Max Payne
| Year: | 2008 |
| Production Co: | Abandon Entertainment |
| Studio: | 20th Century Fox |
| Director: | John Moore |
| Producer: | John Moore |
| Writer: | Beau Thorne |
| Cast: | Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Olga Kurylenko, Beua Bridges, Chris O'Donnell |
I expected a lot worse for a videogame movie, especially after the irascible Hitman and most others like it.
Apparently it wasn't enough like the game, but not being a gamer I can certainly live with that. The content actually seemed quite tame for a videogame - a cop who's lost his wife and baby to a break-in transfers to a dead end job so he can pursue the killers in his own time in a grimy, snowswept New York.
He does so against the backdrop of a large, corrupt pharmaceutical company (is there any other kind?) which has developed a weapon to make soldiers more aggressive, but which backfired and has leaked onto the streets as a lethal party narcotic (the hallucinations one suffers under its effects are the only supernatural element).
It's changed a former marine into a psychotic, indestructible cultish figure, and all the while Max is on his tail in cahoots with a beautiful and perpetually angry local crime boss (Kunis), you just know the corporate overlords are the real criminals. I'm certainly not giving away any spoilers there.
Some inventive visuals ripped straight from the gameplay by remake whore John ( Flight of the Phoenix , The Omen ) Moore - not enough to satisfy fans, but not nearly as dire as it could have been for everyone else.
Apparently it wasn't enough like the game, but not being a gamer I can certainly live with that. The content actually seemed quite tame for a videogame - a cop who's lost his wife and baby to a break-in transfers to a dead end job so he can pursue the killers in his own time in a grimy, snowswept New York.
He does so against the backdrop of a large, corrupt pharmaceutical company (is there any other kind?) which has developed a weapon to make soldiers more aggressive, but which backfired and has leaked onto the streets as a lethal party narcotic (the hallucinations one suffers under its effects are the only supernatural element).
It's changed a former marine into a psychotic, indestructible cultish figure, and all the while Max is on his tail in cahoots with a beautiful and perpetually angry local crime boss (Kunis), you just know the corporate overlords are the real criminals. I'm certainly not giving away any spoilers there.
Some inventive visuals ripped straight from the gameplay by remake whore John ( Flight of the Phoenix , The Omen ) Moore - not enough to satisfy fans, but not nearly as dire as it could have been for everyone else.