Max Payne (2008)

It held my attention, which is more than I can say for some of the so-called "art films" that come out at the end of every year.

A detective story, a pharmaceutical miracle drug and winged creatures from some demonic dimension sprouting like weeds in the spring. Too much and too artificial.

Imagine The Constant Gardener after a frontal lobotomy, and that's basically Max Payne in a nutshell.

[A]ll [the] wide-open possibilities about where this story can go get so narrowed down into something banal and bleak and ordinary that you can hardly breathe with it...

John Moore directs the hell out of the action, while Jonathan Sela’s glistening photography captures the snow and rain that fall on these bloody New York streets. But you’d have to be on crack not to guess the ‘surprise’ finale.

Among the best films adapted from videogames. Say no more.

I didn't hate Max Payne, but it's hard to summon up strong feelings of any kind about something so slick, remote and vacuum-packed you barely feel you've seen it.