Max Payne. Epic Fail.
Max Payne (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:124
Fresh:22
Rotten:102
Average Rating:3.8/10
Consensus: While it boasts some stylish action, Max Payne suffers severely from an illogical plot and overdirection.
Australian Rating: MA15+ [See Full Rating] Frequent violence and drug use
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Australian Theatrical Release:
Oct 16, 2008 Wide
US Box Office: $40,632,110
Synopsis: Rockstar Games' antihero Max Payne gets his own movie with this video game adaptation. Mark Wahlberg (THE DEPARTED) plays the titular cop who is still trying to get over the death of his family... Rockstar Games' antihero Max Payne gets his own movie with this video game adaptation. Mark Wahlberg (THE DEPARTED) plays the titular cop who is still trying to get over the death of his family while investigating several murders, while Mila Kunis (FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL) costars as an assassin desperate for her own revenge. [More]
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Beau Bridges, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Beau Bridges, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Olga Kurylenko, Chris O'Donnell, Donal Logue, Amaury Nolasco, Kate Burton
Director: John Moore
Director: John Moore
Screenwriter: Beau Thorne
Producer: Julie Yorn, Scott Faye, John Moore
Composer: Marco Beltrami, Buck Sanders
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Reviews for Max Payne
There simply has yet to be a decent film adapted from a video game. Why studios persist is a testament to the lobotomised throngs who encourage them by paying to see this type of gleet.
This intense action thriller will be recalled for its exciting visuals and relentless action rather than its acting.
Though the film's action scenes won't win awards for originality, they can't be faulted for either their scale or love of slo-mo.
It is stylish, slick, loud and empty as the producers wanted it to be.
I never trust a film in which the protagonists have conversations or even arguments in the pouring rain -- without umbrellas.
There are guns blazing, mysterious winged creatures, a symbolic tattoo, an elusive blue elixir, an unresolved murder and big stunts, yet Max Payne is surprisingly lacklustre.
The willfully absurd action sequences help the movie slog along, but slog it does, right through to the obligatory after-credits scene to establish the possibility of a franchise.
Based on a Finnish shoot-em up video game, Max Payne is all style and little story, cheerless detective Max (Mark Wahlberg) drifting through a washed out and snowy New York in search of his wife's killer.
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...
This tired, neutered action thriller won’t cause you max pain, but you might wince every now and again.
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.
Mark Wahlberg’s titular hero hasn’t cracked a smile in seven years. The surprise is that he makes the lonely cop seem half human with half a dozen words and a staggering amount of violence.
The film combines ferocious self-importance with lashings of really nasty, unreflective violence.
Latest News for Max Payne
January 21, 2009:
Razzies Name 2008's Worst Movie Nominees
No awards season would be complete without the Golden Raspberry Awards (AKA The Razzies), awarded each year to the very worst movies to hit Hollywood. This year's winners will... More...
January 19, 2009:
RT on DVD: Max Payne, Saw V, King Kong on Blu-ray
Mark Wahlberg brings maximum pain to DVD this week in the critically-punished Max Payne, although new horror titles Saw V and Repo! The Genetic Opera didn't fare much better on... More...
November 14, 2008:
UK Critics Consensus: Is Zack And Miri Make A Porno On The Money (Shot)? Is Max Payne Maxing Or Taxing?
This week in the UK cinema screens we have Kevin Smith's latest, the intuitively titled Zack And Miri Make A Porno. Marky Mark Wahlberg stars in the video game adaptation Max... More...
October 19, 2008:
Box Office Guru Wrapup: Max feels no Payne at No. 1
With the elections just a few weeks away, W. seemed ready to rule the box office this weekend, but it was Fox's weekend to break out of its slump, with two of its openers... More...
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