visual tone similar to the game, different, but pretty effective. The special effects were done pretty well, and the Valkyries looked cool. I think the valkyries were taken from the graphic novels, which I haven't read, but that's what I've heard. Back on topic, I really liked how the movie looked. Some of the shots were really nice, and the overall look of the movie was impressive. Along with that, while the action sequences weren't great, some of the shots were pretty brutal. When these guys were shot by shotguns, they flew back. It was one of the few things about the gun fights that I thought was well done.The style of the movie was cool, but only appearance wise. The action was flat, nothing new. The story was nothing of what it could have been. And the acting was average to sub-par. I didn't think the movie was terrible, but definitely not worth the title of Max Payne. Fox adds another movie to it's list of movies they've screwed over. 2/5 rental at best.
A real good movie, not bad but good.
posted on 26 Aug 2009I managed to see "Max Payne" on the weekend with my girlfriend, it was based on the video game and probably its other sequels but it doesn't follow that good for a game-based film. But, i thought 'Max Payne' was pretty good!, seriously, i can't believe what i'm saying but its true to me that this movie was kick-ass!One little problem i could think of is that its rated PG-13 in the US, but in Australia its rated MA15+, why would they make a overrated PG-13 film so that kids can watch it, but why is it based on a game that is not for kids? what were they thinking for that rating? :\ But i saw that the original rating for the film was R, but they decided to make it PG-13 just to make it overrated like that.Overall: The movie wasn't bad, it just failed some little problems, but i still thought this film was still good.Rank: 3.5/5 6.8/10 65% B-And one more thing, to tell ya the truth, this was my first MA15+ film i saw in a movie cinema, so LOL :P
Almost a total waste of time.
posted on 20 Aug 2009If you're looking for an action-packed thrill-ride look elsewhere. Max Payne is an action film with little action most of the time. What's the point in that?If you like the game, then I recommend you just play it again, rather than watching this. The story, about a guy out for revenge, (all you need to know) while similar, has somehow been made worse. The scenery and action scenes copy elements from the game, which make up the few redeeming qualities of the film. but are not anywhere near as engrossing or fun as actually playing the game.The actors had very little to work with here. While the game was purposely quite cheesy, which added atmosphere, the actors seem to be just reading their lines. More than likely just thinking about their paychecks.If you haven't seen this film, well take it or leave it. You miss nothing if you give it a pass, but I would say that if you have very low expectations and are willing to sit through a long film for a few action scenes and a predictable story then give it a try. It could have been a lot worse, and if you're still around twelve or remember what it was like being that age you might find it passable. This is why I give it a 4.
fun movie fans of action and of the game.
posted on 18 Aug 2009Lets me start out by saying that Max Payne is one of my favorite games ever created by man. Its fun and has a nice story. Compared to other video game movies, this is probably number 2, next to Mortal Kombat. Though, I don't understand all of the hate, this movie is pretty damn good. The acting is decent, and the story is interesting, plus the action is bad-ass even though it is only at the end. The casting is alright, with the acceptance of Mila Kunis and Ludicrous. The special effects are awesome, some of the best I've seen. Overall, it is entertaining but not really a buy to be honest.I'm gonna rent it when it comes on DVD, its pretty good, 8/10.
Wow So Not What I Expected
posted on 18 Aug 2009First off, I played the heck out of the first game, never got around to the second for some reason but, though I am a fan, I am not someone who feels the movie needs to be a replay of a game either.Mila Kunis, though beloved on Family Guy, I thought dragged and was pointless in this movie. She would randomly pop in, make a "bad girl" comment or shoot a little and, poof, gone again. Pointless.In fact, the movie itself was just a letdown from beginning to end. Not enough action. Nothing tied one thing to another. Got VERY VERY slow at many points. Just bad bad bad.Luckily the theater was having sound problems so I got free passes for whatever movie I want to see next... it HAS to be better than this.
Payneful to Watch
posted on 16 Aug 2009I don't know how they did it but somehow the makers of this film managed to suck all the cool out of the title Max Payne. This film was just boring, dull, flat out lackluster. Moments leading up to the action were necessary yes but felt deluded, watered down.When action scenes actually did come they were good I'll admit, but brief too brief! What made the video game so cool was the voice over, the narrative by the main character Max Payne himself. His persona in the game was so dark, cold, a brave man on a mission.This film lost all of that coolness, that darkness, that grit, that grind it out, tough guy feel the games had. Now I understand people will say that a direct translation would be difficult and pointless for those of whom played the game.However Sin City did that with monstrous success so I don't see why not. This is one of the films where a direct translation would have been good. They weren't quite able to take the elements that made that game so cool and parlay that onto the big screen. Maybe when I make it big in Hollywood I can do a proper adaptation of this awesome video game...or somebody could just figure out "hey ya know what? I don't think we should stray that far away from the original content" I mean look at how awful the Resident Evil series turned out!
Its bad when the story of the video game outshines that of the movie version.
posted on 16 Aug 2009Yes, this movie was a bit of a letdown for me. I was expecting a really bang bang shoot em up type movie. I did not really get that here. I should have known it was not going to be good when it was rated pg-13 instead of R. I mean the game was rated M yet the movie garners a lower rating, why? I mean do the 13 through 16 year old boys really have that much impact on how much a movie makes that you tick off those of us who like a lot of blood and cussing in our action movie? Really, there are a heck of a lot more of us over the age of 16 that our money should be more of a concern. Enough of that though, the movie to me was a bit boring. Max Payne might have been portrayed right by Mark Walhberg, but they seem to have taken away Payne's sense of humor in this movie. I mean the dude in the video game lost his family to, but there was still a sense of humor in some of his inner monologues. The movie also took a lot of the better plot points of the game out and substituted them with plot points that were not very good at all. Along with this the whole angel/demon thing was a bit much and one of those things they added that if left out could have saved the movie money, money that could have been added to more shoot outs and such. So the story, Payne lost his wife and kids and now he is searching for the killer and is joined somewhat by an assassin girl who loses a sister during the course of the movie. A rather underdeveloped assassin girl who all but disappears at the end of the movie after she shoots one guy up. That is about all there is to it, it is obvious they are aiming for a sequel, but I prefer my movie to end with less loose ends to tie up than this one did. Still, there is a couple of nice shoot outs, and the visuals in the movie are rather nice, I just wish they had movie shots fired. Why do comic book movies and video games movies seem to have such short action sequences? There are exceptions to this, but it seems makers of these types of films just feel they have to delve into the characters a bit more than necessary. Look at one of the exceptions "The Dark Knight", in that one you had a very nice long action sequence with the big car chase scene and that movie did rather well. So basically other than the two shoot outs and nice visuals this movie falls way short of the video game in terms of entertainment value.
Impenetrable adaptation of the popular video game; looks good though
posted on 14 Aug 2009MAX PAYNE (2008) ** Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Beau Bridges, Ludicrous, Chris O'Donnell, Donal Logue, Amaury Nolasco, Kate Burton, Olga Kurylenko. Impenetrable adaptation of the popular video game (confession: haven't played video games since Space Invaders so go figure!) in this murky, noir-ish actioner with Wahlberg as the stony/stoic titular police detective out to revenge the murders of his family at any cost. Hard-to-follow and woodenly acted (Kunis is particularly laughable and woefully miscast as an assassin!) the film's true merits are the impressive cinematography by Jonathan Sela; otherwise forgettable. (Dir: John Moore)
Everything You Expect in a Mark Wahlberg Flick!
posted on 10 Aug 2009Frankly I never played the game, but this movie had a weak script although the Director John Moore did an awesome Job directing it. It was a lot like Constantine mixed with realistic science. Action was pretty amazing. Basically it had all the elements u wud expect from a Mark Wahlberg Movie. His acting was really sincere and intense as always. If ur a Jason Bourne trilogy/shooter/The Departed fan, this movie is for u. Mila Kunis is been my favorite since I was a kid and watched her in That 70s Show, she is extremely gorgeous and a great actress who deserved this role. Setting of this movie was beautiful, and really admirable graphics. I've been a John Moore fan ever since I saw Behind Enemy Lines, and yet he delivers another great piece of work.
Visually stunning, almost everything else average. Don't expect another "Shooter".
posted on 08 Aug 2009Another year, another film adaptation of a video-game. I walked in the cinema with very low expectations, but surprisingly I walked out satisfied, if not groaning. Max Payne, while still not reaching the artistic heights that video-game movies have yet to achieve, is a decent potboiler and a good way to waste one and a half hours of your time.Marky Mark is watchable as Payne. Here, the filmmakers decided to focus on characterization more than the game itself, making the film more noir-ish than stylized. Still trying to bulk up his action hero resume, here Wahlberg somehow slightly drags along for the ride, though in some scenes his acting is good. But definitely a step down after the great "Shooter".The action sequences are well-shot. They satisfy any action fan's hunger. The angelic/demonic hallucinations during action scenes are pivotal, and are arguably the best things in the film. Beautiful in an artistic sense, yet strangely what is something this artistic doing in a supposedly mindless action film? Nevertheless the film's look and atmosphere are nicely done, as per the music score by Marco Beltrami. And let's not forget Bond girl Olga Kurylenko, sex bomb... I mean, eye candy of the year.My only complaint goes to four things:First, the script. Why is there some cringe-inducing lines in the film? It makes a tough film cheesy. Really.Second, the wasted use of actors. Some surprising faces here (Chris O'Donell, Beau Bridges, Olga Kurylenko) but they are used gimmicky. You'll see as the film progresses.Thirdly, the pace. It starts of interestingly, but after that the pace trods along slowly like a snail, diverting my patience and attention. Thankfully after the middle of the film the pace went back on track.Lastly, the film is supposed to be an R-Rated, violent, mean spirited film and as gritty as the original games were. Why would John Moore ask the editor to trim the movie down to a mere PG-13? A teenager would not go in anyway as the film is obviously meant for mature audiences only, so what's the point in trimming? It would just anger the fans and will do harm to the movie overall. Obviously, the word "greedy" comes to mind. But this time it's not the executives at Fox's fault. It's the director's.That being said, however, the violence is definitely a hard PG-13 in the reign of the Bourne movies and Die Hard 4.Overall, decent. If you think this show kicks ass, you have not been seeing many better action movies in your lifetime. However if you are in the "Wahlberg Kicks Ass" club, gladly oblige to see the movie.Entertainment value: 7.1/10Overall value: 5.6/10Delton
Comment on treatment of a great story Possible spoiler
posted on 06 Aug 2009This is a relatively small point in comparison to the butchering of the original story and mood of the game. But has anyone thought... Where are the painkillers? Imagine how cool a movie this could have been if just like the games Max traveled from place to place, shootout after shootout, small clue after small clue, and got injured somewhere on par with the original Die Hard and the only way he could keep going is by yup you guessed it taking those pills? This would allow for the trippy dream segments to ACTUALLY MAKE SENSE!!! This was a difficult movie to watch because the games are on my top 5 of all time JUST BASED ON STORY ALONE!! I could not put either down years ago because I WANTED to see what happened to this guy. I mean seriously folks the guys name is a play on Pain(killers) and not one was taken? I blame the writer. Did he even play the game? Or read the cut scenes? No I think he skimmed the back of the box maybe and that's about it. You change the names and the drug, take out Ragnarok and its just a crap action movie( with 2 WHOLE shootouts) ugh.
just terrible
posted on 06 Aug 2009When I heard that max payne was being adapted for the silver screen I was very excited. As a fan of the game I will be the first to admit that the game was far from perfect mainly the control style was what was holding the game back but what made max payne memorbile was the in depth story line the characters were very intriguing and it was just stylistically cool. Well for the movie obviously they control style isn't a problem but unfortunately the very aspects that made the game truly great were lost in the translation to silver screen this movie was boring, stale and completely uncool not to mention the completely whacky and all over the place storyline i will say at times there were breaf glimpes of what could have been but they were way too brief and squandered uselessly this isn't the worste movie but one of the biggest disappointments I've incountered in years they dropped the ball on this big time. But who am I this is just my opinion.
wow........there goes 100 minutes of my life completely wasted
posted on 06 Aug 2009This movie sucks. A terrible let down being a huge fan of both games. Only a few action sequences, Payne was not the hard-ass we know and love, no painkillers at all, only one good "bullet-time" sequence, and wheres the great narrative inner voice of Max? If they tried to make a stand alone movie, not tied heavily to the game, congrats. You did. Problem is, the game is far superior to the movie. The only slim redeeming quality was the look of the background. They captured a dismal, snowy metropolis perfectly. But then they jack that up by throwing a down pouring rain scene in, and then go back to snow......yeah. Anywho, I could go on, but you get the point. Thankfully I resisted my initial choice and rented instead of buying.Fox...If you make a VG movie, maybe play the damn thing first.
An ostrich-camel between blockbuster and content movie
posted on 30 Aug 2009The main surprise is that this screen-version of "Max Payne" dares to defy the "subjective 3D shooter VG" heritage, attempting to sketch a content movie about the agony of a deeply hurt and virtually invincible detective - the "Angel Heart" quotes are obvious, mainly in the snowfall shots. John Moore's directing is stylish and compelling, although marred by some awkward moments - the worst being the Valkyries, as convincing as a bunch of half-humanoid crows with Xmas-tree lights as eyes, who torn to pieces a chick, throw a dude of the window, and further don't solve anything more, except flapping their wings in the background when the hero suffers the throes of his conscience conflicts.Although not by far as rewarding as "Shoot 'em Up!", "Wanted" or "Eagle Eye", the movie offers an expressive visual show, worth at least the admission money, if not also two hours of your life. A word to the wise: endure the final credits (very well done, by the way) to the end: you will be nicely sent to the sequel.