Mark Wahlberg seeks revenge against man and beast... 'Max Payne' Review
Max Payne lives up to his name within the first few seconds of the movie, where he reveals to us, "I don't believe in heaven. I believe in pain. I believe in fear. I believe in death." Nice to meet you, too! The whole movie never breaks away from this mood, it's dark and depressing and angry throughout, so at least there is some consistency. But on the other hand, when the entire movie is dark blue and green from start to finish, it might start to bring you down a little bit, too.Mark Wahlberg stars as Max Payne, an NYPD homicide detective who started working exclusively on cold case files since his wife and infant child were killed. He has become obsessed with finding their killer, as is to be expected, putting him in the perfect situation to become a one man army out for justice, as Steven Seagal might say. All of his leads go nowhere, until finally he finds a good one in the form of a vicious female assassin named Mona Sax.
It seems that Mona's sister has also been killed, and after a few tense confrontations they learn that they may be looking for the same person.
[caption id="attachment_13277" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Isn't there something ironic about this?"]
[/caption]They form a tenuous partnership and are also joined by a couple of other allies, including BB, Max's father's former partner, and an Internal Affairs cops named Jim Bravura, played by Chris Bridges. Yeah, it's true, Ludacris is playing a cop. Stranger things have happened, but I can't really think of any right now.
Complicating matters is the fact that Bravura is mostly investigating Max's involvement in some questionable deaths, and there is also the issue of a massive government conspiracy (which is too big for the rest of the movie to really handle right) involving, get this, a highly addictive drug that fills soldiers with peace instead of fear and provides a feeling of invincibility and superhuman abilities and is therefore an essential part of the war on terror. Anyone else thinking of RoboCop 2?
But here's the catch. It only works on a small percentage of subjects, and all the rest suffer horrible hallucinations and debilitating side effects. But hey man, freedom isn't free, right?By the way, it should be noted that Max Payne is based on a video game, so don't expect any exploration of the moral or political paradoxes that spring to mind when you think about drugging soldiers to make them feel good as they rush into battle. Can you imagine the talk radio firestorm that would cause? That would probably make for a more exciting movie!
I won't reveal how, but late in the movie we learn that in Norse mythology, the only way to get to heaven is to die in violence. What a belief system, right? If you die in your sleep you go to hell! Isn't that a little harsh? Yeah, but it makes for a good story catalyst for a mindless action movie.
The most interesting part of the movie is also left largely unexplored as well. Several times we see the world through the eyes of people who are on this drug, and it's a dark, scary world inhabited by some huge, scary bird-like creatures. I don't know the video game myself, but I imagine that this is one of the major adversaries. Unfortunately, in the movie version, it looks either out of place or too often out of sight.Amaury Nolasco (Sucre from "Prison Break") also has a significant role in the movie as one of the, ah, 'casualties' of this expermiental drug, and his performance is brooding and sluggish. Mostly all he is given to do is look scary with tattoos all over his face.
[caption id="attachment_13283" align="alignright" width="202" caption="Mark Wahlberg and his forehead posed dramatically with a lot of guns for this movie."]
[/caption]Mark Wahlberg gives a satisfactory performance, although this kind of movie doesn't ask much of an actor. His forehead does more acting than the rest of him, but that's to be expected, right? I don't know if you realize this, but one of the most important skills that an action movie star can do to be successful is wrinkle his forehead just right.
You thought Arnold Schwarzenegger became famous because of his muscles? Nope! It's that square inch of valuable real estate right between his eyebrows. And Mark Wahlberg is blessed with the same natural gift as Arnold - the man just has a great action-movie-forehead.
There is nothing new or fresh in Max Payne, although it at least manages to play through without feeling entirely repetitive, so at least there's that. It gives the feeling that Wahlberg is going through the motions because it's essentially just a standard revenge movie. You might be better off just staying home and renting The Fugitive instead. It's basically the same movie in color and without any bizarre winged creatures.
But, as the MPAA has ensured with it's inexplicable PG-13 rating, kids age 13 and up are going to love every bloody, drug-induced minute of it.
