Customer Reviews

Max Payne (Unrated Edition) [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(26)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

The Blu-ray Disc includes the Theatrical Version and the Unrated, Extended Cut. We watched the 'Extended Cut' and were not disappointed. They spared no change in producing this film. If you want to see the best your Blu-ray system can deliver, then look no further. It was extraordinarily beautiful---almost 3D like. I'm left to think of some of the snow scenes and how I felt I could reach out and capture the giant snowflakes---how I reached for a throw, suddenly feeling a chill.

I thought Mark Wahlberg did a splendid job portraying Payne. I was immediately drawn into the storyline with him seeking those responsible for the brutal murders of his wife and baby and how he was willing to die to avenge their deaths. His grief and anger were palpable and justifiable.

I've enjoyed Max Payne video games and I don't feel that they did an injustice to the gaming fans, with this production. I could easily translate Mark Wahlberg's character and the setting, into that of the games.

I did have to suspend disbelief regarding the pharmaceutical company and, 'the drug.' This is why I took off one star. For example, every person who takes a hallucinogenic drug will not have the same hallucinations, so I was a little baffled by the big winged creatures that appeared to be everyone's' side-effect, but they looked really cool, so I almost forgive them.

Several have said they felt there were slow moments, but I have to say I was on the edge of my seat for the entire 103 minutes. Perhaps I would not have felt so positive about the movie, itself, if it had not been such a spectacular AV experience. But considering the complete package, I do recommend you give it a try. You might want to rent it first, before buying, since this one seems rather polarizing with folks either liking it a lot, or hating it.

I enjoyed this movie for the action and cinematography but that was about it. The gun play is fantastic, and it reminded me of the movie "Desperado," starring Antonio Banderas and Joachim Almeida (it even featured Cheech Marin as the bartender) from 10 or 15 years ago in its emphasis on fancy gun play. That much was entertaining at least.

I didn't mind that the plot was full of holes (after all, the movie is based on a video game so I wasn't expecting anything profound there),but unfortunately, the worst thing about the movie is that Wahlberg, who is certainly a talented actor and who I like, just doesn't seem that involved in the role. His whole performance is somewhat wooden, and from his past roles he's certainly capable of better. He's also a quite competent martial artist and quite athletic, reminding me of Lawrence Olivier when he was young, who used to do all his own stunts, when he broke a lot of bones. My generation only remembers Olivier from his senior years' roles as an old man such as in "The Jazz Singer," and most don't know how physical he was when he was younger.

Anyway, I ramble on. I give this movie three stars for all the great action sequences, and also the cinematography is actually excellent, and in many ways quite beautiful and aesthetic in many scenes, so I want to give whoever was in charge of the camera his due. He did a great job with what was otherwise a less than stellar vehicle for Walhberg, who I hope will get some better roles in the future since he is certainly capable of more.

Three years ago, NYPD detective Max Payne's wife and baby were murdered. Max gets himself transferred to the cold case office where he can continue searching for the killer who got away. He's a loner, but two people reach out to him during a fateful week: Alex, his ex-partner who may have found a clue, and BB, the security chief at the pharmaceutical company where Max's wife worked. Meanwhile, bodies are piling up, some as a result of a drug on the street that is highly addictive and, for many who take it, brings hideous hallucinations. When one of the bodies is a woman Payne was the last to see alive, her sister comes looking for him armed to the teeth; Max must move fast.
I thought this movie was pretty good. If you ever played the games and liked it, then you will like the movie. Great action and great visuals.

My wife likes Mark Walbergh. I am not a huge fan of him ever since I saw him in The Happening. In this movie he was a decent actor, but the weird part of the movie is that you were unsure what was real and what was not real. In some movies this "real vs unreal" concept is compelling, ala Black Swan. But in this movie it just gives you a headache and you want to stop watching.

I've never played this game but the previews for this movie tied with Mark Wahlberg interested me. I purchased this movie without first watching. From the start I was a bit lost but the action is heavy in this movie. I choose the unrated director's cut version and it did seem like a long movie. There were several characters I had no idea who they were or what exactly they had to do with anything. I spent most of this movie wondering if there was a supernatural side to it or was it just the drug. I like Mark Wahlberg but his last couple movies have just not been what I'd call great. This movie ends on a bit of a cliffhanger (lack of better words). It leaves it open for a sequel, which I might add, I will not see. Overall, this is a movie to see, but don't own it as you won't want to watch it again.

This movie was pretty good. I was expecting a little more. But worth a watch!

This movie was a good shoot `em up. In fact, my wife, who was reading, would once in a while look up and ask me when the shooting was going to stop, or at least, take a pause. The shooting DID take a pause, quite often as the story sort of advanced.

Knowing nothing about the game, I just looked at it from a story POV and it was muddled to say the least. However, I got it pretty quickly that that blue drug had a big part in things.

I had no idea that was Mila Kunis, though I don't know her outside of That 70's Show. Yeah, she can act, and all through the movie, I kept thinking I've seen her before.

Marky Mark does the brooding thing to a T. Makes no friends, yet he gets plenty of help.

The fact that the one rapper cop fell in with defending Max still has me wondering if I fell asleep and missed a key plot point.

The look and feel of the movie was excellent, what with the snow, which made me think of Boston, where Marky Mark is from. Really didn't recognize the city, if it was even real.

The fact is that this is just a fun shoot 'em up, a bit light on the plot points. That was all I expected and that is what I got. It will get no academy awards, and certainly won't enhance anyone's careers, though weirder things have happened.

Overall, I still enjoyed it and would recommend it to action fans that don't really care about plot, continuity, or fine acting.

This is a good retelling of the government's, chemically-induced super-soldier gone wrong, but not terminally. Worth the price.

A review of the Unrated Director's Cut:
Video game to movie adaptations are almost a dime a dozen. Sure, there have been more misses than hits. I liked the movie adaptation of "Silent Hill", have very mixed feelings about the "Resident Evil" franchise, and I thought the recent "Hitman" adaptation was quite mediocre. So I decided to check out this latest video game adaptation of "Max Payne"--I mean I know it's going to be mediocre, so how bad can it really be? Well, I haven't played the video game, so I cannot make a comment how faithful it is to its source material, I am rather betting that it is VERY "loosely based". Otherwise, I would wonder how the video game became a hit, because this film is definitely not. While comic book adaptations have achieved respect from Hollywood, it seems like video game franchises have not.

A brooding detective named Max Payne (Mark Wahlberg) is working the cold case files in the hopes of finding his wife's murderer. His wife and child were killed by a trio of junkies and while he killed two of them, one is still out there. One night, he hooks up with a beautiful girl named Natasha (Olga Kurylenko) and the next day, she is found cut to many pieces. She had Max's wallet in her hand which prompted his former partner Alex (Donal Logue) to cover for him and ends up dead. Natasha's sister Mona (Mila Kunis) is a mob assassin who comes looking for Payne, and the situation gets worst as they decide to pool their resources. Max finds out that his wife's murder three years ago, may be linked to the pharmaceutical company she used to work for. There is a designer drug out in the streets that causes confidence and calmness all the more feeling invincible--this drug was meant for the use of the military to strengthen morale but dumped because of its hallucinogenic side effects. Now, Max must find a soldier named Lupino to uncover the truth--but the truth may just lead him to a family friend named BB (Beau Bridges)...

The problems with the film is the fact that the screenplay by Beau Throne feels very befuddled. Nothing special really happens and the film is downright predictable. The links to Natasha's killing and Max's wife feels like a throw-away detail, a drug with military potential is used as a designer drug, a huge corporation wishing to make a profit out of a mistake, a murdered partner, betrayal by a family friend, all are overused ideas. Ok, I'll try to be nice, there are a lot of movies that follow the same formulas but the way the script is structured in this movie is just so empty and dull. The film just throws out the routine cop with a mission of vengeance with a very hollow execution as director John Moore (responsible for the abysmal Omen remake) opts for a repetitive narrative as the film goes on. There is nothing daring, exciting or dramatic in the proceedings, all it does is go through the entire motivations and Max's intentions over and over again. The film doesn't offer anything inventive and feels like the film's script has been rewritten hundreds of times.

For reasons unknown, the film doesn't even develop on its remaining aces. Mila Kunis' character is so severely underused--Her promise as a supreme hot girl with a big gun goes nowhere. The film's opening act with the potential for "Norse Valkyries" as a soldier's guardian angel was pitched into the plot but abandoned, in favor of a lame idea of a corporate scheme to make profit out of a failed drug that uses it as idolatry. Voluptuously sexy ex-Bond Girl Olga Kurylenko has a very small role and disappears before her presence can inspire excitement from the male audience. (sorry no sex or nudity here) The film also leaves a lot of things unresolved and undeveloped, it`s predictability and clichés do hurt the film. The images of the valkyries only end up as "eye-candy" as Max shoots his way to the final showdown in the midst of visions of Valhalla on Earth.

The action isn't that good either. Director Moore uses an over-abundant use of slow motion in an attempt to look cool and emulate a "matrix-like" style. The gunfights also have that Asian inspiration as Max leaps, and avoids bullets with ease--either he's really good or these bad guys just supremely suck. The cinematography of the film is nice and emulates a moody and gloomy atmosphere (what is up with this style?). The CGI generated environment is pretty and looks cool. The camera work by Jonathan Shea is decent and the special effects weren't bad as Max rampages through the cosmic hallucinations to reach his end goal. Unfortunately, whatever the film achieved visually is overshadowed by the film's flaws that all the special effects and gorgeous set designs just couldn't save the film from becoming a lost. It does make it more acceptable but not by much.

Mark Wahlberg is a decent lead, I liked him in "The Departed" and "Shooter". The man isn't the best performer but he did what he could with whatever little he has to work with. Beau Bridges makes for a ungainly antagonist-- his character is just so underwhelming and uninteresting that you wonder what the fuss was all about. Meg Griffin is also severely underused and her character is left hanging (maybe hints of a sequel?) The film does have some humble pay off amid all the bad screenplay, and it would have helped for more developed characters.

I suppose the film's enjoyment would depend on just how much of a fan you are of the video game. The film is a just a decent visual feast and so below the standards of a great action flick--that it fails even more as below average video game adaptation. Director John Moore almost does turn the tables but it was just too little, too late. The film is full of unnecessary prattle and so little excitement. The film is a brainless attempt and you may want to take a nap until the eye candy effects take over in the final act. It is a supreme exercise of too much STYLE over very little substance.

RENTAL [2 ½ Stars]
Note: There is nothing special about the unrated cut except for the extra bloody clouds when a bullet hits its target.
Video/Audio: 2.35 ratio anamorphic widescreen. Beautiful transfer--clean, black levels are strong and solid. The colors are intentionally muted to give it a noir-like feel. 5.1 Dolby Digital track is very clear and powerful.
Extras: I didn't bother but it does look interesting, as Moore explains why he diverted from the source material.

I never expected MAX PAYNE to be particularly good. The video game was pure, first-person shoot-`em-up excitement, with the usual negligible plot, but with great locations, a cool, snowblown look and lots of things to shoot at. So while I didn't expect great things from a movie based on such flimsy material...I at least expected some ACTION!!

For much of the movie, though, PAYNE is paced like a methodical police procedural with occasional very brief bursts of action. By the time the climactic scenes arrive, which DO have a fair amount of action, I had long since stopped caring. I believe I had set my expectations properly: turn off the brain, but get ready for an adrenaline rush. What I got mostly was boredom, so when the action came...my adrenal gland was asleep. Not that the action was anything but pedestrian at that.

MAX PAYNE, the video game, is essentially the story of one cop's ruthless quest for vengeance for the death of his wife and baby. He was a good cop whose happy life was shattered by a crime cartel so sinister and connected that no LEGAL system would ever bring those responsible to justice. So he arms himself and essentially starts killing people left and right until he gets to those who REALLY deserve to be punished. The settings are various dark locations throughout a very snowy city, and the game looked terrific. It was DOOM with a smidgen of humanity. DUKE NUKEM with more hard-boiled, angry humor.

The movie gets many of the settings right, particularly the snow. That actually looked good. The effects, in general, were well-executed for a film with an obviously lower budget than your run-of-the-mill INDIANA JONES flick.

But while in a video game it's okay to have the main character (you) killing everything in sight...how could we, in a movie, sympathize with a man so maddened by vengeance that he kills pretty much everyone he sees. We couldn't, so the filmmakers keep Max from being murderous (until the end, when the whole evil plot is revealed). This is more "realistic" but also pretty dull. Mark Wahlberg plays Max as a guy who has pretty much just stopped living. He works the worst deskjob possible, and seems to have no personality left. When he gets some clues, finally, about what happened to his wife, he goes into action...which seems to consist mostly of moping his way through some seedy scenery and asking half-hearted questions. Wahlberg CAN be an engaging screen presence, but he does himself NO favors by taking on roles like this or SHOOTER. He doesn't have the charisma to coast through a part. He needs to be fully engaged as an actor (THE DEPARTED or THREE KINGS, for example) and he is successful.

Max is joined in his quest by Mila Kunis (That `70s Show, FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL), and it's passingly amusing to see an actress mostly known for sweet spunkiness to wear leather and carry a shotgun. It's a nothing role, but it helps her break her stereotype a little. Olga Kurylenko turns up in another video-game inspired movie (HITMAN), but isn't in too many scenes...a good thing, her range is extremely limited! Beau Bridges is a welcome presence, and Chris O'Donnell is NOT, in a very small role that he still manages to do less than nothing with. Finally, the always welcome Donal Logue shows up for about 10 minutes. I'd like to see HIM take on a role like Max Payne. He'd breathe some life into it!

In no way is this a good movie, nor would any reasonable person expect it to be. But it doesn't even merit a label like "trashy fun." I guess I'll just have to watch SHOOT `EM UP again for that. Or maybe I can dust off my old copy of MAX PAYNE the video game, and really have some fun!