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Max Payne - Review

Max Payne - Review

Jenna Busch By Jenna Busch October 17, 2008
  
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Max Payne - Review

Mark Wahlberg) is a cop who's wife and baby have been killed, and the man who did it has gotten away. Unable to recover, Payne has transferred to the Cold Case division of the force and spends his nights trying to track down their killer. He runs into a corporate drug conspiracy, meets mafia chick Mona Sax (Mila Kunis) while being hit on by her sister Natasha (Olga Kurylenko, the new Bond girl) and gets involved in a nightmare world of government plots, betrayals, and some spooky winged demon hallucinations. Valkyr, the drug in question, is causing people to see the creepy things and our hero must find it's makers and his wife's killer before anyone else kicks it.

Wahlberg reigns supreme as "angry tortured cop" and does his "constipated Max" face beautifully. (That's a joke from the game...I'm sure he's very regular) Kunis seemed a surprising choice for Mona, and was probably cast for her fluent Russian, but aside from a few moments of Jackie cuteness, she wasn't half bad. Kurylenko had a rather small part as Natasha, but she certainly commands the screen and I look forward to seeing her in Quantum of Solace. Rounding out the cast we have Amaury Nolasco from Prison Break as the mysteriously-tattooed Lupino and key to the Valkyr puzzle, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges as good-cop Bravura and Beau Bridges as Max's mentor B.B. (also straight from the game) And now the story...I'm willing to give a bit of leeway to a script based on a game the same way I will for a comic book or horror film, but Max Payne could have used just one more draft. There were moments that needed some explanation and characters that needed a quite a bit of fleshing out. But it was violent and fun and since that's why I played the game, I left the theater satisfied.

The film was visually striking. Director John Moore (The Omen, Behind Enemy Lines) painted the canvas in grays, whites and blacks, and piercing reds for effect. Yellow seemed to be used any time we are close to crossing into the demon realm. The look was a bit reminiscent of 300 and Sin City. The soundtrack was stunning, and no surprise there. Oscar-nominated team (3:10 to Yuma) Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders did this one.

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Max Payne is, without a doubt, a violent gunfest that makes no moral sense if you look at it as a logical story. (a few people I care about got killed so instead of taking down the company legally, I'm going to blast the hell out of a few hundred other people to make up for it) But that's the game and I'm glad to see that no punches were pulled, PG-13 or not. Moore had a very public rant about the ratings system recently, upset that his film was going to get an R-rating, while The Dark Knight got a PG-13. Not sure if it was the complaining, or the cutting of a few things, but he got what he wanted. I'd love to have you all weigh in on this one. Did you play the game? Did you like the film? Do Beau Bridges eyebrows upset you as much as they do me? Seriously man! They have scissors for that.

UGO Rating:

Directing: B+
Writing: C-
Performance: B+
Visual Appeal: A-
Overall: B

Vitals:

Release Date: October 17th, 2008
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Olga Kurylenko, Amaury Nolasco, Beau Bridges, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges
Director: John Moore
Genre: Action
MMPA Rating: PG-13

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