space_oddity said:
Max Payne was pretty damn bad.
I was surprised it took so very long to make a movie about Max Payne to be honest, but I was not quite prepared for just how awful the adaptation would be.
While I can understand some of the plot changes to an extent, I am left wondering exactly why the narration was removed almost entirely. Afterall, it was through the narration that the entire plot of the game was delivered (with the minor exception of the story advances made by shooting people and/or things).
Even without the narration and the newer, simpler plot, it still seemed as though the movie could have been salvaged and yet I come away with the impression that everything that could be done to ruin it was tried. I've seen some of these "actors" in movies before and generally speaking I would assume based on past experience that they are capable of generating a believable character and realistic emotions, but apparently the entire cast decided to take a learning annex course in "How to Be a Ham" before the production began. Clearly they were inferior students as there was just enough overacting to ruin every key moment in the movie.
Rather than launch into an even longer rant about the dozen other bits that bugged me, I'll just close with a final thought. If you were intrepid enough to stick around after the credits rolled, the movie clearly sets itself up for a sequel. After being delivered the fateful news that there is an even grander villian to vanquish, Mark Wahlburg takes a violent swig of his beer and glares into the camera in what I can only assume was an expression of his actual emotion. Having made the first trainwreck of a film, if a second were to be made he would almost certainly be cast. The only question for me is, just how far does Max Payne have left to fall?