Max Payne

By the barely non-existent standards of movies based on videogames, Max Payne isn’t so bad. Yes, the plot is beyond predictable, a string of clichés from beginning to end. But think of it as, well, a wire on which director John Moore can hang gaudy ornamentals, flashing lights and Mark Wahlberg’s self-sacrificial hero… It may not make much of a film in the traditional sense of the word, but at least the thing functions as eye candy.

Max is mad because his wife and baby were murdered by persons known – but dead – and unknown – he escaped out of the window a fraction before Max got home from the precinct. Holed up behind a desk in the cold cases office, Max continues to work the angles on his wife’s killer more than two years after the crime. He must be a pretty bad detective because he hasn’t figured an obvious motive that most audiences will pick up on early in the game. Nor does he pick up on a glaring clue that his old partner has to point out to him (shortly before he’s murdered himself). Mind you, this investigation does have some unusual aspects.

From what we can see – not that much in Moore’s impenetrably dark blue shadow world – the case has something to do with winged beasties that may or may not be hallucinations, Norse tattoos, and an underground drug called Valkyr, which will make you feel invincible, but will also likely be the end of you. (Kids, just say No.)

Despite his name – and Wahlberg’s permanent frown – Max does get the occasional break. Picking up the heavily Russian Natasha (femme du jour Olga Kurylenko), he stumbles across not just a slinky lead in a red dress, but another victim. Better yet, she has a sister: Mona Sax (Mila Kunis).

Like Sin City and (I’m guessing) Frank Miller’s upcoming The Spirit, this is a kind of post-noir… The ingredients for your classic Raymond Chandler yarn are so familiar now, they’re essentially meaningless. They’ve had all the life hard-boiled out of them. We’re left with the signs and signifiers: the shadows and the silhouettes as our lone avenger goes through the motions for one last time – until the next time.

Moore – who made Behind Enemy Lines, and the remakes Flight Of The Phoenix and The Omen – does have an eye for glossy visuals and punchy editing, even if these things come at the price of narrative coherence and depth of character. He can stage a shoot-out, and rhapsodize over the red blood seeping into his black and blue colour scheme. Mind you, the schlock editing tends to undercut his best effects – and don’t get me started on what we can only call “Gratuitious CGI”.

Like I said, compared to other videogame spin offs, Max Payne is not so bad. You might even say it’s painless… Painless and utterly pointless.

Tom Charity
tom.charity@lovefilm.com