Max Payne

Location – GSC Pavilion

After having watched a few movies with mixed feelings, I was well hyped up for this one. Roughly after the success of the Matrix, came a shoot-em-up game called Max Payne which used Matrix type of slow-mo shots (which was called bullet time in the game) to great effect delighting millions and creating a rather large fan base. Already feeling down in terms of movie picking, I was sure that my luck would change with Max Payne. It’s got guns, dark storyline, flying bat like creatures and Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch! Surely I’ve picked a winner here?

Not the Funky Bunch

The movie revolves around a cop named Max Payne (Mark Whalberg) who found his wife and child murdered a few years back and hasn’t been the same since. He decides to transfer himself from the homicide department to the unsolved cases department hoping to find clues on the person who had killed his family. As the story progresses, we learn more about the shady underworld Max lives in, which involves unexplained murders and hard drugs.

[SPOILER ALERT]

Max then gets caught up in a murder case involving a girl he meets at a party. Unknowingly to him however, this murder is also related to his family’s murder case. With Max being the last person seen with her, the police start to name Max as the prime suspect in the murder case. Max then goes all out to prove his innocence as well as picking up more clues on the mystery that surrounds the killing of his family.

Red bull gives you wings apparently

I’d have to say from a fan’s point of view, this movie is deeply disappointing. If you’ve played the game, you’d realized the fast paced action right from the start which is non existence in the movie. The action takes too long too start and only after 15-20 minutes, do you get a hint of action (I think Max wiped his nose or something). It is also amazingly frustrating everytime Max has a flashback about his family. This doesn’t happen once or twice, but more times than somebody actually getting shot in this film. Storyline is obviously important in any movie and I understand that the game had a fantastic one too, but in no way do we want to be reminded of Max’s feelings everytime he thinks about his love ones. Less love more guns please. Even the appearance of Mila Kunis was so limited in the movie that you even wondered what she was doing there in the first place. If they had just stayed with the normal format of endless violent I’m sure a lot more people would have been entertained. Instead, everybody now feels a little bit more depressed about everything. SIGH.

Rating – 2.5/5

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