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Critics Consensus: While it boasts some stylish action, Max Payne suffers severely from an illogical plot and overdirection.
Critic Consensus: While it boasts some stylish action, Max Payne suffers severely from an illogical plot and overdirection.
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All Critics (134) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (21) | Rotten (113) | DVD (11)
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.
Max Payne is a junkyard dog of a film that is true to its video-game roots even as it transcends them.
The filmmakers aim their cynicism more at us than at any government or drug company.
Sexy girls and lots of automatic weapons are involved in an occasionally coherent plot.
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.
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.
The rain in Payne falls on dialogue inane.
Some of these slow-mo-shooter moments, however, veer toward parody.
Payneful
Never comes close to captivating its audience like the game did before it.
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.
A Payne-fully dull and predictable hard-boiled thriller occasionally interrupted by half-way decent John Woo-style action sequences.
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.
I haven't played the games, of which a third is due out soon?! So I can only merit it as a film in its own right. Aware of poor reviews, I wasn't aware too much of the story behind the games, other than a cop who hands out his own rough justice. It was an interesting film but I think most expected a lot more action, or maybe more blood and violence. Instead it's more of a film noir thriller. The visuals are impressive, not just the cgi angels but the overall cinematography. The action gets better towards the end with a good shoot-out, but overall it needed a bit more throughout. A good surprising cast line up though!
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.
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