Dumb Max Doesn’t Bring the Pain
Max Payne (Mark Wahlberg) is a New York detective working a desk in the Cold Case department. Unable to get over the mysterious death of his wife and child three years earlier, he prowls the dangerous inner-city streets each and every night following up clues and leads those in his department never discovered.
Mila Kunis and Mark Walhberg in 20th Century Fox's Max Payne
After a chance encounter with mysterious Russian hottie Natasha (soon-to-be Quantum of Solace Bond girl Olga Kurylenko) leads to her dismemberment, Max discovers information linking his family’s murder with the pharmaceutical company where she once worked. Turning to old friend and current corporation head of security BB Hensley (Beau Bridges) for help, and with the aid of the dead girl’s mobster sister Mona Sax (Mila Kunis), the vengeful cop ratchets up the violence in order to bring those responsible to his unique – and very bloody – brand of justice.
I’m not really sure what to say about the new action-thriller Max Payne. Like just about every single movie based upon a video game ever made, this is another one of those films that sputters around rather pointlessly, nonsensically moving its characters from one pyrotechnic fueled shoot-out to the next with all the skill and dexterity of a chicken crossing the road. The whole thing is nothing more than an extremely well-designed and wonderfully shot shooting gallery, and if that’s your cup of tea then you’ll certainly drink your fill with this one.
I admit, the flick's a tiny bit better than I’d originally anticipated. Then, considering director John Moore is the hack behind such wonderful works as Behind Enemy Lines and that god-awful remake of The Omen how was I really supposed to think this would be anything other than an outright disaster? They guy’s filmogaphy doesn’t exactly breed confidence, and if you’d told me I’d watch this and be even slightly entertained I’d have probably laughed and said you were talking like an idiot.
But that is exactly what I was while watching this, slightly entertained. Don’t get me wrong, this is a bad movie and one I could really care less if I ever see again, but sitting in the theater it never frustrated or annoyed me near as much as it probably should have. Wahlberg makes for an effectively angry anti-hero, while both Jonathan Sela’s (The Midnight Meat Train) cinematography and Marco Beltrami’s (3:10 to Yuma) thunderous score took my attention far away from the ludicrous script.
None of which should be construed as anything close to a recommendation. This movie is dumb, almost beyond anything you could ever have imagined. Beau Thorne’s screenplay is a cavalcade of cop clichés, Nordic mythology and religious iconography so all over the place and supercilious it borders on the laughable. Heck, any movie that tries to pass Kunis off as a tough-talking latex-clad Russian superwoman isn’t close to playing with a full deck as it is, the script only compounding that particular idiocy with a whole slew of other ones uniquely its own.
I guess, in the end, the deal is this. This movie is dumb, no question, and it is directed by Moore with all the subtlety of a jackhammer, but it is seldom boring and it is anchored by a strong – if still only a paycheck – performance by Wahlberg. I can’t recommend it, but for those that go for this sort of thing you could do a heck of lot worse. Max Payne is a lot of things, the majority of them negative, but it isn’t painful, and considering the alternative I have to think that’s some sort of minor victory.
Film Rating: êê (out of 4)
Additional Links
- Max Payne Theatrical Trailer
