Max Payne (2008) More at IMDb Pro »

There's three kind of people going to see this movie. 1--People that have no idea about the game that think they're just going to watch some kind shoot-em-up mixed with a Constantine/Sin-City feel. 2--Those that have played the game and enjoyed the gameplay. 3--Those that have played the game and enjoyed the gameplay, but moreso, were mesmerized by the entire feel of the storyline; the dark noir-like cut scenes, the way Max's loss hunts him continually in an eerie way, the twisted levels with S&M induced screaming in the background of one and others with the valkyrie laced druggies wondering around, and of course, the poetic story-telling by Max himself.

Now, if you are one of the first two....let's face it, the majority of you just won't get it. You won't truly appreciate the lengths the director goes to in keeping the storyline congruent with the game, but not just rip it off completely. For those of you that keep saying Clive Owen should have played Max cause he did well in Shoot-em-up....you people should be the last ones to leave a rating on here. This film is not just a mindless shooter. This film would have been another game-to-film adaptation that had zero substance if Clive Owen had played the part. And people really would have been crying "Sin-city ripoff" if he'd played the part, since he was in that one too. Now was Mark Walberg PERFECT as the role? I don't know about that. But I thought he did a really job and captured Max's demeanor quite well.

I know it seems there may be no difference between liking the game for it's gameplay and then loving the game for it's story-telling, but there really is. When me and my buddy discussed the game, we always talked about how good it was simply for the mood and storyline, rather than the actual gameplay. And we both ended up really liking the movie.

You have to go into this movie understanding that there's more to it than just shooting guns and bullet time. If it was just those, the movie would have gaping plot-holes and would lose it's emotion. But the director leaves equal time for every issue; The eerie mood, how obsessed Max is with finding his wife's killer(s) and the way it affects his relationships, the hallucinations from the drugs, the corruption in which the valkyr has led to, and, yes, even the bullet-time. There really is a lot of substance to this film. It's a murder mystery film that also incorporates some vivid action and special effects. If people would know this going into it, I think their reaction would be a lot better. Probably not much of a movie to go watch with your g/f or wife, as my buddy's wife and her friend sat there and cut up the whole time cause they weren't connecting with the movie (which got on my nerves, as I was really into it).

All in all, I think it was beautifully done. It set out to capture Max Payne from every angle and did just that. It took ample time to make fanatics of the game go "holy crap, that scene was straight from the game", but yet also write in some originality of it's own that worked well within the plot. As far as some of the characters, I thought every one of them played their part to near-perfection. Mila Kunis actually did surprisingly well and it was fun to see her play the femme fatale bad@$$. Ludicrous didn't really have that much riding on him, but he still played the part just fine and I never got the feeling of "rapper-turned-cop" from his performance (unlike the way I can't stand many of Ice Cube's performances cause he's very one-dimensional). Chris O' Donell had a very short role, but I thought he played it amazingly. I haven't seen him in anything in a while, but he played the part of a corporate big-wig scared for his life very well and showed a lot of emotion in his performance in a way in which you almost feel sorry for him. Beau Bridges executed his part perfectly (not much more to say about that). I even enjoyed Donal Logue's serious short role as Max's partner, Alex.

Not a perfect movie, but definitely a good one, and by far the best video game-to-movie adaptation I've seen thus far.