Max Payne is one of the most accomplished video game adaptations to date. Of course, that’s not saying much. It just means that Irish director John Moore (Behind Enemy Lines, The Omen) has worked hard to make sure Max Payne feels like a lesser Marvel movie (The Punisher) and not Mortal Kombat starring Jean Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue.
The film starts well enough; Mark Walberg is suitable moody as the titular vigilante cop, a Man Who Has Lost Everything, including his beautiful wife and adorable baby.
“You know the way you held your breath as a kid when you went by a graveyard?” observes a colleague of Max’s demeanour. There’s a snowy New York backdrop and lots of Michael Mann-ish blues and greys but none of the style seems to matter once the plot gets going.
You see there’s this evil pharaceutical company. No wait, there’s these Norse bird monster things. Erm, actually there’s this super drug being tested on soldiers. No, actually it’s all of the above and a bunch of other stuff. It’s all tied up with the death of our anti-hero’s wife and the girl who plays Meg from Family Guy.
Confused? So were we.