Max Payne (2008)
Directed by John Moore
A DEA agent whose family was slain as part of a conspiracy, and an assassin out to avenge her sister's death, join forces to solve a series of murders in New York City.
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17 films that influenced Max Payne
What critics say influenced Max Payne
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.
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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.
Unfortunately, Max Payne director John Moore isn't exactly know for his bold artistic vision, as anyone who sat through his dire 2006 update of The Omen can attest.
Responsible for flashy misfires like The Omen, Flight of the Phoenix and Behind Enemy Lines, his films have never aspired to cinematic greatness, but are not very good, either.
Beau Thorne, a recent film school graduate with no previous feature credits, wrote the screenplay as if he were paid per explosion, and director John Moore has mostly made remakes ("The Omen" and "Flight of the Phoenix" do-overs were his).
Directed by John Moore (Behind Enemy Lines, the 2006 remake of The Omen), Max Payne betrays its origins as a video game with its tough-guy protagonist operating in a seedy urban jungle that recalls film noir and graphic novels.
Based on a Finnish video game and brought to you by several of the people who recently remade “The Omen” (2006), “Max Payne” is an ultraviolent PG-13-rated film in which everything is borrowed from some other, better movie.
At least "Max Payne," which boasts a reasonably cool-looking trailer, isn't directed by Boll, but, well, helmer John Moore ("The Omen") isn't exactly Tarantino either.
Responsible for flashy misfires like The Omen, Flight of the Phoenix and Behind Enemy Lines, his films have never aspired to cinematic greatness, but are not very good, either.
Directed by John Moore (Behind Enemy Lines, the 2006 remake of The Omen), Max Payne betrays its origins as a video game with its tough-guy protagonist operating in a seedy urban jungle that recalls film noir and graphic novels.
But director John Moore ( Behind Enemy Lines ) wisely alternates these sequences with scenes of verbal and psychological confrontation as well as a few glimpses of those frightening, mysterious valkyries.
After “Behind Enemy Lines,” “Flight of the Phoenix,” and “The Omen” remake, Moore has proven himself a meticulous screen stylist, preferring a glossy moment of violence over anything resembling a legitimate emotional reaction.
Irish filmmaker John Moore cut his chops directing commercials before his debut actioner Behind Enemy Lines in 2001.
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.
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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.