Do you want to see ‘Max Payne’?

Max Payne (2008)

tomatometer

All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 3.7/10
Reviews Counted: 130
Fresh: 21 | Rotten: 109

While it boasts some stylish action, Max Payne suffers severely from an illogical plot and overdirection.

Average Rating: 3.4/10
Critic Reviews: 26
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 24

While it boasts some stylish action, Max Payne suffers severely from an illogical plot and overdirection.

audience

liked it
Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 213,563

My Rating

Added to your Facebook Timeline. — undo

Movie Info

Rockstar Games' double-gunned action franchise comes to the big screen thanks to director John Moore (The Omen) and Mark Wahlberg, who embodies the title character of Max Payne, a widowed cop hell-bent on delivering justice no matter what the cost as he investigates a string of killings in his city. Mila Kunis and Chris O'Donnell head up the supporting cast, with Beau Thorne adapting the screenplay for the 20th Century Fox production. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

PG-13, 1 hr. 40 min.

Drama, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense

Directed By: John Moore

Written By: Beau Thorne

In Theaters: Oct 17, 2008 Wide

On DVD: Jan 20, 2009

Box Office:$40.6M

20th Century Fox

Max Payne is a junkyard dog of a film that is true to its video-game roots even as it transcends them.

October 23, 2008 Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

| Comments (9)

David Hiltbrand

Philadelphia Inquirer

Top Critic

The filmmakers aim their cynicism more at us than at any government or drug company.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Boston Globe

| Comment (1)

Wesley Morris

Boston Globe

Top Critic

Sexy girls and lots of automatic weapons are involved in an occasionally coherent plot.

October 17, 2008 Full Review Source: Washington Post

| Comment (1)

Mike Mayo

Washington Post

Top Critic

You can't help but wonder where the fine actor in The Departed and even Invincible has gone. It's not been a good year for Wahlberg: First The Happening, and now this.

October 17, 2008 Full Review Source: USA Today

| Comment

Claudia Puig

USA Today

Top Critic

Maybe somebody decided the movie was already so convoluted and leaden that throwing in a few swooping, screeching valkyries could only help. They do not.

October 17, 2008 Full Review Source: Toronto Star

| Comment

Rob Salem

Toronto Star

Top Critic

The moviegoers are passive hostages on a long ride they've taken so many times before. So gameboys are advised to man their PlayStations this weekend; action-movie fans in search of red meat can wait for the inevitably more graphic DVD version.

October 17, 2008 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine

| Comment (1)

Richard Corliss

TIME Magazine

Top Critic

Payneful

August 3, 2009 Full Review Source: 3BlackChicks Review

| Comment

Kamal 'The Diva' Larsuel

3BlackChicks Review

Never comes close to captivating its audience like the game did before it.

August 1, 2009 Full Review Source: Moviedex

| Comment

Anders Wotzke

Moviedex

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.

April 7, 2009 Full Review Source: Paste Magazine

| Comment

Jeffrey Bloomer

Paste Magazine

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.

March 24, 2009 Full Review Source: Screenwize

| Comments (2)

Simon Weaving

Screenwize

Two words sum up my favorite parts of this film: 'Olga' and 'Mila'

March 5, 2009 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures

| Comment

Kevin Carr

7M Pictures

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.

January 20, 2009 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope

| Comment

Robert Roten

Laramie Movie Scope

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.

January 18, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Signals

| Comment

Jules Brenner

Cinema Signals

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

November 26, 2008 Full Review Source: Creative Loafing

| Comments (3)

Matt Brunson

Creative Loafing

[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...

November 19, 2008 Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher

| Comment

MaryAnn Johanson

Flick Filosopher

This tired, neutered action thriller won't cause you max pain, but you might wince every now and again.

November 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine

| Comment

Empire Magazine

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.

November 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comments (2)

Nigel Floyd

Time Out

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

November 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comments (2)

Daniel Etherington

Film4

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Max Payne

View All

Kunis and Wahlberg are not bad. Thats the best I can do. Decent effects for an action movie but no where as cool as the games it was based off of.

June 3, 2009

John Manard

Super Reviewer

Sort of hit or miss throughout for me. Parts were interesting, revenge is always a good story base, I know nothing about the game it's been adapted from, but feel it would have been more enjoyable to model it on the graphic novel adaptions. Some important clues were easily guessible and parts were action packed, others a little static.

February 8, 2009

Lady D'arbanville

Super Reviewer

Max Payne Quotes

View All

1. Max Payne: I don't believe in heaven. I believe in pain. I believe in fear. I believe in death.
– Submitted by Sandeep H (58 days ago)

Character	Quote
	Enter quote here...	Delete

DVD

Top Rentals

29%	The Vow
94%	Mission: Impossible Ghost Protoc...
28%	Underworld Awakening
85%	Chronicle
65%	The Woman in Black

More…

New On DVD This Week

65%	The Woman in Black
25%	This Means War
94%	The Secret World of Arrietty
36%	Red Tails
88%	Certified Copy (Copie Conforme)

More…

Movies Like Max Payne

The Punisher

Sin City

Shoot 'Em Up

View All

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...

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...

View All