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Released by: Fox
Released on: 1/20/2009
Director: John Moore
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Beau Bridges, Chris Bridges
Year: 2008
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The Movie:
Based on the video game of the same name, John Moore's 2008 Marc Wahlberg vehicle Max Payne is honestly a bit of a mess, but at least it's a fun mess. Wahlberg plays the titular cop who works the cold case files of the NYPD while grieving over the mysterious unsolved murder of his wife, Michelle (Mariantha Evans), and their baby daughter. Always on the look out for new leads, Max makes an unannounced appearance at a party behind held by Trevor Duncan, a man he often leaned on for information in the past. At this party, he meets a gorgeous Russian woman named Natasha (Olga Kurylenko) and her sister, Mona (Mila Kuns).
Max and Natasha head back to his place but he kicks her out of bed. The next morning, he's shocked to find that she was murdered by someone or some thing after leaving his apartment. Max is called to the murder scene by his former partner, Alex Balder (Donal Logue) who eventually finds a link between Natasha's murder and that of Max's wife. Before he can give Max the information, however, Alex is also killed, only the murder takes place inside Max's apartment and he's know the number one suspect. Max later meets up with Mona, who thinks he killed her sister, as well as his friend and mentor B.B. Hensley (Beau Bridges) who offers him some kindly and sage advice. What he has to do is clear his name and figure out what the connection is between his wife's murder, and the murders of Natasha, Alex, and a few other soon to be deceased supporting characters, some of whom have some rather unusual ties to the criminal underworld.
The first complain that many of the video game's fans levied against the film is that it had very little to do with that game - and that's a pretty fair complain to make. Anyone who has played the game knows that it's quite a bit darker and considerably more violent than the PG-13 rated film that John Moore turned in and a lot of the scarier bits that made the game so interesting have been thrown to the wayside. Everything, except the slick visuals, is really toned down for this film, from the action to the language to the sexual overtones and as such, there's a big disconnect between the movie and the fan favorite game that inspired it.
That said, taken on its own merits and not compared to the game, this is a reasonably entertaining picture, warts and all. It looks fantastic from start to finish and it does a really interesting job of painting New York City in hues of grey and black to bring out the noirish and shadowy side of things. The film moves along at a good pace and makes the most of its urban setting to create some interesting claustrophobic moments that help to build a bit of tension now and then. Wahlberg won't wow anyone with his performance but he comes close to at least looking the part, even if he's almost always upstaged by an almost unrecognizably sexy Mila Kunis every time they share the screen. If you take this one seriously or spend too much time complaining about the fact that it's not the same as the game, you won't get anything out of it at all but as mindless escapism and as an entertaining exercise in style of substance, Max Payne is fun. It's not great, it doesn't come close to living up to its potential even, but it is dumb, mindless entertainment.
The Blu-ray release contains the theatrical cut of the film and the unrated version which runs three minutes longer but doesn't really add much of any merit to the theatrical cut.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Max Payne arrives on Blu-ray in a slick 2.351 1080p AVC encoded anamorphic widescreen transfer that preserves the film's original aspect ratio. Eagle-eyed viewers will notice some periodic mild edge enhancement pop up here and there but aside from that, the film looks as inky and noirish as you could want. Black levels are nice and strong and colors look as realistic as they should given that this movie goes for a fairly bleak color palette most of the time. Detail is nice and strong throughout and there aren't any problems with compression artifacts at all. If it weren't for the minor instances of edge enhancement, this would be reference quality, it really does look almost as good as you could hope.
Fox's 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix on this disc is fantastic and really quite immersive. Surround use is almost constant and very well placed while bass response manages to pack a real punch without overpowering the dialogue. Channel separation is strong and distinct and the score sounds crisp and has nice resonance to it. Optional standard definition mixes are provided in French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and subtitles are provided in English SDH, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin and Korean.
The extras start off with a rock solid audio commentary track from director John Moore who is joined by production designer Daniel Dorrance and visual special effects supervisor Everett Burrell. This is a very active track that covers pretty much everything you could want to know about the origins of this film, from the pre-production and scripting process through to casting choices and the film's visual style. Moore has the most to say about the project, which isn't surprising, but Dorrance and Burrell's input helps flesh out the technical side and detail how the film's look came to be. The commentary plays out only on the unrated cut of the film. Complimenting the commentary nicely are two picture-in-picture tracks, the first of which allows Moore to take us behind the scenes of the movie as we watch it. The second track, entitled Walk Throughs & Cheats, provides more behind the scenes material as it applies to specific portions of the picture making for a fairly detailed examination of the movie.
From there, check out the half hour documentary on the making of the movie entitled Picture. It's a two part segment that lets the director rant a bit before moving on the kind of behind the scenes clips and typical cast and crew interviews you expect to see in material like this. Some of the footage is interesting, but this isn't as deep or thorough as the commentary track is.
On top of that, looks for slick motion menus, an animated Max Payne comic book, the film's theatrical trailer, chapter selection, and to top it all off, the movie is D-Box Motion Code enabled. The second disc in the set contains a digital copy of the film so, if you want, you can watch it on the go. All of the extras (except for the digital copy) are presented in full HD.
The Final Word:
As ridiculous as Max Payne is, if you don't take it too seriously or expect too much out of it the movie is a fair bit of sleek, stylish fun. Yeah, it could have and should have been a lot more than it is but as dumb entertainment it certainly fits the bill and Fox's Blu-ray release is a winner.