Mark Wahlberg Is Good, but ’Max Payne’ Isn’t

Well, here we go again. Another vast attempt to transform a popular video game into a feature-length, live-action movie. They've already failed miserably with such classic games like Street Fighter, Double Dragon, Wing Commander, and especially Super Mario Bros. Max Payne is the latest in line and we're still waiting.

Mark Wahlberg stars as the title character, a New York City cop working in the Cold Case Division. His office is dingy with poor lighting. It looks similar to Joe's (Tom Hanks) office in Joe vs. the Volcano. Max is still searching for whoever killed his wife and daughter. Reluctantly, he teams up with an assassin named Mona (Mila Kunis) who's out to avenge her sister's death. As Max digs deeper and deeper, he confronts certain demons, all the while an Internal Affairs agent (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) is hot on his trail. At the moment, the only people he can turn to is an old friend (Beau Bridges). The conspiracy behind his wife's death has something to do with a mysterious pharmaceutical drug called Valkyrie. It has the ability to give whoever takes it superhuman strength. It falls somewhere between steroids and The Incredible Hulk's gamma radiaton.

There are so many problems with this movie. One of them that isn't is Mark Wahlberg. He's fantastic. This film feels so unrealistic. It feels...like a videogame. Yeah, that's it. It's as if the filmmakers just took the script from the game and used it for the movie. There's these brooding voice-overs, constant flashbacks of Max with his family (you gotta have those in a revenge film), and even New York City looks fake. Another problem is the character's job description, one that I'm sure fans of the series won't like. In the game, Max is a DEA agent. Here's a NYC detective. Why the change? There are a few nice, stylized shots, but these are just to tease us. We're teased into thinking the film is getting better, but it doesn't. Kunis is entirely miscast as she seems to young for the part. At this rate, they'll have reached 100 videogame-turned-movies before they get it right.

1 1/2 stars