User Reviews

Max Payne was a game that was born of Film Noir and John Woo. This movie? Voice overs = 1 or two. (There was hope in the opening but then nothing) Action scenes = minimal. (Not too bad other than being sparse) Acting = very good for what little the script offers. (The actors do not deserve the blame for this atrocity unless it is for choosing to do this script.) Scenery/Cinematography = Brilliant but wasted on scenes like 8 minutes picking up a folder with no conflict in the scene. (The scenery was impressively accurate to the game. I kept feeling like it was going to get better because of it. Then nothing would happen.)

I wanted this to be good. I kept lying to myself and saying it would get better any minute.

People who say I am disappointed because it isn't the video game need to understand I didn't want the video game I wanted an action film that captured the essence of the game.

We are left with no reason to care for Max Payne. If I was the writer I would have been ashamed to have my name attached.

Max Payne got the Indy treatment.

I really want my money back on this one. I felt insulted that they thought this script was a passable story.

Mark Wahlberg plays popular game hero Max Payne, a cop who sets out to find the man who killed his wife and child, while doing so he uncovers a potential conspiracy that could lead him to the killer.

While Max Payne boasts a great tone, atmosphere and great cinematography, the overall film wasn't really all that great, the acting was tough to judge, there were some good performances but the actors seem like they didn't have much to work with, the action scenes are minimal, and was just a ton of shooting and they weren't all that exciting, however if you are interested in this film, you can watch it, but I feel that there are better options.

Without comparing it to the game, I felt they could have done more to make it a bit more interesting and exciting, and possibly add more to Max Payne's back story and they could've been more inventive with the action scenes instead of making people just shoot at each other.

Otherwise, its a good concept and is well shot, but the execution needed a little more work.

Poor Mark Wahlberg. Ever since he obtained a fully deserved Oscar nomination for The Departed, he has struggled to hit it as big again: Shooter was enjoyable but unmistakably shallow, We Own the Night received very mixed reactions, and The Happening was one of the most unjustly panned movies of 2008 (well, minus the plastic plant scene). None of those, however, is as bad as Max Payne, which just about tails The Truth About Charlie for the title of Wahlberg's career low.

But hey, few people expected Payne to be any good in the first place. For starters, it's based on a video game, and those never turn out well on film. Secondly, it's directed by John Moore, whose body of work is all but encouraging (he remade The Omen, for crying out loud). Plus, it comes off as a mix of fantasy, action and revenge thriller - in short, a mess.

For those not familiar with the game, the story centers on the titular cop (Wahlberg), a brilliant homicide detective who's been reassigned after the brutal murder of his wife and kid. When a Ukrainian girl (Olga Kurylenko) is found dead with his wallet in her pocket, he's immediately charged with the murder, and the only way to clear himself is to find a thug named Lupino (Amaury Nolasco), who might even have something to do with Mrs. Payne's death (go figure..).

With some minor adjustments, this could easily be the latest installment of Death Wish. If only things were that simple: the plot is twisted even more with a subplot concerning a mind-altering drug called Valkyr, which makes everything look like Hell on screen and destroys Norse mythology's credibility off screen. Then again, decent scripts are rare when it comes to this sort of flick, so Moore is supposed to redeem himself with visuals and action scenes: in the first case, he delivers more than enough; in the second, he disappoints, and big time - not counting the first ten minutes and the last twenty, there's a serious lack of pace and ass-kicking.

Last but not least, the acting. Wahlberg does pretty much the same he did in Shooter: gritty and watchable, but never exploits his huge potential. Mila Kunis, who plays the "Payne girl" (sorry, couldn't resist), is totally miscast, being too young and with the wrong background (That '70s Show), except for the fact that she is of Ukrainian descent like her on-screen sister Kurylenko. Beau Bridges, generally a fine presence, manages the unenviable task of becoming worse as the picture progresses, and Nolasco's villain is as lifeless as they come (and let's not even get started on Ludicrous' "acting").

Long story short: if this were a game, it would reach the "Game over" stage after twenty minutes. Compared to this, even Tomb Raider looks decent enough.

We know that Mark Wahlberg refused to play Rockstar's "Max Payne" game before performing in this film, but, in addition, I must assume that neither the director nor the screenwriter ever played this game before, either. If there weren't so many shots of the background scenery that tied in with the game (although they were never fully or, in some cases, partially explored), I would assume that no one involved in the movie had even seen cut scenes from the game. I would have assumed that they got a one paragraph synopsis on the game, with character names, and just made up their own story that barely connected to the game storyline.

When this movie was made for a "PG-13" rating instead of an "R" rating, most of the fans were nervous. And, after seeing the train wreck this film became, it's clear to see that our worst fears were realized. Worse even than whether this works as a movie adaptation of a video game is whether this film would works as a movie if you have no knowledge of the video game. Unfortunately, if you went to see this film looking for an action flick, you would say that this was one of the most boring, yawn-inducing films you'd seen in the action genre.

The lack of narration throughout this film, the lack of a solid action director like John Woo (who knows how to do slow-mo), and the lack of anyone from the Rockstar team helping with screen writing added up to what can only be described as a hollow, dull film that has virtually no tie to the amazing game that spawned it. The studio system strikes again.

I have never played the Max Payne games, so I have no idea if the movie was faithful to its origins. I've heard some people say that it was and others say it wasn't. But in any case, this really wasn't as bad as everyone seems to think. No, there wasn't as much action as you might get in a "Transporter" movie, but that didn't really bother me because sometimes I like movies that have a little more thought behind them. There were still some really awesome action sequences though and it was definitely beautifully shot. The atmosphere that they created with the lighting was great.

However, there were still some things that I didn't like about this movie and that they could have done better. First, most of it, especially the beginning, seemed very jumbled and hard to understand. The writing and the editing were sub-par. Second, and this is probably due to the bad writing and editing, you never really connect with any of the characters and so you can never really feel any overwhelming emotion about their situation. The whole thing seemed slightly hollow and empty, as if the writer and director themselves were not quite sure what they were trying to get at. Third, the acting sucked big time in some scenes. It wasn't horrible throughout the whole movie, but it still left much to be desired. Fourth, there were many things in the story that weren't fully explained, which only contributed to the hollow, confused feeling of the entire movie.

So, overall, it is not a bad film, but I was slightly disappointed. It really could have been an amazing movie, and I blame the writer and editor for almost completely ruining it. The only thing that saves it is the few awesome action scenes and the cinematography. But please don't believe anyone that says it one of the worst movies ever because it's not. It's just not as good as it should have been.

7.5/10

No spoiler here - it doesn't need one, its already spoiled!

OK so I am biased, having played both games to completion several times over I loved them both - dark, gritty, twisted, film noir greatness. the games, as most will no doubt know, were almost a scripted story board that was ready to go as a movie - seriously it should have been easy - don't bother with script writers - the script was already there, the games are a screen play! even down to camera angles and lighting - it should have been a no brainer. I would love to know what would have happened in the production crew and actors had actually played the game, but alas I suspect they had a treatment to work with and they just ran with that - Mark was an awesome choice for the role of Max but there it stops.

My big question is if your going to make a film of a great game why risk alienating the original fan base by not sticking with the already existing story line and instead running with an "off the shelf" plot (that was on the shelf for a good reason - it sucked!) and just putting in the appropriate names.

So whats next? do we have to now watch as Hollywood works it's way through more games - maybe Halflife? or Deus Ex - both could make awesome films but if this is what they are going to do with them why bother.

Simply put if your going to make a movie from an award winning game that sold in the millions - STICK WITH THE f*&KING STORY! games designers spend a lot of time making great games with great stories - gamers spend a lot of time enjoying them where the hell does some half arsed hack of a director get off knocking out crap like this. Yes its a given you name a film after a game with this sort of following and it will sell seats in the cinema - but do a good job of it- stick to the story and it will be a blockbuster! - it can be done - they said that Lord of the Rings and The Watchmen couldn't be done - but they were and were fantastic - granted they aren't games but the principle is the same - you research the material of the story before you make the film - get some of the original artists and creative producers involved instead of knocking out crap like this, it's not fair on the fans - and thats who the film is made for surely - do it well and they will market the game via word of mouth far better than any amount of trailers and hype will ever do and that means more money for the producers, I really don't understand why you would do it any other way.

When I first heard about this film i was excited, I was excited because I have always been a huge fan of the games but this just didn't do it for me, some games are best kept as games. Although if the director or producer actually played the games they would probably be able to craft something a little more entertaining next time. Mark Wahlberg is usually a personal favourite of mine but I feel he was let down by a terrible script.

The games are amazing, I've always been a die hard fan of them, the way the story comes together i compelling and the way this story comes together is just draining and I dont recommend it to anyone, its enough to put you off the Max Payne series even though its incredible. I do have to note that there were a few intriguing fight scenes but that's as good as it got for me.

I was just as let down as Wahlberg was when I watched this, utterly disappointed and its such a shame, they had potential but it failed as some do.

I've had the pleasure of beating both Max Payne 1 and 2, so let us start this off by saying I like the games a great deal. At the very least I expected a dumb, entertaining action film. What I was shocked to find was a film so poorly made I am impressed that Mr. Moore actually put his name on the credits.

In the games Max is pushed over the edge and goes on a rampage of survival and revenge. He works his way up from person to person and every once in awhile, he has crazy dream sequences. Throughout there is a dry wit and extremely overdone noir dialog. It's so over the top, it's hard not to like.

I have no idea why the filmmakers chose not to follow that fairly basic plot setup because the replacement is absolutely horrific. The movie wobbles from scene to scene, alternating from making no sense at all to making Max and every other character in the movie look like complete morons.

What's further astounding is that the film can't even get the basics down. This is the worst directed film I've seen in over a year. It's pretty but the action is sparse and boring. Conversations are so badly shot it's no wonder that the whole theater was laughing at most of the scenes. At least one actor turns in a performance so stiff he should be declared legally dead.

And as for the 'staying true to the game' part? Well, they had some slow motion shots, but beyond that, all the style, humor, and over the top action is missing.

Alright, I'm done. I still can't believe the film was that bad. Oy!

...which is intended to be qualified praise. Having played both 'Max Payne' games, I really enjoyed the small touches in the film that are intentionally added to please the 'fanboys' like myself, such as bullet time (albeit too brief)and the flashings of red whilst Max is attacked (the same that occurs when Max incurs damage during the game). I also really enjoyed (and I will avoid spoilers) how the script managed to inject some realism into how Max could realistically shoot down (and sustain damage) towards the end when the climax erupts in a shower of bullets.

Also great perfs generally all round - Mark Wahlberg is surprisingly good, Mr Bridges and Ludicrous are adequate, and although she has nothing to do but basically be hot, the upcoming Bond girl is smouldering. The director also adds some nice touches in parts, particularly some of the action scenes which are very well shot/choreographed.

Fan boy ravings aside, the film critic in me had concerns with a number of filming techniques. Firstly, the pacing. The pacing is all over the place, with the first hour often dragging in parts. I also had the concern that people without an awareness of the 'Max Payne' mythology may wonder what the heck is going on. Secondly, given the emphasis on plot in the first hour, the movie is inadequate in explaining back story for some minor characters. Yes, we get the point Max lost his family. We see this in flash back at least three times, each time not adding anything further to the plot. This time could have been spent fleshing out the characters - people whom i saw it with today (not ever having played the game) were wondering (apart from the sister connection) why Mona Sax was such a vicious woman who had a knack for wielding sub-machine games, or how BB came on to the scene. Third, it is disappointing that the cuts to permit it to be a PG 13 are obvious. Here in Australia it is MA (meaning no admission below 15) and deals with some very dark themes, so it is disappointing that the MPAA had to be humoured to get a PG, when really, it is an MA film (or R17 in the US).

Overall, an enjoyable film, particularly for most fanboys. Having said that, fanboys will probably agree there is not enough 'action' for an 'action' film, whilst film critics will no doubt criticise the shallow character development.

"I don't believe in angels, but I believe in pain..." Those opening lines of the movie can only mean one thing, trite bull****. I don't know what the people over at Fox Studios were doing when the subject of making a movie out of one of the best shoot 'em up, film noir inspired, and heart racing video game franchises came up for discussion. It certainly wasn't "Hey, we should play the game to see what this thing is all about." Nope. It was more like "Hey! This game made a lot of money. Someone quickly tell me what the back of the box says about the game and we'll write a crappy screenplay around it and miscast the whole thing." Mark Wahlberg plays Max Payne, the brutal, no holds barred and out for revenge cop from the video game of the same name... but wait! They rewrote nearly the whole character. He couldn't seem to give a rats ass about his murdered wife and child except for a few bland flashbacks. The acting is so misplaced and frozen in this movie and adding the likes of Mila Kunis, Chris O'Donnell, Ludicrous (holy crap what were they thinking?), and Beau Bridges didn't really give them much of a leg to stand on.

To sum it all up, I felt like falling asleep during the film (a feat not so easily accomplished for me). This was an action movie turned into a long boring drama with a few shooting sequences.

Don't waste your money. Rent 'Shoot Em Up' instead

Oh, my dreams have sort of come true. Max Payne, on film. I had prayed for months that it wouldn't stink to the high heavens like every other video game adaptation. Thankfully, Max Payne does not stink as a standalone film or adaptation, nor is it anything like the other game adaptations. John Moore's obvious goal in the film was to match the spirit, tone, and grit of the game, and I have to say that he reached it.

While I was disappointed in the lack of action sequences, I think that including even half of the action from the game would have taken away from the realism of the film, as mountains of action sequences work a lot better in a game than they do on film. The film opts for a quieter tone, and a much more thoughtful and introspective approach. I appreciated this a lot, as a fan of the game. By no means is Max Payne just thrown together to make a quick buck. It is well made, and well thought out. I was not disappointed in this aspect.

Mark Wahlberg, thank you for not failing. That would have ruined my year. Wahlberg delivers a quiet, yet subtle and intense performance in the title role as the most "pain" and "pun" inducing detective of all time. While there is a large supporting cast, I really wasn't swayed either way by any of them, besides Chris Bridges, who was actually playing a character for once instead of himself on screen. Mila Kunis as Mona Sax wasn't the best casting in the world, but Mila proves that it wasn't the worst casting either. There isn't as much depth to her in the film as there was in the game.

As an adaptation, the Max Payne film is very different from the game in pretty much every aspect besides the tone and the characterizations. Once again, all I wanted was the tone to be right, and I got what I wanted. Though the noir aspect of the game is somewhat lacking (I missed Max's inner monologue so much), I still found it to be the dark and effective thriller that the game was. A brooding performance from Wahlberg and a matching score only add to the film. Stunning visuals, engineered by the fictional hallucinogenic drug in the film, in addition to the dark cinematography, steal attention away from the fact that the film's editing is subpar.

I have to bring to life the fact that Max Payne is not an action movie at heart. It is a mystery film with some action scenes (and some very well done visual effects). The game may have been a shoot 'em up style game, but I know that you can't do this on film and expect to be taken seriously, which Max Payne should be.

At it's core, Max Payne, despite a lot of changes from the game, remains the dark, story driven thriller that I've loved for a good part of my life. I'm proud of the film as a die hard fan of the game, and respect it for what it is as a film by itself. I'm satisfied, and not disappointed. For those who haven't played the game, Max Payne is an effective mystery film that is driven by the main character and the exposition around him. For those who will inevitably complain about a lack of action sequences, wake up and realize that Moore & company got the tone right, at the expense of necessary cuts.

I have heard and read a lot of bad reviews about this movie, and when my girlfriend wanted to watch it anyway, we feared for the worst. Glad to say: we feared in vain! Both of us have played the games, tho in my case I never managed to get hooked on part 2. No matter, since the movie just covers part 1.

A lot of reviews mention how things are missing from this movie, like bullet time slow-mo's, gore, and narration. But to be frank, we didn't miss anything really. In fact it HAS gore, slow-mo's (good ones even, without looking like a matrix rip-off) and narration. Just not through the entire movie, just like it doesn't have shooting through the entire movie. People.. a movie is not filming how some one goes through the game shooting people one by one. A movie actually tries to focus some more on the actual story! It's quite well compressed from the many hours of game-play to the few hours a motion picture can be.

And that story was done fine. It was faithful to the game safe for some minor acceptable liberties, and solid enough as stand-alone for those who didn't play the game as well. The only confusing thing was the '1 week earlier' flashback which starts the movie and lasts well over an hour of the movie's total time. The mention of the dead wife in the prologue's narration can put viewers on the wrong track thinking it's 1 week before those deaths. However, once the scene comes which clearly shows which part was actually the flashback, it suddenly falls into place.

The end of this flashback is the turning point of the movie from storytelling to solid action. I have no peeves with the action, aside of the endless clips of ammo. Never reloading is a common thing in movies, and by far not the worst to happen.

The atmosphere and build up was absolutely great. Grim, gritty and cold. The junks and bodies everywhere from the skipped plowing of the early stages in the game, makes place for visuals of how the drug Valkyr is being experienced. A slight change of scope from 'yet another gore movie' to actually elaborating more on the substance that's cause of everything. Had they kept the hellish scenes in junkie apartments, then they'ld have lost the contrast with the drug's effects, and therefor it's a perfectly good choice.

In closing, I'ld like to add that I've lost my confidence in the IMDb ratings and reviews as they've proved wrong yet another time. It's seriously better as many other action movies which get a 7+ rating like the failed Transporter 2.

I never thought it was possible to turn a story that great into such a terrible movie...

First let me say I loved the games, I love action movies, crime movies, film noir and thrillers, film noir and thrillers, but

I hate this film, I really hate it. It is nothing like it should be, everything is missing - the drama, the violence( which really is an important part of the tragical tale of max payne), the dark humor, the characters... everything.

Max payne is the tale of a man who looses everything, who doesn't care about anything but personal justice any more and just fights his way through, getting in a worse condition every minute - he gets beaten up, he gets shot and drugged and yet he never gives up.

Personally I found many aspects of max payne in sin city.

The Max Payne movie however is like the children's edition, there is no pain, no blood( red is the third color next to black and white that is actually needed in max payne), no great bullettime actions, no film noir. The great characters from the game seem all ridiculous, like nicole horn (the evil mastermind) acts like the friendly ant from next door, BB is not nearly the cool suit he should be, no alfred wooden !?, jim bravura needs to be that old wasted guy from the game - and also the extremely precious sideline characters like vinnie (who was such fun to meet in the game) seem all wrong.

When they would just have filmed game scene after game scene, level for level the would have provided a better story. The included the wrong unimportant plots from the game but ignored the stuff that really matters.

They should have let the guy who cut the trailer make the film, cause it was really an awesome trailer that actually captured a pretty good image of the original Max Payne style.

The great funny scenes are gone completely too, you never have to laugh at all, nothing like a gansta in a capt. baseball bat suit...

Really, really terrible.

The 2 points I give because there are actually some nice images like the valkyries and the drug trips - and because of the super gorgeous Natascha^^ (sister of mona) ... who max did not sleep with, another reason to hate the movie, one of many though...

SO yes Max Payne wasn't all in all 100% accurate to the game, but the main concept and plot was dead on in my opinion. Most games made to movies are horrible and don't even come close like resident evil and still some how get praised. Max Payne on the other hand is much closer to the story line and style and gets put down. No game to movie is ever going to be perfect... just so much dialog and story line missing from games that gives you very little to work with and also in a movie you have to throw in a random hot girl and more effects just because.

Sure it was a little slow in the beginning, but all movies have to be built up to the suspense and action. It was a decent flick and not as horrible as all the comments say it is

A movie shouldn't really be rated on its quality as an adaptation. Rather it should be rated on character development, storytelling, suspense, etc. Honestly, this story had potential. I was decently intrigued for about the first 15 minutes. But that just makes it worse because it got my hopes up.

I'm not sure why I sat through it. The ending was utterly predictable.. and not the kind that makes you feel clever for figuring it out. I knew who the 'bad guy' was the second he walked on screen.

The only reason I gave it 3/10 was because I watched the Unrated Edition, which, in my experience, often means "this movie sucks!" (In other words I AM giving the benefit of the doubt.) So, why did I watch this version??? I don't know ask, Axxo...

Don't waste your money OR your bandwidth!

Max Payne was a very slow moving movie for the first part of the movie. The reason why it was slow though is because it was explaining the story of the movie. The story was very good and kept going with it all the way until the very end. The last half of the movie really kicks it up and has a ton of action. I liked all of the special and visual effects. Their were many slow motion scenes that made the movie cool. The visuals were very good and many of them were shots of tall long buildings. Mark Whalberg was very good and did a stellar job as Max Payne. Mila Kunis was good as well for the amount of screen time she gets. The movie had many great fun action scenes to watch. The movie in ways was kind of sad. They had many flashbacks throughout the movie. Overall the movie does lack and flaw a lot of things but its pretty good.

As everybody said Max Payne was a major pain in the butt when it releases a couple of years back, I didn't go to the theatres to see it. Last night, it was coming on TV and I thought, hey let me give it a try and sat down to watch it. The concept wasn't too bad, but the execution is very shoddy and amateurish.

Max Payne (Mark Wahlberg) is a New York City police detective and he is haunted by the murder of his wife and baby's death even after three years. He killed two of the murderers, but couldn't kill the last one. He is a tortured soul who wants nothing more than hunting down the last murderer. During one of his routines to gather new leads and information about his family's murderer, he befriends Natasha Sax (Olga Kurylenko) who is murdered and her sister, Mona Sax (Mila Kunis) wants revenge. Jack Lupino (Amaury Nolasco) is her murderer and both Payne and Mona team up to get their revenge. But, is Lupino the real antagonist or is there someone operating behind the curtain?

First of all the cinematography is excellent - I loved the feel of the movie, the score is not overbearing. But what really is a drag, is that there is nothing in the story that drags the viewer in. The starting of the movie kind of captured my attention, but by the 30th minute, it was getting boring. Mark Wahlberg only has one expression in his face throughout the movie and it is a major pain in the ass when he portrays the same expression when he is happy with his family too. That is kind of confusing, wasn't he happy with his family when they were alive or what? Bad casting choice there and the writer seems to have no job here, as there are hardly any dialogues and whatever there is seems to be drowned out by Mr. Major Pain. Olga Kurylenko - why does so many of you think she is sexy again? She can act (Quantum Of Solace), but she isn't sexy (they should have roped in Megan Fox, now that is one hot babe) and she plays only a cameo which didn't add anything to the story. Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break) as the bald Lupino who is high on drugs, looks and acts credibly, but there is not enough scope for his acting ability. Mila Kunis is also wasted. Why were there huge man-crows (or 'angels' like they call them) flying through the skies of NYC in the minds of people? I only got it, when they showed that all of them were druggies. This film seems to be telling us not to get addicted to drugs, we get it. Move on, will you? I don't do drugs (I am a 20 year old guy) and nor will anyone else who knows what drugs can really do. The slow motion scenes were good, but there was only a couple of them and the dark angels were very cool.

Though the film was somewhat boring, I can't give it a 1, because the visual treatment was excellent and I like some of Mr. Wahlberg's previous works. By the looks of it, there seems to be a sequel coming which I definitely won't be watching if the reviews are the same as this. Don't watch this at any cost, unless you are a teenage boy and get real high seeing girl-on-girl kiss.

4/10

After playing both Max Payne games, and thoroughly enjoying the complex yet well written plot as well as the action scenes, I must admit I came into this one with high expectations of something similar. However this is where Max Payne falls disappointingly flat.

To begin with the better aspects of the film, the atmosphere and sounds/music are extremely well done, and capture the dark overtones and foreboding feel of the game. The film was well cast also, Mark Wahlberg in particular was impressive, with supporting actors also performing well, even Ludicrous as Lt. Jim Bravura was okay, despite my initial skepticism.

The criticisms are much stronger however. In simple terms, the plot, especially when compared to the quality of the game, is flawed, with limited character development and key plot elements from the game overlooked the main criticisms. Without giving too much away, in terms of emotional involvement, the characters was disappointing. None of the main characters evoked any sympathy or emotion from me (unlike the game) and the villains were conspicuous in their relative absence. There are limited action scenes, and again trying not to give anything away, even the pivotal scenes towards the conclusion of the film end somewhat quickly compared to what you may expect from a film noir. This leads to the main fundamental fault of the film, in that it is way too short. For the amount of opportunities and great scenes and plot elements that the game provides, 90 minutes is disgraceful.

I suppose, for the people who haven't played the games, Max Payne might turn out to be a mildly enjoyable run-of-the-mill action film. For the others who have played the games, and are the people who will make up the majority of the audience in my opinion, Max Payne falls short. The film never at any point emulates the sense of enjoyment and immersion that the game provides and once again makes the same mistakes that other film adaptations of games have made.

This film is a really big missed opportunity. The styling and story line of the game could have been easily transferred t oa dark and violent film noir with a nice dose of conspiracy thrown in. Unfortunately all of this is wasted on a very tame and lackluster film that stick to a predictable formula with poor character development and sloppy dialogue.

Some of the visuals are nice but the lack of any true bullet time (which is a big mechanic of the games) is a real let down. As for the violence, yes there is a lot of shooting but this is a film that needed to be darker and more visceral. Had the action been more similar to films such as John Wick and the Raid or even the Punisher (TV series not film) and this film could of had potential. Unfortunately all of this was repeatedly squandered through.

The acting is fine but I felt that the poor script left them very little to work with. Hopefully in time this will get some form of reboot and correct these wrongs.

There's three kind of people going to see this movie. 1--People that have no idea about the game that think they're just going to watch some kind shoot-em-up mixed with a Constantine/Sin-City feel. 2--Those that have played the game and enjoyed the gameplay. 3--Those that have played the game and enjoyed the gameplay, but moreso, were mesmerized by the entire feel of the storyline; the dark noir-like cut scenes, the way Max's loss hunts him continually in an eerie way, the twisted levels with S&M induced screaming in the background of one and others with the valkyrie laced druggies wondering around, and of course, the poetic story-telling by Max himself.

Now, if you are one of the first two....let's face it, the majority of you just won't get it. You won't truly appreciate the lengths the director goes to in keeping the storyline congruent with the game, but not just rip it off completely. For those of you that keep saying Clive Owen should have played Max cause he did well in Shoot-em-up....you people should be the last ones to leave a rating on here. This film is not just a mindless shooter. This film would have been another game-to-film adaptation that had zero substance if Clive Owen had played the part. And people really would have been crying "Sin-city ripoff" if he'd played the part, since he was in that one too. Now was Mark Walberg PERFECT as the role? I don't know about that. But I thought he did a really job and captured Max's demeanor quite well.

I know it seems there may be no difference between liking the game for it's gameplay and then loving the game for it's story-telling, but there really is. When me and my buddy discussed the game, we always talked about how good it was simply for the mood and storyline, rather than the actual gameplay. And we both ended up really liking the movie.

You have to go into this movie understanding that there's more to it than just shooting guns and bullet time. If it was just those, the movie would have gaping plot-holes and would lose it's emotion. But the director leaves equal time for every issue; The eerie mood, how obsessed Max is with finding his wife's killer(s) and the way it affects his relationships, the hallucinations from the drugs, the corruption in which the valkyr has led to, and, yes, even the bullet-time. There really is a lot of substance to this film. It's a murder mystery film that also incorporates some vivid action and special effects. If people would know this going into it, I think their reaction would be a lot better. Probably not much of a movie to go watch with your g/f or wife, as my buddy's wife and her friend sat there and cut up the whole time cause they weren't connecting with the movie (which got on my nerves, as I was really into it).

All in all, I think it was beautifully done. It set out to capture Max Payne from every angle and did just that. It took ample time to make fanatics of the game go "holy crap, that scene was straight from the game", but yet also write in some originality of it's own that worked well within the plot. As far as some of the characters, I thought every one of them played their part to near-perfection. Mila Kunis actually did surprisingly well and it was fun to see her play the femme fatale bad@$$. Ludicrous didn't really have that much riding on him, but he still played the part just fine and I never got the feeling of "rapper-turned-cop" from his performance (unlike the way I can't stand many of Ice Cube's performances cause he's very one-dimensional). Chris O' Donell had a very short role, but I thought he played it amazingly. I haven't seen him in anything in a while, but he played the part of a corporate big-wig scared for his life very well and showed a lot of emotion in his performance in a way in which you almost feel sorry for him. Beau Bridges executed his part perfectly (not much more to say about that). I even enjoyed Donal Logue's serious short role as Max's partner, Alex.

Not a perfect movie, but definitely a good one, and by far the best video game-to-movie adaptation I've seen thus far.

the movie is not bad at all if you haven't played the game, the mayor part of the criticism points to important characters to the game being left out or being of little importance in the movie, and, well, is nothing that can worry a person who has never played max Payne, so... whatever. the movie is entertaining, even though it makes no sense in a lot of moments, the characters was completely flat and undeveloped, and you can guess who are the bad guys since the first shot in that they appear. but, despite the fact that this is not an smart movie, all that lacks in the smartness department is compensated in the coolness area. nice effects, cool action scenes, great photography... cool movie... dumb, but cool. fun to watch, unlikely to be re-watched.

Let me first just say that I AM a fan of the video game. So I, like others who have commented on here already, was really just looking for a fun action movie. I didn't expect it to be Oscar worthy or anything like that...just a fun time at the movie theater.

That being said...I was extremely disappointed at this movie. Actually, that's being nice about it. This was such a poorly executed story that I nearly walked out. Seriously, seriously bad.

The visuals were nice, but even THOSE were too stylized and even painfully funny to watch at times (most of the time). It seemed they were trying too hard. And for an action film, there sure was a lack of action for the first 3/4 of the movie.

Now the acting...I honestly felt I was watching a student film with some of those scenes. Ludicrous was just that. Mark Wahlberg was OK at best. Donal Logue - awful, Mila Kunis - out of place...the only bright spots were Chris O'Donnell and Olga Kurylenko (who is smoking hot).

Bottom line...I would not recommend this movie to anybody. I'm not even sure how this got made to be honest. Especially with the amount of money that was poured into it. Amazingly bad.

Maximum Pain, Minimum Entertainment!

I had to sit through this because, I was driving everybody home.

Most movies based on games have a bad reputation, and this one is no different.

It has no entertaining value at all, if I could give a score lower then 1, I would! Even if you enjoy brainless shootout movies, this film is a disappointment.

This movie has it all:

Bad CGI, Even worse Characters, Overdone and silly Plot!

Please do yourself a favor and don't go and see this movie!