“They were all dead. The final gunshot was an exclamation mark to everything that had led to this point. I released my finger from the trigger. And then it was over.”
-Max Payne, from his pre-flashback monologue in the original game
The original Max Payne video game was a solid noir thriller that was one of the first to employ the then-new concept of “bullet time” that had been popularized by The Matrix. It was a cool shooter with an even cooler narrative story and seemed perfect for a movie adaptation.
Safety Off:
The Director and Producer for Max Payne, John Moore, along with his screenwriter accomplice Beau Thorne, made some drastic changes to the original storyline and environment, taking what would and should be a wonderful noir detective tragedy and obscuring it with unnecessary and faulty mythology. Seriously, it seems that these two never bothered to pick up and read some reference material. Valkyries aren’t men. Ever. I know, sometimes they’re depicted as winged and sometimes they’re not, but they’re always women. I know some of those old norse legends are hard to digest, even if they are translated into contemporary English from the original Icelandic or what not, but damn dude, buy a copy of Defenders or search for valkyries on Wikipedia or something, willya?
Underneath the beautiful, striking, scary, but ultimately plot distracting presence of valkyrie angels in the minds of those that are on drugs, there is still a good movie. Every action scene of this film with Max (“Marky” Mark Wahlberg – Boogie Nights) but without the absurd imaginary valkyries is awesome. It’s just a shame they’re so well obscured.
Like the video game upon which this film is based, Max Payne is a New York Detective whose wife and baby were killed. Max is bent on bringing those responsible to justice, and must search deeper and deeper into the drugs, crime and corruption that lead to the death of his family.
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Max Payne also stars a wide variety of geek pop culture actors including Beau Bridges (Stargate SG-1), Mila Kunis (That 70s Show, Family Guy, Robot Chicken), Donal Logue (Life, Blade, Ghost Rider), and Chris O’Donnell (Batman Forever, Batman & Robin). While this film features maybe the worst scene of acting by Logue ever committed to film as he and Max get out of the car at the bar, clearly there’s no one to blame but John Moore, and the rest of the acting is decent if not great. Wahlberg himself plays the hard boiled Max perfectly.
Extra Ammo:
While this has some solid extras, perhaps the most valuable is the unstated warning against working with Director John Moore. He comes off as completely full of himself and hard on those that work with him. From the first scene of the two part making-of documentary he shows his true colors and contempt for his film’s audience by dismissing us all stating that we’re just going to pirate his movie anyway, yet later he chastises the studio over budgeting complaints, bragging that they’ll be sorry when this film makes $110 million. It made a very respectable $84 million, though after hearing the boasting of that windbag, I almost wish it hadn’t. There is a lot of time spent with Mark and his Entourage, who seem to silently remind you to say hi to your mother for them. Seriously though, all the Moore-free bits are great. There’s a set of interview scenes with a crew member that convey a really moving look into how working in movies changed his life.
-Includes both the Theatrical Version and the Unrated Extended Cut of the Film in 1080p with Dolby True-HD 5.1 audio.
-Audio Commentary from Director John Moore, Production Designer Daniel Dorrance and Visual Effects Supervisor Everett Burrell
-Picture Documentary
-BONUS VIEW: Walkthroughs and Cheats – Making Max Payne and Behind the Scenes with Director John Moore
-Michelle Payne Graphic Novel
-Enhanced for D-Box Motion Control Systems
-Digital Copy of Unrated Version for Portable Media Players
Parting Shots:
Max Payne deserved better than John Moore. While the action scenes are awesome, the pseudo-mythos take you so far out of the movie, it’s not nearly as awesome as it should have been. On the plus side, all the visuals, valkyries or no, are strikingly beautiful. What Moore takes away in crazy departures from the source material, he tries hard to replace with stunning visual metaphors and inspired transitions.
Max Payne is worth picking up for anyone who loved the game and fans of Crime Noir films with a high tolerance for partially derailed stories.
Max Payne might just make you eager for a sequel. If they can keep the Mark and Mila but dump Moore, I’ll line up now.
ComicsOnline gives Max Payne on Blu-ray 3.5 out of 5 bullet time battles.
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