John Moore
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It's not just that the story makes little to no sense or that the visuals are cribbed shamelessly from other sources—most notably The Matrix and Constantine.
Based on the popular video game of the same name, this action-thriller starring Mark Wahlberg borrows liberally and almost desperately from Sin City and The Matrix for its tale of an antihero cop out to avenge the death of his wife and young daughter.
Scripted by Austin, Texas-born newcomer Beau Thorne and set in a stylized film noir New York City, the film is a mashup of “Sin City” (2005), “The Crow” (1994), “The Matrix” (1999) and “Outland” (1981), featuring canned dialogue and tough-guy posturing by its star Mark Wahlberg.
There is more than a nod to actioners like “The Matrix” in the execution of the action.
With all the bullets flying, one expects a little "bullet time" – the slowed-down, 3D tracking shot popularized by The Matrix, and a major defining feature of the original Max Payne video game.
There is "Marky" Mark Wahlberg – who has, at this point, so damaged his hard-earned status as a credible film actor he must now be referred to only by his old white rapper name – playing a drowning New York cop who starts out by narrating his own imminent death à la William Holden in Sunset Boulevard.
Here, he seems to be aiming for a visual style that's part film noir and part Sin City, but the images lack the mood of the former or perverse beauty of the latter.
Based on the popular video game of the same name, this action-thriller starring Mark Wahlberg borrows liberally and almost desperately from Sin City and The Matrix for its tale of an antihero cop out to avenge the death of his wife and young daughter.
The game’s neo-noir visual style is also interpreted beautifully on film, and though it probably would have looked even better had Moore just gone full-out “ Sin City ” and shot the entire thing in black and white, his decision to dress everyone in dark clothes and then contrast that with an incredibly bright flurry of snow works just as well.
Scripted by Austin, Texas-born newcomer Beau Thorne and set in a stylized film noir New York City, the film is a mashup of “Sin City” (2005), “The Crow” (1994), “The Matrix” (1999) and “Outland” (1981), featuring canned dialogue and tough-guy posturing by its star Mark Wahlberg.
With its hyper-stylized noir tropes and gray-black palette (streaked with fluttering snow and flashes of red) pilfered from Sin City , and its supernatural religious imagery pinched from Constantine , the film is devoid of novel life.
Scripted by Austin, Texas-born newcomer Beau Thorne and set in a stylized film noir New York City, the film is a mashup of “Sin City” (2005), “The Crow” (1994), “The Matrix” (1999) and “Outland” (1981), featuring canned dialogue and tough-guy posturing by its star Mark Wahlberg.
As well as treading in the demonically small footsteps of The Omen and The Ring, Spanish director Collet-Serra (who, let’s not forget, gave the world Paris Hilton’s secondmost downloaded oral video moment in 2005’s House Of Wax) also borrows from every distraught married couple/psycho-in-the-house thriller from The Hand That Rocks The Cradle and Fatal Attraction to Don’t Look Now.
You have probably already assumed that the fifth Die Hard, A Good Day to Die Hard (how psyched do you think Joel Schumacher is that the most memorable line from his Flatliners is making a comeback?), is no insta-classic.
Skyfall (2012)
Directed by Sam Mendes
influenced A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)
Characters Music Visuals
“Skyfall” gave us a 50th anniversary James Bond who seemed renewed and revitalized for another half-century of adventures, but “A Good Day to Die Hard,” coming in 25 years after the iconic action classic that launched the series, fails to do right by John McClane, the quippy, kvetchy NYPD detective played by Bruce Willis .
The score sounds like this generic rip-off blend of Thomas Newman 's " Skyfall " soundtrack and Hans Zimmer 's and James Newton Howard 's " The Dark Knight " soundtrack.
This stuff makes James Bond's jump in "Skyfall" from a 100-foot drop look credible.
A lengthy chase on the Moscow ring road throws entire fleets of Russian commuters under the proverbial bus, but still feels like an inferior copy of a similar sequence in "Skyfall," while director John Moore ("Max Payne") defaults to the ADD editing style that's only good for disguising how thinly-imagined this show really is.
Compare the uninspired “A Good Day to Die Hard” with the exhilarating “Skyfall” and you see the difference between pushing a franchise to riskier, more demanding highs and letting it slide.
The film also stars Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, "That 70's Show"), Ludacris (Hustle and Flow, Fred Claus), Chris O'Donnell (Batman & Robin), Beau Bridges ("Stargate SG1") and Olga Kurylenko (WHO PLAYED PRETTY MUCH THE EXACT SAME PART IN HITMAN).
In attempting to pick up the trail, he finds himself involved with a woman, Natasha (Olga Kurylenko, Hitman), who is subsequently killed.
Hitman, Fox's video-game adaptation from last November, scored $100m worldwide without Max Payne's star power or marketing muscle.
It’s not like director John Moore didn’t have access to examples of what not to do when adapting a beloved video game for the big screen, and yet the film still lacks certain basic elements that even a dud like “ Hitman ” got right.
Even the cameos, like Nelly Furtado as a cop's widow and Olga Kurylenko as basically the same character she played in Hitman, barely make you raise an eyebrow.
Coming on the heels of last year’s woeful “Hitman” adaptation (oddly, also starring Kurylenko), “Max Payne” further dents the questionable concept of the big screen video game celebration.
Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts
influenced by Flight of the Phoenix (2004)
Plot
I also caught trace elements of Flight of the Phoenix (2004) and Tora!
The movie's sense of group dynamics, finely tuned suspense, and attention to technical detail reminded me of Robert Aldrich's Flight of the Phoenix.
As it turns out, re-watching the first three Die Hard films in anticipation of this new one is absolutely the last thing one should do - as the movie has exceedingly little in common with its predecessors and instead comes off as a cinematic cousin to such watered-down, egregiously slick contemporary action movies as xXx and Bad Company.
Scripted by Austin, Texas-born newcomer Beau Thorne and set in a stylized film noir New York City, the film is a mashup of “Sin City” (2005), “The Crow” (1994), “The Matrix” (1999) and “Outland” (1981), featuring canned dialogue and tough-guy posturing by its star Mark Wahlberg.
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Directed by Michael Mann
influenced Behind Enemy Lines (2001)
Visuals
Chased by a secret police enforcer, a deadly tracker, and hordes of hostile troops, Wilson runs for his life in scenes reminding me of Daniel Day-Lewis racing through the forest in The Last of the Mohicans.
The film also stars Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, "That 70's Show"), Ludacris (Hustle and Flow, Fred Claus), Chris O'Donnell (Batman & Robin), Beau Bridges ("Stargate SG1") and Olga Kurylenko (WHO PLAYED PRETTY MUCH THE EXACT SAME PART IN HITMAN).
Or a Woo noir, since the picture owes a lot to the visual grit and zazz of John Woo, the Hong Kong director (A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Hard Boiled) who made good in Hollywood with the crackerjack Face/Off.
We’re past the Double Dragon days, but 2005’s Doom, 2008’s Max Payne, 2009’s Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, and the efforts of Uwe Boll have kept big-screen adaptations disreputable, even while Paul W. S. Anderson’s Resident Evil series has continued to chug along as a reliable moneymaker.
David Thewlis (2006's " The Omen ") plays Bruno's military father as stern and set in his ways, a man in desperate need of a wake-up call.
The movie is a series of glum interrogation scenes that lead nowhere special, with a not-quite-sci-fi urban murkiness that makes it look like someone was trying to shoot Blade Runner in Cleveland.
Soon after, the video game series Max Payne was developed and released, enforcing slow-motion gun-fu as a fresh, exhilarating, and vital tactic for survival).
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)
Directed by Chad Stahelski
influenced by Max Payne (2008)
Themes
The John Wick series might just be some of the best Max Payne movies ever made, and Parabellum is no exception.