Max Payne

Max Payne joins Fox’s steadily increasing roster of entirely ineffective action pictures, alongside such underwhelming disappointments as Hitman and Live Free or Die Hard – which is a shame given the studio’s history within the genre (ie Commando and Die Hard remain two of the best actioners Hollywood has ever cranked out). The movie, based on a popular video game, boasts an opening hour that’s almost entirely devoid of violence, with screenwriter Beau Thorne instead placing the emphasis on an overcooked and thoroughly uninteresting storyline involving Russian mobsters, shady businessmen, and winged demons. The downright stagnant nature of the film’s first half ultimately ensures that boredom sets in almost immediately, while Mark Wahlberg, cast as the title character, offers up a closed-off performance that makes it virtually impossible to sympathize with Payne’s plight (which is no small feat, really, given that the movie follows his efforts at tracking down the man responsible for the death of his wife and child). The relentless barrage of exposition eventually does give way to an action-packed third act, admittedly, yet such sequences have been infused with precisely the sort of bloodless, hopelessly overcranked sensibility that one has come to associate with contemporary efforts of this ilk (ie none of this stuff is even remotely exciting). And although the unusually eclectic supporting cast, which includes, among others, Chris O’Donnell, Donal Logue, and Beau Bridges, proves effective in sporadically elevating one’s interest (albeit temporarily), Max Payne has little to offer the majority of viewers over a certain age (ie 14-year-olds will probably thrill to Payne’s tedious slow-motion antics).

*1/2 out of ****