I went to see it opening night... it was the most ungratifying experience I think I have ever taken away from a movie... the supposed "twist" was predictable... the action was flat, cartoon-y, and had no meaning behind it.... and Robin (Chris O'Donnel) went down like a sack of bricks... 8)

I do have to give props to the "shotgun" bullet time moment towards the end... it was pretty sweet... although... I don't think the guy shooting at Marky Mark was aiming correctly... the bullets hit the serum about a yard away from Payne... and I also really liked the scene where Payne was roughed up.... with the hard red shots popping in... that was cool...

But, the rest made me feel like I was watching a Uwe Boll film dressed up to be a John Woo movie....

At the begining of the movie Marky Mark gives a little speech during a black screen right before the movie starts. I so wanted to yell out "Say hi to your mother for me" but i didn't have the balls and didn't want to be "that guy".

Seriously this movie was cliche fest 08. Here's a couple of the things I noticed that just annoyed me:

Spoilers

Marky Marks partner dies . . . just like ever other cop movie
Marky Mark is a loner who doesn't play by the rule ... just like ever other cop movie
Marky Mark is innocent, and used to be a cop, yet he makes himself look guilty by running away when he's a suspect in a murder investigation instead of having the police force help him out. (oh he also had proof that his fellow police officers could have used to clear his name)
Mark Marks mentor in a "surprise twist" turns out to be the bad guy. I'm surprised they didn't just name him Johnny Villian instead of B.B.
Marky Mark flew during the swat team shoot out in the office building. Wath the movie again, he just suddenly defies the laws of physics and hovers in the air as he flies to the door.
Mila Kunis did not want to be in the movie. She actuallyed seemed to hate the script she was reading in her scenes. Also, there was no reason for her to really care about Marky Mark at all... yet for some unknown reason she was quasi in love with him and went around risking her life for him
They build up the main protagonist (the 40 year old alcholic jobber from benchwarmers) to be the ultimate "invincible" bad ass, and then have him only fight marky mark for 20 seconds before he gets shot in the back by johnny evil/B.B/The Dude.
Did they ever actually say what kind of business Mila Kunis was in? Drugs, guns, mobile phones????
Didn't Marky Mark get shot with a shot gun near the end of the movie and just kind of shake it off.... from almost point blank range... you know just like the distance he shot people with his shot gun that totally killed them.

I totally would have rather watched Marky Mark sit and play the Original PS1 Max Payne game for a couple hours than match this movie.[/

biglazy wrote:

I totally would have rather watched Marky Mark sit and play the Original PS1 Max Payne game for a couple hours than match this movie.

That would've been far more entertaining to watch :o ...

I wrote a review for my college paper:

Max Payne is the latest videogame to movie adaptation, bringing the grit and grime of the quintessential crime drama to the silver screen. Adapting a video game to film seems to be a great feat considering the lack of great videogame movies (i.e. Resident Evil, Doom, In the Name of the King, etc.). I went into theatres hoping to see a movie that broke the curse of bad videogame movies in the way that last year?¢‚Ǩ?°?É‚Äû?ɬ¥s Hitman did, I was sadly disappointed. Instead, I was treated to a generic attempt at an artful movie.

Payne chronicles the title character attempting to track down the man who killed his family and uncovers a deadly secret about an underground drug trade. The film never seemed to really offer anything new and should be renamed Clich??Ǭ© Pain, just to describe the movie in a couple of words. New York is a crime ridden cesspool with gangs and murder riddling the streets; Wahlberg plays a loose cannon loner true to the videogame character which doesn?¢‚Ǩ?°?É‚Äû?ɬ¥t seem to translate well to the big screen; and the story revolves around Payne being suspected of murder and him attempting to prove his innocence, all while trying to find out who killed his wife. I believe I've seen this movie before, it was called Fugitive.

Videogames seem to have some leeway when it comes to story or character development, because the story isn't the main element there is to it. Developers can make up for a bad story with unique game play mechanics or great graphics. Unfortunately with movies, what you see is what you get, you can?¢‚Ǩ?°?É‚Äû?ɬ¥t change the result of the action and make it your own.

As far as Max Payne is concerned, the action was pointless and the film only offered a few unique experiences for audiences. Overall it left much to be desired and I?¢‚Ǩ?°?É‚Äû?ɬ¥m sure Max Payne II is being shoved down the pipeline as we speak. There isn?¢‚Ǩ?°?É‚Äû?ɬ¥t anything we can do about it, but hope more time is spent on story development and not on digital valkyries that become more of a gimmick than a plot point.

I like your review GhostMx. I definitely agree that the Valkries were more of a gimmick than plot point.

It's been two weeks since I saw this in the theatre, and I think I've forgotten most of the movie already. I think this was one of the most haphazard unremarkable movies I've seen in a long time. i'm reading the comments I made above and only kind of remember those scenes.