Max Payne

I was so excited to see that Max Payne was being made into a film as I am a huge fan of the game and the film noir story. It was a dark, gritty tale of an ordinary man seeking revenge on those who took everything away from him.

The film adaptation is quite the opposite, and here's why...

Well, being a big fan of the game I went to see the movie as soon as it was at the cinema, and one of the first things I noticed within the first 20 minutes of the film was that there was no narration... Whatsoever!

The Max Payne games played a lot of the story out through narration, but not only that, it was used to portray Max's psyche and inner thoughts in a very dark, poetic manner. It really added a new dimension to the game, and missing that out in the film was probably there biggest mistake, but yet there's more...

I don't know whether it was just me, but after a while, Mark Whalbergs "deep voice" starts to sound so forced, that it's actually annoying after a while. In the games, Max Payne had a very natural gritty voice which really suits the film noir style.

As for the bullet time, well, in the games there was lots of opportunitys for bullet time and you'd need to use it quite frequently when facing multiple enemies. Now, I wasn't expecting for the entire film to be in slow motion action sequences, but I can only recall 2 or 3 bullet time sequences in the whole film.

One of the other major flaws are the bit players, the characters that played the villians, mainly the people who were in the film for one scene just so Max could kill them. In the game, the characters trying to kill you do seem to run around aimlessly sometimes, but what do you expect from artificial intelligence. Take this one scene for example, two guys walk into some warehouse looking for Max Payne and hear a noise, so what do they do? They spend a good few minutes shooting all over the warehouse, and when they're finished, one of them says "Hello?", then they start sneaking around quietly again after they just shot at everything. There were a lot of things like that in the film that just made it so unrealistic from what people would actually do in certain situations.

All in all, it's an extremely poor film whether you've played the game or not, and the only bit of the film I actually enjoyed was the end song of the whole film which is called "Heaven To The Max", it's a brilliant song which deserved to accompany a better film.

I blame John Moore and Mark Wahlberg mostly, for the bad direction and poor performance. In an interview for Max Payne, Mark Wahlberg was asked if he'd played the games, to which he replied "no".

I might be wrong here, but I imagined that if you're getting paid 6 digit figures for films, if not millions, then the least you'd expect from a lead role is to do their character and background research to truly understand the role that you'd be playing.

This is why I can't imagine "Marky Mark" going down in film history, instead he'll have his 15 minutes of fame and fade away like so many others.

One word Brillant. The story is complex however they pulled it off without a fault. The story is exactly the same as the game Max Payne's wife and child are brutelly murdered and Max seeks revenge on those responsible only to find that he was set up by his own police force. He meets Mona who helps him brings justice. They should be a second Max Payne film as there's two Max Payne's games. This film is very very good with everything from the game from characters and story and environment. If you disagree you don't understand the game therefore didn't enjoy the film. I say u need to play games again and pay attention this time. 10/10

I have played and completed both the Max Payne games on the PS2. Max Payne the movie follows the story of the first game in some areas, whilst adding it's own ideas which works for me overall. I can understand why some fans of the games may not like what John Moore the director has done with Max Payne. I think some people wanted lots and lots of action which might sound good but to much action with little story is boring for us more mature/intelligent people. Max Payne has a good dark atmosphere and Mark Wahlberg gives Payne soul. Olga Kurylenko is dead sexy like she was in the Hitman film too and the action is slick. Max Payne won't set the world on fire but I prefer it to that brain dead film called Shoot Em' Up!!!

For a long time now we have had to suffer the poor video game to movie attempts thrown at us. From the dismal Resident Evil movies to the shocking Mario Brothers back in the 80's.

Theres always seemed to be some sort of block stopping these great games from being great movies, until now.

Enter Max Payne, a game which for the most, was a fantastic gun tooting thriller, with some realy well told noir type stories thrown in, an interesting main character with a big chip off his shoulder and some funky bad guys to boot. A perfect recipe for a big blockbuster movie or a big flop, luckily we get a blockbuster!

Casting Mark as the lead in the movie was my only gripe until i saw him actualy in the film, he rises to the role and expands it beyond the game, show Max's desperation at times, to find his families killers and solve a deep and disturbing case thrown onto his lap.

The film is well paced and involving enough to keep you glued to the screen, its filmed just like the game, a kinda mix between Sin City and Se7en. Its stylish and well shot throughout, the CGI effects dont over rule the movie and for the most subtle enough to actualy like!.

All the characters are well played and theres none of this hammy tongue in cheek acting you would expect in a game/movie feature. I have to be totally honest and say im hoping there will be a sequel, as this realy was a strong strong film.

I think some reviews are being unfair so i decided to stick up for this film because i really enjoyed it. This film does have a story very similar to the game, his wife and baby we're killed, the drug valkyr is a big part of this movie as it is in the game. The characters are still the same. And whether or not you like mark wahlbergs other films has nothing to do with it. I personally thought he played the role very well. There is loads of action in it and they show some excellent slow motion sequences (there's one where he's firing a shotgun over his shoulder that is top!) if you're looking for an arty, life changing film, then this is not for you. But for those who like good old action flicks then this is spot on. I'm buying this the day it comes out,