Max Payne

Introduction

Detective Max Payne, once a homicide cop, is now working in the Cold Case department, looking through old files for information on who killed his family. With almost nothing to lose, he embarks on a violent one-man investigation in the New York streets, but when a woman he picks up is killed, he convinces her sister that they were killed by the same people and they join forces.


Meanwhile the streets are awash with a new drug that gives some people almost superhuman abilities, but turns others into hopeless addicts, terrorised by winged demons that kill them and take their souls.

Video
Though there are computers and cell phones, this is heavily influenced by noir and there is a strong 1940s feel to the film, with the lighting and costumes. The picture is excellent with deep blacks and vibrant colours, few though they are.


The CGI is very impressive, but occasionally too obvious that it's people stood in front of a green screen.

Audio
This comes with a really thumping DTS-HD MA soundtrack that has your walls shaking without any loss in the clarity. The commentary reveals that they used the sound of howitzers for his pistol that shoots shotgun shells as well as bullets!


Extra Features
The commentary is a bit of a back-slapping effort and shows where the effort went, with the director, production designer and visual effects supervisor congratulating each other about how good the film looks.

The 2-part featurette called Picture runs for an hour in total (the 2 parts inexplicably have to be played separately) and is a reasonable look behind the scenes but director John Moore and Mark Wahlberg quickly become annoying. Also irritating is the blurring of logos on clothing which is done badly and it's easy to see what the logo is!


You can play the film with a picture-in-picture feature where 30 different featurettes pop-up in the bottom corner with behind the scenes footage. I only watched this for a bit before giving up.

Also included is a 'graphic novel' about Michelle Payne, but this is really just a short animated feature.

Should you have the necessary equipment, this also has D-Box capabilities.

Conclusion

Max Payne, a video game I've neither seen nor played, is apparently very popular amongst gamers, but I approached this with the reticence that experience of watching films inspired by video games has given me.


Video games are more fun to play than to watch and, without the interaction, you need a strong storyline, good script and solid acting. Max Payne has none of these. The story is a mess, revolving around drugs, demons and corporate greed and the terrible dialogue is woefully delivered by Mark Wahlberg, who followed up 2007, where he was Oscar-nominated, with dreadful performances in this and The Happening, which earned him Razzie recognition. This film desperately wanted to be a cross between Constantine and Sin City, but isn't as stylish or as interesting as either one and is actually quite dull.

I only made it to the end because I was reviewing it, almost considering getting to the end credits a duty - had this been on cable or a rented disc I would've turned off way before the end! Max Payne is truly one of the worst films of 2008 along with the likes of The Happening, The Hottie & the Nottie, RocknRolla and Disaster Movie.


It's a real quandary why such an awful film has been given such a terrific AV package and decent set of extras, which better films could only wish for. The picture and sound are almost reference quality but the film is truly a stinker. Normally I'd recommend that nobody should watch this film, let alone shell out for the BD but, if you liked such brain-dead action nonsense which fetishises weaponry as Hitman and Shoot 'Em Up (which I also hated), you'll probably enjoy this as well.